Coaching practices for Warren Buffett S Two List Strategy with Friends

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Warren Buffett S Two List Strategy with Friends, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I either cling to priorities I set ages ago that don’t fit my life anymore, or I only ever rethink them in a panic when something’s already going wrong
  • Whenever I try to narrow down what matters most I can’t bring myself to actually cut anything
  • In the moment someone asks me to take something on, my priorities are nowhere in sight
  • It’s not junk that derails me
  • My partner and I keep saying "we should do that someday," and someday never comes because it’s no one’s job to make it real

Practices that may help

  1. Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
    The Buffett two-list strategy asks you to write down 25 career or life goals, circle the top 5, then treat everything else on the list as active avoidances — not "do later" items. The story is apocryphal and its precise origin is unverified, but the underlying principle — that near-priority goals steal attention from top priorities — is consistent with how cognitive resources and opportunity costs work.
  2. Run a quarterly focus review to refresh the lists
    Revisit and rebuild both lists every quarter — priorities shift, and so should the lists.
    Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
  3. Circle your top 5 without negotiating
    From 25, choose exactly 5 — the ones you’d feel worst about not doing.
    Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
  4. Circle of Competence
    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s circle of competence is the idea that each person has a domain where their knowledge is genuinely deep, and that the highest-quality decisions come from staying inside that domain — or clearly knowing when you have stepped outside it. The hard part is not identifying the circle but accurately estimating its size.
  5. Keep your Focus List physically visible
    Post your top 5 somewhere unavoidable so every new request gets evaluated against them.
    Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
  6. Treat items 6–25 as active avoidances, not a later list
    Everything not in your top 5 must be actively avoided — it is your "do-not-do" list.
    Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
  7. Create a shared bucket list with people you love
    A shared list is harder to defer and more motivating than a solo one — and the experiences themselves are richer.
    The Bucket List Method
  8. Use the 1/N rule for diversification under deep uncertainty
    When you cannot estimate the value of each option reliably, spread resources equally.
    Simple Heuristics: Gerd Gigerenzer’s Case for Fast and Frugal Thinking
  9. Share information to unlock value
    Reveal interests (not your bottom line) so both sides can find the better deal.
    Win-Win Thinking: Expanding the Pie
  10. Trade across differing priorities
    Give on what you value less to get what you value more — and have them do the same.
    Win-Win Thinking: Expanding the Pie

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