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- Burn the WTF Pile: How to find Step One of any plan
Burn the WTF Pile: How to find Step One of any plan
Five steps, one dawn, zero chaos. Works for content or life.

Day 88/100
Hey—It's Tim.
Reporting from this time last year.
York, England.
Grey drizzle, cobbled lanes, and my entire life in cardboard boxes.
I was flogging desk lamps on Facebook Marketplace to fund a one-way ticket to Vancouver.
Between suitcase Tetris and HMRC paperwork my content strategy looked like 15 year old Tim’s bedroom floor: ideas everywhere, nothing folded.
For times like this.
When you have to take a step back and figure out your next move.
I’ve got a strategy I fall back on.
Every time.
5 moves. Works for content. Works for anything. Steal it.
0. Why 5 a.m. or bust
I’ve tried afternoon resets.
By 2 p.m. Slack is a carnival and my brain’s a sponge.
So the rule is simple:
Decide tonight. Close the laptop by 9.
Alarm 04:55.
Coffee, desk, silence — souhbiye (Arabic for that hushed dawn vibe).
If the birds aren’t gossiping yet, you’re on time
1. Pull the Plug (24-Hour Digital Blackout)
Phone to airplane mode.
Laptop lid down.
No “quick check” of Ahrefs, Notion, or X.
Why? Quiet equals clarity. You can’t hear the big idea over Slack pings.
2. Brain → Table Dump

Grab a stack of index cards (paper > pixels) and unload:
Article angles
Keyword obsessions
Half-written hooks
Random shower thoughts (“SEO for pigeons?”)
literally everything
As long as it takes. One thought per card. Zero filtering..
3/ The Four-Stack Sort (timer: 25 min)

Stack | Name | Fate |
---|---|---|
1 | North Star | Directly moves the metric (newsletter subs for me) |
2 | Supporting Cast | Helps Stack 1 shine (distribution, CTAs) |
3 | Inspiration Pile | Interesting but not urgent. File for rainy days |
4 | The BURN Pile | “Why the &%$ am I thinking about this?” |
Pro tip: Stack 4 is always bigger than you think. Burn freely.
4. Two-Step Roadmap
Kitchen lesson from my chef days: you only ever know two things:
What are you doing now?
What are you doing next?
So:
Lay out the North Star cards: Now.
Slide one Supporting Cast card above or below.
This is what comes next.
Or what enables the North Star.
Snap a photo. That’s today’s playbook. Everything else waits.

Tomorrow you’ll promote a “Next” to “Now” and slide a fresh card underneath.
Infinite momentum, zero overwhelm.
5. The Public Contract
140-character promise in the group chat / Twitter / Slack:
“By July 31 the ‘York → Vancouver’ series drops & subs double. Hold me to it.”
Accountability is cheaper than another espresso.
And twice as potent.
Why do you think I told every one I was doing this for 100 days?
Optional turbo-mode
When deadlines laugh in your face, deploy the 5 White Monsters, 3 All-Nighters, and a Dream protocol: caffeinate, sprint, sleep on the plane. Physicians hate this trick.
If you enjoyed this, I put a bunch of bonus tweaks to this process on Twitter.
Like, RT, forward to friends. It really does help :D
Early-bed / 5 a.m. wake - souhbiye silence.
Card dump - brain on the table.
Four-stack sort - keep, support, shelve, incinerate.
Now / Next roadmap - chef-simple focus.
Public contract - skin in the game.
Works for content strategy, product pivots, wedding plans, you name it.
Because clarity at dawn beats chaos at lunch every single time.

✌️ Tim "Sunrise Strategist" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai
Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.
P.S. If you bought a £5 desk lamp from a frantic bloke in York last summer - congrats, you indirectly sponsored this newsletter

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