Okay friends, let’s crack open this experiment I tagged “100 24 Solutions Fast 5 Simple Ideas Work Well”. It started feeling like my task list was laughing at me. Needed a serious productivity kick, fast. Here’s how it went down.
Grabbing the Tools & Setting Up
First, I just dumped everything bothering me onto a massive whiteboard. I’m talking work emails, fixing that stupid leaky faucet, learning to bake sourdough – the whole chaotic mess. Looked like spaghetti thrown at the wall. Then, staring at that disaster, I remembered this wild idea: Could I actually find 100 potential solutions for these problems in just 24 hours? But only pick Five Simple Ones to really try? Sounded crazy. But hey, why not?
I armed myself with:
- A ticking timer app (for real pressure),
- A giant stack of sticky notes (different colors, felt fancy),
- A huge pot of seriously strong coffee (non-negotiable).
The Brain-Dumping Frenzy
The timer starts, and my brain goes into overdrive. I’m scribbling potential fixes onto those sticky notes like a maniac. “Email Mountain” gets attacked with stuff like:
- “Just delete half of them? (Probably bad)”
- “Try that fancy ‘Inbox Zero’ thing everyone yaps about”
- “Hire a virtual assistant? (Yeah right, budget laughs)”
- “Set phone to yell at me every 20 mins to check email? (Annoying but might work)”
Didn’t judge, didn’t filter. Anything even remotely possible got stuck on the board. For the leaky faucet? Solutions ranged from “YouTube DIY fix” to “Beg landlord (again)” to “Smash it with a hammer and call it art”. Seriously. Zero filtering. This went on for hours. Felt messy, chaotic, kinda stupid. My hand was cramping, coffee mug empty. Got maybe… 70 ideas? Hit a wall. Brain fog thicker than peanut butter.
The “Simple” Filter & Choosing Five
Took a break. Walked the dog. Stared at clouds. Came back, looked at the sticky note explosion. The key rule surfaced: Fast & Simple Wins. No grand plans requiring a PhD. Something I could start right now, today, with stuff I already had.
- Delete half the emails? Too nuclear. Setting two dedicated 15-min email slots? Simple. Doable.
- Hiring someone? Fantasy land. Finding one easy-to-use email filter rule? Fast. I did that.
- For the faucet: Buying a new cartridge kit for $8 and attempting a YouTube fix? Simple and cheap. Smashing with a hammer? Rejected (barely).
- Sourdough? Complicated starter? Nope. Finding a 3-ingredient flatbread recipe using my fridge yeast? Fast and satisfying. Done.
Forced myself to pick only FIVE winners from the sticky-note jungle. Chose the ones that made me think “Duh, why wasn’t I already doing that?”.
Crashing Into Reality
Okay, picked my five fast, simple solutions. Time to try them immediately. Setting the email slots? Easy on paper. Felt weird ignoring the inbox ding outside those slots. Actual willpower needed. The faucet fix took two trips to the hardware store because I grabbed the wrong size first. Simple didn’t mean idiot-proof for me. And the flatbread? Well… it wasn’t pretty, but it was edible fuel! The big win? Knocking out a few annoying, small tasks that were real quick wins? Felt awesome. Instant relief.
What Actually Stuck? (Spoiler: Not All Five)
Truth bomb: Of those five solutions, only three genuinely stuck past the first week.
- The email slots? Gold. Still using them.
- The one filter rule? Saved hours already. Keeper.
- The “knock out one tiny annoying task first thing” habit? Big mood booster. Doing it.
- The faucet? Fixed! (Proud moment).
- The flatbread recipe search? Fun once, but didn’t become a habit… yet.
The best part wasn’t actually doing 100 things or solving everything permanently. It was this: Churning out a storm of ideas forced my brain to see easy shortcuts hidden in plain sight. Trying five fast meant I immediately proved some worked. For the problems still nagging? Seeing so many options written down made them feel less like mountains and more like speed bumps. Less panic, more “Oh, I could try that other sticky-note idea next”.
So, experiment verdict? Messy? Heck yeah. Worth it? Absolutely. Sometimes the simplest path is hidden under a pile of overcomplicated worries. Digging it out feels stupidly good.
