You’re Trying to Do Too Much

We tend to add things, even when subtracting is both logically equivalent and more practically useful.

We want to get in shape, so we add exercise to our schedule. We want to succeed at a project at work, so we add it to our to-do list. We want to learn more, so we stack up more books.

What’s missing is that, given our finite time, every addition necessarily implies an equal subtraction. The thirty minutes you spend on exercise must, logically speaking, be subtracted from something else. The to-do list items you add must squeeze out other work. The books you queue up must push down the ones below them. To pretend otherwise is to engage in self-delusion.

This is human nature. When we look at a figure-ground illusion, we don’t see that the vase and the faces coexist — one part becomes the figure, and the other recedes into the background. Given a goal, it’s only natural to add work in, and neglect what necessarily must be subtracted.

Real Focus Means Doing Less

Combating this illusion takes work. My team and I have quarterly meetings where we discuss what to work on over the next three months. Invariably, the discussions center on what work we should add: Which essays should I write? Videos, courses, redesigns or workshops?

We spend far less time asking which ongoing projects should be discontinued, which daily tasks don’t need to be done. Yet if we’re not going to work ourselves into burned-out husks, every addition must necessitate a removal.

The conventional strategy for subtraction is to do it by default: Procrastinate on everything that isn’t a priority. Rebel against the escalating commitments on your time. Opt out and ignore.

But this solution isn’t satisfactory. While goal-setting can have an additive bias, it is at least deliberate. While we might procrastinate on our least valuable tasks, often we procrastinate on work that is harder, ambiguous or frustrating. Ironically, in our unconsidered efforts to cut back, we often cut back the very tasks that really need doing.

The Goal of Creating Space

We can correct this bias in our thinking by temporarily flipping our perspective. Instead of seeing the vase in…