"At one genomics lab, the staff took the time to write each of their current projects on Post-it notes (one project per Post-it) and put them up on a wall. They immediately noticed that they had way too many things in progress at once. The lab team saw the importance of picking priorities to focus on. Making all your commitments visible is a useful exercise. This can be done for personal matters, professional tasks, or both. When taking account of everything, ask yourself, "If I had to cut one of these things out in the next 90 days, which would it be?" That doesn't mean you have to kill it forever, but maybe you put it on hold because constraints can help clarify your priorities."
"Humans are bad at taking things away. So think of this exercise as a subtraction audit. We have a bias called subtractive neglect bias, meaning we overlook solutions that involve taking things away. Do this regularly to actively reduce obligations rather than only accumulating more."
"Using deliberate constraints and simplification strategies helps you focus better, be more productive, and make more creative decisions."
"Psychologist Gloria Mark has spent two decades observing people at work to understand what they do all day. In one of her more recent studies, she found that people in offices check email about 7"
Deliberate constraints and simplification strategies improve focus, productivity, and creative decisions. Making current commitments visible reveals overcommitment and competing priorities, helping clarify what to cut or pause within a defined time window. A subtraction audit counters subtractive neglect bias by actively reducing obligations rather than only adding more tasks. Batching email reduces constant context switching by grouping messages into scheduled windows. Using constraints to limit options and simplify choices supports better prioritization and more effective creative work. Overall, constraints help people decide what matters most and manage workload more intentionally.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]