How I Became Much More Productive Through Elimination

In the beginning, I struggled a lot

Let’s jump back a bunch of years. I am thirteen and miserable. I stumble upon some video of Gary Vee. It might have been “One Life, No Regrets“ or maybe it was “A 5 Minute Plea To Do.” I honestly couldn’t tell you anymore.

But what I can tell you is: It hooked me. It drew me in.

And that’s the first step I took in starting to consciously think about what kind of person I’d like to become.

Since then, the journey has been turbulent. It had its ups and downs; its highs and lows. But I kept walking, I kept learning, and I kept trying to improve.

The reason I’m writing all this is that I recently noticed that my progression hasn’t been linear.

It was slow progress in the beginning, but over time things started to pick up. As I continued to learn, learning new things got easier.

Basically, I’ve been getting better, quicker. I am now doing more things, am more fulfilled, happier, and more true to myself than I’ve ever been before.

And I love that.

Now, that’s not to say I don’t struggle anymore. I still do. A whole bunch. I still get scared, still feel lonely sometimes, and I still mess up. I am still human.

But while I still have a loooong way to go, I also have come a loooong way.

That’s why I like the quote, “It doesn’t get easier; you just get better.”

But I wanted to know why I seem to be getting better faster than when I started. Is it because I got better at getting better? Is it because I’ve gotten older, and with that came increased self-control and perspective? Is it because momentum builds?

Yes. To all of those.

They are all important reasons. But there is one thing that I think helped me more than anything else.

Elimination.

You see, my first instinct was often to look at what I could add. Can I add a better morning routine? Can I exercise more? Can I become more disciplined?

And those things helped. For sure. But working on ridding myself of things weighing me down helped a lot more.

How to eliminate and what to eliminate

Everything you do is fighting for the same resources. Your time and energy. That is what you spend, and that is what you will run out of.

In the beginning, I tried to do more with my time and energy. I started going to the gym, reading self-help books, and I tried meditation.

I also watched hours upon hours of Netflix every day.

A little later, I incorporated more big-picture thinking. I spent time identifying my core values and where I wanted to be in three years.

I also procrastinated a lot and quickly stopped doing something if it wasn’t fun.

The next thing I went after was learning how to feel more comfortable in social situations.

However, I kept spending time with people that made me feel bad about myself.

So, I kept struggling to make the progress I wanted to make.

And a part of that was just me being impatient. But another was that I was holding myself back.

I tried punching the gas harder without realizing that my other foot was slamming the brakes.

Once I started getting rid of things slowing me down, unsurprisingly, I really started gaining traction.

For me, the biggest changes happened when I:

1. Stopped numbing.

This often came in the form of me grabbing my phone to watch Netflix or YouTube when something I didn’t want to feel or deal with came up.

2. Stopped giving my attention to things I knew wouldn’t matter to me in the long run.

3. Cut back on procrastinating and distracting.

4. Stopped hanging out with people that weren’t helping me become a better person.

Doing those things made a big difference. I now had a lot more time for things I wanted to get done. And I tried to make good use of that time. I wanted to get as many things done in one day as I possibly could. After all, more is better, right?

Not always. And not in this case.

Because the second realization that made another big difference for me was to start eliminating “productive” things.

Once I stopped trying to do eight little things in a day and instead just focused on doing two very well, I became much more productive.

It was Amos Tversky who said, “You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”

I think when I was trying to do a lot of things, I was just busy being busy. “Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.” – Tim Ferriss

Now, I try to give myself the space to be intentionally bored. Because it is then that the uncomfortable but crucial realizations start trickling in.

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Are you being busy to tell yourself, “I’m being productive. I’m being good.” When you’re really just avoiding things that want to be addressed? Watching TV, eating, smoking, or drinking aren’t the only ways to run from things. “Working” can be one too. It’s just more sophisticated because it allows you to tell yourself that you’re doing productive things. Even though it might be more beneficial for you to work a little less and think about where you want to go a little more.