Why do you keep doing the same damn things that aren’t working?
You’re stuck. So you do more. Einstein called that insanity; doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.
You’re exhausted, overwhelmed, not hitting your goals – and your brilliant solution is to add MORE to your plate. Another course. Trying to add in a new habit, another morning routine, or yet one more productivity hack.
How’s that working for you?
I see this all the time. Someone’s spinning their wheels. Not getting the results they want. Feeling scattered. So they look around for the solution and decide they need to level up. Do more. Try harder. Optimize better.
They add a 5 AM wake-up call. A new journal practice. Another book to the stack. Another course. Another framework.
And for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, it feels like progress, like they’re finally in control and moving towards their goals.
But then the same old patterns creep back in. The frustration returns. The sense of being stuck resurfaces. Except now they’re also exhausted from trying to maintain all these new additions. So they rinse and repeat; trying to do more, to push harder.
No judgment here – I’ve done this (repeatedly) too.
The problem isn’t that you’re not doing enough.
The problem is you won’t stop doing what isn’t working.
The Pattern You Can’t See
Most high-achievers have been conditioned to believe that more effort equals more results. Being busy has become an integral part of their identity. And to be fair, that’s often true early in your career. You work harder, you get promoted. You put in the hours, you get the raise. You push through, you hit the goal.
But there’s a threshold where that stops working. Where adding more just makes you busier, not better. Where the grind doesn’t move you forward, it just grinds you down.
I learned this the hard way. Years ago, when I was stressed to the hilt and burning out, my instinct was to push harder. Manage it better. Optimize my way through it. I added systems. I added discipline. I added structure.
And I ended up hospitalized.
Because I was doing MORE of what was breaking me, expecting it to somehow fix me. Duh.
The breakthrough didn’t come from addition. It came from subtraction. From finally letting go of what wasn’t serving me. From creating space instead of filling it.
What Happens When You Subtract Instead
Space and down-time is productive.
Your brain might scream at you, remind you of all the things you could be making progress on.
But silence is clarifying.
Less can be exponentially more powerful than more.
A few months ago, I wrote about accidentally having a breakthrough because I forgot to hit play on a podcast. I was so used to consuming – always learning, always absorbing – that I’d forgotten what it felt like to just sit and be. Just allow myself to think, to process, and to let ideas settle.
When I finally gave myself permission to stop consuming and start digesting, everything shifted.
Think about a garden.
You don’t make plants grow by blasting them with a fire hose every hour. That doesn’t speed things up, it just drowns the plants.
Instead, you create the conditions for growth, then you get out of the way. The magic happens in the space you create, not in the constant intervention.
The same is true for your work, your goals, and even your life.
You don’t need another course. You need to start applying the stuff you already know.
You don’t need to add another meeting. You need to cut the ones that waste your time.
You don’t need more input. You need space to process what you already consumed.
Most people end their day feeling unproductive not because they didn’t do enough, but because they did too much of the wrong things. They spent hours in back-to-back meetings, drowning in emails, responding to every ping and ding, and as a result – they never got to what actually mattered.
Busy doesn’t equal meaningful. And more certainly doesn’t equal better.
The Subtraction Audit
Here’s what I want you to try: Instead of asking “What should I do?”, start asking “What should I stop?”
- Stop consuming without processing. You don’t need another newsletter, another podcast, another book if you haven’t applied what you already learned. Give yourself permission to digest before you consume more.
- Stop saying yes to everything. Every yes to something that doesn’t matter is a no to something that does. Protect your attention and focus like it’s the most valuable resource you have – because it is.
- Stop optimizing for busy. If your calendar is full but your impact is empty, you’re not productive, you’re just enslaved. Kill the meetings that don’t matter. Delete the tasks that don’t move the needle.
- Stop adding before removing. Before you pile on another goal, another system, or another habit , ask yourself what you need to let go of first to make room for the new. What’s taking up space without giving you returns?
The subtraction audit isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about doing less of what doesn’t work so you have room for what does.
Conclusion
Einstein was right. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
So stop.
Stop adding more weight when you’re already drowning. Stop grinding harder when grinding isn’t working. Stop filling every gap with noise when what you really need is space.
The way forward isn’t always up and to the right. Sometimes it’s back and to the essential.
Here’s your challenge: don’t just nod along and delete this email. Act.
Close this email, open your calendar, and cancel one meeting this week that doesn’t matter.
Or delete one task that’s been lingering but will never actually move the needle.
That’s subtraction in practice. One cut. One freed-up block of energy or time.
Do it now and see what grows in the space you create.
Quotation I’ve Been Pondering
“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”
— Lao Tzu
Journal Prompt
“What conditions help me thrive, and how can I step into them more often?”
Until next week!!
Work and live well.
Tim
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