The Power of Focus: Why Less is More in Productivity - Addition by Subtraction

One frequent misconception about productivity is doing a lot of things. I also thought that was the intent of productivity when I started my journey - getting a lot of things done.
But as I began studying more about it, I realized it is doing the most important things effectively and efficiently. Getting more done with less effort.

We are not designed to do everything by nature; we are rather encouraged to do the little we can so well that we have enough resources in the form of time and money to pay others who are good at the other things we need, to do it for us.

You are not to be an engineer, medical doctor, writer, lawyer, entrepreneur, etc., all at once. Rather, you should be a skilled and valuable professional in an area to be paid enough to afford other services you cannot do yourself.

Here is why it is important to understand this and how it affects your productivity. If you focus on the thing you are meant to do, you will:

1. Gain full clarity of the problem you need to solve.

2. Better understand existing solutions and their limitations.

3. Research and invent new ways to solve those problems.

4. Be appropriately rewarded for the value you create.

5. Focus and remove distractions from non-important activities not tied to your goal.

Addition by Subtraction

The fifth point highlights the idea of addition by subtraction. It involves removing unimportant and non-urgent activities from your routine, allowing you to reallocate your resources—time and energy—towards crucial tasks that boost productivity.

A practical method to prioritize your activities is by using the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks you should do, schedule, delegate, or delete.

If you check your day-to-day, they are often littered with regular activities that don’t tie to your overall goal. Your objective is to identify those activities and remove them, and then allocate your resources to the most important tasks.

The idea is not to find new activities to replace the ones you are eliminating; rather, it is to use the available resources to enhance your performance for the right activities.

The GrowthPlug 7 Days ‘Addition by Subtraction’ Productivity Challenge

For this week’s productivity challenge, I encourage you to use the following steps to subtract distracting or disruptive activities and utilize the available resources better.

Day 1: Clearly define the problem you want to solve. Use the golden circle method by Simon Sinek (start with your WHY).

Day 2: Using the SMART framework, set a goal you’ll like to work on next week. Just one very important goal.

Day 3: Use a notebook (physical or digital) and capture your known daily routine and the activities you do. Honestly write down everything.

Day 4: Create a simple table with three columns.

Create a table with three columns:

1. List of all activities from Day 3.

2. Important activities (Keep). Use a mark to indicate that an activity is important and needs to stay.

3. Non-important activities (Delete). Use a mark to indicate an activity that is not important and needs to go.

   Note: No activity can appear in both column 2 & 3.

Day 5: Add two more columns to the table from Day 4.

• Time: Estimate the time spent on each activity daily.

• Money: Estimate the cost of each activity. If unsure, contact me for guidance on converting time spent into monetary value.

Day 6: Add two more columns to reallocate time and money from non-important to important tasks:

1. Reallocated Time: Ensure the total matches column 4.

2. Reallocated Cash: Ensure the total matches column 5.

Day 7: Practice, Practice, Practice. Add one more column to the table to capture feedback on each important activity and results gotten for the day.

Here is an example

You will not adjust fully in one day; the goal is to keep practicing and iterating until you effectively reallocate at least 50% of your wasted efforts to your most important tasks