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Concept

The Any-Benefit Approach

The any-benefit approach is the habit, criticized by Cal Newport, of adopting a tool, especially a network tool, as soon as you can name any possible benefit of using it or anything you might miss without it, while ignoring what it costs in time and attention.

Newport describes it in Deep Work as the way most people decide about social media and similar services. Someone mentions an old friend they found again, a client who came through a post or a useful article from a group, and that single benefit settles the question. The flaw is that the test looks at one side only. Almost any tool can show some benefit; the real question is the cost, and the cost is paid in fragmented time and attention, the same resources deep work depends on. Because the costs are small and scattered while the benefits are vivid, the any-benefit approach lets tools in one at a time until the day is full of them. Its alternative is the craftsman approach, which weighs a tool against the few things that matter most. Newport also suggests a practical test for a tool you already use: quit it for thirty days without announcing it, then ask two questions. Would the last thirty days have been notably better with it? Did anyone care that you were gone? If both answers are no, you can leave it for good; if they are unclear, you decide on evidence rather than on fear of missing out.

A real-life example

Emre, a sales manager in Bursa, belonged to eleven WhatsApp groups and kept each one because "a lead might come through." In a year, one had. He muted and archived nine of them for thirty days without telling anyone. Nobody asked about him, no sale slipped away, and he won back the scattered half hour he used to spend each morning scrolling to catch up. At the end of the month he left all nine.

How to use it

  1. 1Notice the any-benefit sentence when it runs through your head: "It might be useful" or "I might miss something" is a reason to test a tool, not to keep it.
  2. 2Pick one tool and stop using it for thirty days without announcing it.
  3. 3At the end, ask whether the month would have been notably better with it and whether anyone noticed you were gone; keep it only if the answer is clearly yes.