Concept
Subtract Obstacles
Subtracting obstacles means finding the single constraint that most slows your essential work and removing it, instead of adding more effort, tools or hours.
When important work stalls, the instinct is to push harder: longer days, a new app, another meeting. Greg McKeown argues in Essentialism that this usually adds noise. He borrows from Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Every process has one slowest point. Improving anything else barely changes the result. So the useful question is not "what more can I do?" but "what is in the way?" The answer is often unglamorous: missing information, an approval stuck in someone's queue, an unclear finish line, or your own perfectionism. You remove that one thing, then look for the next. This pairs with building a buffer. The buffer absorbs surprises you can't predict. Subtracting clears the obstacles you can already see. Neither depends on luck, and neither requires heroics.
A real-life example
Dana's product launch keeps slipping, and her team has started working late. Before asking for more overtime, she maps where the work actually waits. Every feature sits ten days in legal review, which is handled by one busy colleague. She books a standing 30-minute weekly slot with legal and sends drafts in smaller pieces. The next release ships on time without a single late night.
How to use it
- 1Write down the outcome you're stuck on, then list everything between you and "done."
- 2Ask which single item, if removed, would speed everything else up. Look for waiting, unclear decisions and missing inputs rather than effort.
- 3Remove or shrink that one obstacle this week. Only then move on to the next one.