Why is improvement hard?

Most conversations about productivity focus on what you should be doing.

Start time blocking.

Start planning your week.

Start exercising.

Start using a new app.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those suggestions, but they assume that improvement comes from adding something new.

In the below newsletter, James Clear (from Atomic Habits fame) made the point that improvement also requires us to let things go.

“Why is improvement hard?

Part of the issue is everyone wants to improve, but nobody wants to destroy. Change often requires destruction. Or, at least, unlearning.

Let’s call it gentle elimination. You may have to leave little habits, update current beliefs, eliminate comfortable patterns. When you want better outcomes, your daily norms may need to change. The process of improvement is not just about adding things you like.

Sometimes habits and patterns belong to who you were, not who you are trying to be. If you’d like something better, then a routine you are comfortable with may have to die.”

That idea resonated with me because it’s something I see regularly when working with clients.

The obstacle isn’t usually a lack of knowledge.

People already know they should prioritise better, reduce distractions or leave more room in their day. The problem is they’re still operating with habits and routines that no longer make sense.

It’s difficult to create space for better ways of working when your calendar is already full of commitments you’ve never questioned.

I’ve seen people spend months looking for the perfect planning system when what they really needed was to stop saying yes to every request.

Others keep refining their to-do list instead of asking whether half the items belong there in the first place.

Sometimes the most productive question isn’t, “What should I add?”

It’s, “What can I stop?”

That might be a meeting that achieves very little.

It might be checking emails every few minutes.

It might be the expectation that every task has to be completed personally.

These aren’t dramatic changes, but they often have a bigger impact than adopting another productivity technique.

The same applies to the stories we tell ourselves.

If you’ve always believed that being busy is a sign you’re doing well, you’ll naturally fill every available hour. If you believe rest has to be earned, you’ll struggle to take breaks even when they’re needed.

Those beliefs may have served you at one point. They don’t automatically deserve a permanent place in your life.

Productivity isn’t about accumulating more strategies. It’s about making deliberate decisions about where your time and attention belong.

That means accepting that some habits, routines and assumptions have reached the end of their usefulness.

Progress isn’t always built by adding something new.

Quite often, it’s made possible by being willing to leave something behind.