Subtract. Do less, and don’t replace the activity you subtracted with another activity. E.g., don’t stop doing a low value thing at work and replace it with a higher value thing.
Yes, that’s a good thing to do. It is an improvement. But not the right kind of improvement. What is the end state, if you repeat the cycle again and again? is that where you want to be? A perfectly efficient machine doing . . . what? Why?
Add. How about adding nothing? Add empty space. You can’t have a vacuum in time and in activity—you’re always doing something. So instead of improving the way you have meetings or getting better software or scheduling your life better or publishing more better stuff, insert leisure.
This will put you on a different path with a different outcome. What it is, I don’t know. Will it be a “better” path?
Well, at least it will be less frenetic. Less “find a nail, pound a nail” productive. More internal peace and quiet.
Into action? What do I subtract?
By the way. Today is day 73 and there are 9 of us left out of a starting cohort of 159.