Subtract for clarity

Subtraction is a powerful way to gain clarity and focus.

Businesses call it “Ruthless Prioritization” — the trimming of a list of 20 opportunities down to 10, then to 5, and then ultimately to 2 or 3.

Music producer Rick Rubin calls it the “Ruthless Edit” — the trimming of a list of songs to figure out what should be included in an upcoming album.

In a podcast with Lex Friedman, he describes the process: “[if] we’ve recorded 25 songs [and] we think the album’s going to have 10. Instead of picking our favorite 10, we limit it to the five or six that we cannot live without.”

The presence of the word “ruthless” in both cases isn’t a coincidence.

Subtracting forces you to think critically in order to make tough choices — to figure out a way to choose between things that seem equally worthy on the surface.

The hard-earned wisdom you’re left with is the ability to explain in no uncertain terms why the 2–3 priorities are most important for your business, and why those 5 songs out of the 25 are truly essential.

So much stalled progress is the result of being overwhelmed by possibility.

It is therefore essential to build this mental muscle of rapidly cutting down on what you could do down to something specific with clear justification.