Don’t push harder, remove the bottleneck that’s slowing everything

When progress drags, our reflex is to push harder everywhere. Work longer, add people, stack meetings. Often, the system is limited by a single bottleneck. Like a hiking group moving at the pace of its slowest member, your project advances as fast as its tightest constraint allows. If you lighten that backpack first, everyone moves faster.

Start by defining ‘done’ in plain words. Then list every obstacle between here and there. One will stand out as the choke point. Maybe it’s a missing decision, your own perfectionism, or a dependency that keeps slipping. Ask, “If I made only one thing easier today, which would unlock the most momentum?”

A designer facing a blocked launch realized approvals were the drag. She scheduled a single live review with all decision makers and left the meeting with one clear choice. A writer who kept stalling set a 45‑minute timer for an ugly draft and refused to edit until it rang. Both finished earlier with less stress. Their tea stayed warm this time.

This approach draws from the Theory of Constraints, which says overall throughput is governed by the tightest constraint. Effort spent elsewhere feels productive but doesn’t increase flow. By repeatedly identifying and lightening the slowest hiker, you reduce friction where it matters. It’s less about heroics and more about leverage.

Write a crisp ‘done by when’ outcome, then dump every obstacle you see. Circle the one that’s truly choking flow and make its job easier today—trim scope, gather missing inputs, time‑box perfection, or pull decision makers into one room. Once it eases, identify the next slowest hiker and repeat. Do this daily for a week and notice how much less you have to push. Try it on today’s most important task.