“Doing lots of things makes life richer. Even the annoying stuff is experience, so do all of it.”
It sounds profound until you remember that a day still contains only twenty-four hours. The “do everything” philosophy is an all-you-can-eat buffet that forgot humans have stomachs: sushi, barbecue, cake, curry, ramen—eat it all, you’ll become richer. More likely, you become unable to move.
A livable life is not a life with zero effort. It is a life where unnecessary friction is reduced and you get to choose which difficult things are worth keeping.
1. Reducing hassle is not the same as doing nothing
Whenever someone talks about making life easier, somebody eventually asks, “But won’t you get bored if you remove all that stuff?”
Boredom and slack are different.
- Boredom: you have nothing to do and nothing you want to do.
- Slack: you have uncommitted time and can decide how to use it.
You can watch a film, travel, research something strange, play a game, write, learn, build, or stare at the ceiling. If you chose it, it is not a system failure.
Free time is not a bug. It is unallocated capacity for exploration.
2. Reduce the “maintenance tax,” not just the number of possessions
Minimalism often turns into counting objects. A more useful metric is maintenance surface.
Objects, subscriptions, apps, bank accounts, appointments, roles, and relationships may be lightweight when passive. They become expensive when they require charging, updating, cleaning, replenishing, replying, remembering, comparing, cancelling, or coordinating.
That recurring work is a maintenance tax. A life can feel heavy not because it contains one giant burden, but because a hundred tiny “I need to deal with that soon.exe” processes are permanently running in the background.
So the target is not merely fewer things. It is fewer things that continuously require you to manage them.
3. Willpower is an expensive temporary patch
“I need to try harder.” “I need more discipline.” “Why can’t I do this?” If the same sentence appears around the same problem every week, question the design before blaming the operator.
Willpower is useful. But repeatedly forcing yourself through the same friction is like rebooting a crashing computer and calling it repaired.
A better order is:
- Is this actually necessary?
- Can it be deleted?
- Can it be batched?
- Can it be automated, delegated, or replaced?
- Can the environment or workflow be redesigned?
- Use willpower only for the valuable remainder.
Remove friction before installing more self-control.
4. There are at least three kinds of hassle
Not every difficult thing should disappear.
A. Hassle worth deleting
Duplicate data entry, pointless notifications, unused subscriptions, needless travel, meetings without a purpose, and relationships maintained only by inertia. They create tolls without creating much value.
B. Necessary hassle that can be replaced
Cleaning, bookings, routine processing, information sorting, shopping. These may be necessary, but there is no law saying you personally must perform every step. Systems, AI, automation, outsourcing, and batching can reduce the load.
C. Hassle worth keeping
Planning a trip you care about, negotiating with someone you love, rewriting creative work, research iteration, mastering a game, or cooking because you enjoy cooking. Sometimes the effort is part of the value.
If you refuse to distinguish these categories and simply declare “hassle builds character,” life becomes a mystery bag full of chores.
5. “Do everything” can become refusal to select
Trying unfamiliar things matters. You cannot know whether you like something you have never encountered.
But trying something is different from carrying it forever.
Run a small experiment. Keep what is good. Exit what is not. Expanding entrances does not require sealing the exits.
The problem with “every experience enriches you” is that time, attention, energy, and money are finite. Every low-value commitment consumes resources that could have gone to a high-value one.
A rich life is not measured only by the number of experiences collected. It can also be measured by how well you reallocated scarce resources toward experiences you actually value.
6. The goal is not to make yourself unnecessary
Efficiency discussions often jump to a strange extreme: “If I automate everything, won’t I become unnecessary?”
The goal is not self-erasure.
- Stay in decisions you find interesting.
- Stay in work you enjoy.
- Stay present with people who matter.
- Leave repetitive chores.
- Let systems absorb work that does not need your personal attention.
The ideal is: be valuable without being trapped, be needed without being over-dependent upon, keep the interesting parts without buying the chore bundle.
“A system can run without me” does not mean “I have no value.” Often it means you have more freedom.
7. Is cherry-picking wrong?
In a domain that affects only you, cherry-pick away. Life does not award bonus points for finishing every unpleasant side dish.
Shared domains are different. Ask whether you removed a burden or merely pushed it onto someone else.
If a choice affects only your own time, optimize quickly. If it materially affects another person’s time, money, daily life, or reputation, share the change before acting. High-impact issues such as housing, debt, major contracts, joint assets, and safety require joint decisions.
Consultation is not the same as asking permission. Coordinate only where costs are genuinely shared.
8. Age does not automatically update your life operating system
Living longer does not guarantee that someone has re-examined how they want to live.
A person can optimize within the same assumptions for decades:
- Busy = fulfilled.
- Struggle = growth.
- More roles = more worth.
- Being needed = personal value.
- Free time = bad.
Those assumptions are fine if they fit the person using them. Trouble begins when they are distributed as universal rules.
Age adds experience points. It does not automatically install the feature that questions your assumptions. The life-OS update button is unfortunately manual.
9. Practice: run a Friction Audit on your life
Public-service designers use “sludge audits” to identify unnecessary procedural friction. Borrow the idea.
Whenever you think “this is such a pain,” treat it as a log entry rather than a character flaw.
- Is this actually necessary?
- Who needs it?
- Who has decision rights?
- Can I DELETE it?
- Can I DELEGATE it?
- Can I AUTOMATE it?
- Can I REDESIGN the process?
- Is it worth KEEPING, hassle included?
- What will I EXPLORE with the time I recover?
The algorithm is simple:
Necessary? → Delete? → Replace? → Redesign? → If it still matters, keep it → Explore with the reclaimed time.
10. Research does not say “avoid all effort,” but the direction is interesting
No single study proves this entire philosophy. Several adjacent research streams are compatible with it.
A 2024 meta-analysis in Self-Determination Theory included 881 independent samples and 443,556 people. Support for autonomy, competence, and relatedness was strongly associated with satisfaction of basic psychological needs and subjective well-being.
A 2026 scoping review of time affluence emphasized not merely the quantity of free time but the subjective sense of having enough time and autonomy over its use. Higher time affluence was generally associated with better psychological well-being, although the evidence base included only twelve studies and was largely cross-sectional.
A 2017 study combining surveys of more than 6,000 people with a small randomized experiment found that spending money on time-saving services was associated with greater life satisfaction; in the experiment, time-saving purchases reduced time stress and improved mood compared with material purchases.
The OECD’s 2024 work on sludge audits similarly formalized the identification, measurement, and removal of unjustified frictions in public services.
None of this means “never do anything difficult.” It does mean that autonomy over time, unnecessary friction, and psychological costs are too important to ignore when somebody says, ‘Just do everything.’
Conclusion: make life lighter, then increase exploration density
The goal is not an empty life.
Clear out the space occupied by things you did not choose, then put chosen things there.
Do not compete on total suffering. Choose worthwhile friction. Reduce maintenance surface. Cut low-value constraints. Do not fear the resulting slack; reinvest it in curiosity.
Life does not need the everything combo.
You are not removing life. You are removing the noise that was eating it.
References
- Slemp GR, et al. (2024). Interpersonal supports for basic psychological needs and their relations with motivation, well-being, and performance: A meta-analysis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38635183/
- Yoon SY (2026). Time affluence and health: a scoping review of conceptual and methodological patterns. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1824268
- Whillans AV, et al. (2017). Buying time promotes happiness. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706541114
- OECD (2024). Fixing frictions: ‘sludge audits’ around the world. https://doi.org/10.1787/5e9bb35c-en
