It doesn’t matter if the story is true or not. What matters is the lesson:

Removing an option by default is the quickest way to change behavior.

Adding friction is a surefire way to quit bad habits. In this story, getting something printed was such an exhausting process that most Directors simply gave up. The ones who went through the excruciating process of getting a chart printed were rewarded: they wanted and needed it that bad.

In other words: remove by default and then adjust the rope and give it more leeway.

Can we also default things to zero in our lives? Here are a couple of examples that I think can:

People. You can avoid someone altogether, given that it’s outside your circle of friends and colleagues. Stop replying to their texts or emails. Default to zero.

You can avoid someone altogether, given that it’s outside your circle of friends and colleagues. Stop replying to their texts or emails. Default to zero. Credit Card Debt. Go to your bank and cancel all your credit cards. There, no way to spend money you don’t have.

Go to your bank and cancel all your credit cards. There, no way to spend money you don’t have. Fast Food. An easy one: don’t go in fast-food restaurants, ever. Not even with friends. Default to zero.

An easy one: don’t go in fast-food restaurants, ever. Not even with friends. Default to zero. Car. Only in big cities: sell your car and start taking public transportation. If in a rush for whatever reason or out of the public transportation routes, use Uber.

Only in big cities: sell your car and start taking public transportation. If in a rush for whatever reason or out of the public transportation routes, use Uber. Notifications. Step 1: Remove all notifications from your phone, tablet, and computer. Step 2: enjoy the new-found tranquility. If it’s urgent, they’ll call.

Unfortunately, few things can default to zero. We still need clothes, shelter, and food. The utility of one unit of our basic needs is huge.

How do you simplify life when you can’t default to zero?

What Can You Remove?

There are two sure-fire ways to find out what you can remove:

Storing Things The Pareto Principle

Both have its merits and pitfalls.

The first is a little bit more radical and takes more time, while the second can be done right away and assumes you are truthful in your analysis.

#1 Storing Things

Side note: “Things” here refers not only to physical items — such as clothes and toiletries, but also friends, business tasks, and hobbies, amongst others. It basically means everything that is in your life.

This is a psychological hack: you are going to have a hard look at all the Things in your life and decide what you love, what you like and what you dislike.

If it’s physical, put all items in a category in your bed or table. For example, grab all your clothes and start sorting them into three physical piles: love, like, and dislike. Repeat for all other sets of items that you own (even when you have just one).

For the rest, grab a piece of paper and divide it into three columns with the same names. If you are doing friends, start by listing all your friends and then put them in each category as you see fit. Repeat the exercise for hobbies.

Everything that in the dislike pile should be discarded right away. Sell, donate, throw away, remove, get rid of it.

But here’s the fun part: store Things that you put in the like pile. For items, grab a box and put them in the back of your closet. For intangibles, put them on hold.

If you find yourself thinking about and missing a shirt, you can always go back to the box and retrieve it. The same for the friend that just doesn’t seem to be reciprocal in your relationship but always end having a blast with. Give him a call and set a night out.

Allow yourself the break: you want it that bad.

The hack is the same as the consultant in the bank: remove first and then adjust as you see fit.

Let three months pass and see how many Things you bring back.

Remove the ones you didn’t.

#2 The Pareto Principle

One of the mental models I keep referring back in my life is the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. I use it in business tasks, grocery shopping, defining personal goals or allocating free time.

The rule can be simplified to:

80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action.

The little things are the ones that account for the majority of the results.

Grab your Things and ask: “Do 20% of my Things bring me 80% of results?”

You’ll be surprised to learn that the answer is almost yes.

If I asked you to write down, without looking in the closet, your favorite pieces of clothing, how many do you think you would list?

Here are some of mine:

Blue Asics (there’s a reason it deserved its own section)

Awesome grey dress shoes, makes me look like I’m a 50-year millionaire while being super comfy

That green Boss shirt that always gets me compliments

Tailor-made suit made it China (because nothing suits you like a suit)

Awesome Lacoste polo with hooks that just “gets me”

Repeat the exercise with everything else. If you to broaden the question to usage:

“Do you use 20% of your Things 80% of the time?”

Everything that falls under the 20% brings you more happiness.

Everything else brings negative marginal utility. Again: sell, donate, throw away, remove, get rid of it.

Going One Level Deeper: Questioning Assumptions

One of my guilty pleasures…

The final step to simplify life is to question assumptions that are deeply ingrained in our brains as beliefs. You know the ones… They get passed as advice with good intentions but you might never have stopped yourself to question it.

I’m talking anything from big ones — “you must own a house”, or “put 30% of your pay check in savings since your first job” — , to smaller ones — such as “don’t cram for exams the night before”, or “wash your teeth twice a day”.

How do you know for sure that these things are right?

First, doubt everything. As Descartes would say: “In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.”

Then, test these assumptions and reach a conclusion by yourself. Only then will you know right and wrong assumptions. Here’s a simple mental hack:

Instead of trying to be right, ask “How can I be wrong?” Reversing the way you look at Things can be a very powerful way to discover other angles.

Here are three examples:

#1 Breakfast

Touted as the most important meal of the deal. In fact, here’s a study that “proves” this assumption. Read the fine print and you will see that it was funded by Kellogg. How convenient…

In order to test this, I recently changed my breakfast from eggs and bacon to a babybel light and some crackers.

Does the job just fine.

#2 Shampoo and Conditioner

Being lazy and poor has its pros. While in college, there was a month that I ran out of shampoo (and a week later conditioner) and was particularly low on funds. I use vinegar for a while, but eventually ran out of that too.

So I did what any sane college kid would do: I didn’t buy shampoo and conditioner (and vinegar, for that matter) and instead spend all the money on beer.

My hair actually looked better than before.

#3 Popcorn

This one I picked up from an early age. The experience of watching a movie at the cinema isn’t complete without popcorn and coke. Or is it?

When watching movies or TV shows at home I never feel urge to eat popcorn. If I do crave popcorn, I need to get down two flights of stairs, walk a few meters, buy a pack, walk back and climb back up. That’s way too much friction, so I rarely do it.

You are now free to stop eating overpriced popcorn menus at the movies. You’re welcome!

Simplify Life: Subtraction, Not Addition

Once you start questioning everything, you start seeing the pattern everywhere. The trick is to know if someones is profiting directly from you naivety.

And the more you know for sure what assumptions are right and what assumptions are wrong, you learn what you can remove for your life.

To simplify life, think subtraction, not addition.

In the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

“Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”

When you deliberately and consistently question what you can remove, you design a simpler, more productive and happy life.

What can you remove?