Stopping

There's a Goodwill drop off storefront on the route I take for at least half of my around town activities. It's always busy. Sometimes even hazardously so, as cars back up in the right lane of the busy road ... patiently waiting to offload their stuff.

I get it! Even though I've moved often in the last decade, I'm always low-key shocked by how many pre-move trips I make to a thrift store to donate stuff I won't need at the new place. This experience, let's call it wisdom?, now means I'm diligent in monitoring what comes into the house. Too many boxes arriving in one week makes me itch.

But it makes sense, too—sometimes you need things you don't have—and just like at home, when we notice a need at work, we add something in an effort to address it.

We solve by adding.

Communication breakdown? Add a meeting. Process failure? Layer on another approval step. New initiative? New dashboard.

Where the two scenarios start to feel different is in what those additions represent. New things at home don't often come with additional activities—you use them or you don't. At work, however, plump calendars and overflowing accountabilities can make it difficult to add even just one more thing, because each addition creates more work beyond just the thing itself.

And those added things linger.

You've probably heard of technical debt—all the previous decisions that make software development more challenging in the present. Maybe you know organizational debt—the accumulated policies and structures and procedures that once served a purpose but now just slow everything down.

Let me add work debt: the unnecessary practices, meetings, reports, routines, tasks ... you keep doing because you always have, not because they are valuable. These activities require energy, time, and effort. Much (all?) of it wasted.

Consider the meetings cluttering your calendar where you sit quietly, wondering why you're there. The monthly report you dutifully complete that seems to disappear into the void. The annual self-assessment you fill out that feels more like performance theater than genuine reflection. I'm sure you can identify another example or two.

In Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan writes, "Most of us have not had the time to think about how we work, and why we work that way, in a long time (maybe ever). We're on autopilot."

This autopilot mode means practices can outlive their usefulness without us noticing. Some reflection on your work history is likely to bring you to the same conclusion.

Where moving is a natural force to reflect on the value of your things—nothing goes into a box without a decision: keep, donate, or trash—work doesn't have a similar pressure.

But we know what wasted effort feels like. So when you notice that something you're doing isn't meeting your needs anymore, that's a signal it might be time for something different.

And one option we don't often consider: stopping.

When it comes to your personal work patterns: What can you remove, stop doing, or let go of?

Your stopping strategy will depend on context. Some things you can eliminate immediately. Others require conversation—coordinating with your team on why you want to pause the weekly status update, or asking your manager if they actually read that monthly summary. For the truly uncertain cases, you could try stopping for a defined period and see who notices. "I'm going to pause sending the Friday metrics email for the next month. If anyone needs this information, please let me know."

Stopping can be freeing. You might find some relief when you drop the work that no longer serves you.

So the next time you notice a "wasted time/energy/effort" signal, ask yourself: can I just stop this? And here's a provocative prompt to get started: What's one thing you could pause—an interim stopping strategy—and see if anyone notices?

Around The Water Cooler ⛲

“AI isn’t quite “happening” as it should; it’s not making any kind of money, and its popularity relies on free products handed out to the masses. Maybe that kind of handing out can continue indefinitely. Does every bubble burst? We will find out soon enough. The future roars up to meet us.” The Mortality Equation by Ross Barkan

“And when knowledge is no longer scarce, what remains valuable? Wisdom. You can get answers from AI, but how you use those answers takes wisdom.” Knowledge Work Is Dying—Here’s What Comes Next by Joe Hudson

“My default position on this, for now, is that if the job you were aspiring to has been taken by an AI it was probably a really boring job; one that was more about following routines and procedures than exercising judgement, imagination, or social intelligence. You haven’t lost a job so much as gained a thousand days that don’t feel like living death. 5 Reasons There Won't Be an AI Jobs Apocalypse by Ian Leslie

Thanks for reading. Hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

How To Work is healthcare-focused work design inspiration (from the experts!) to nudge your perspectives and practices into better alignment with the world of work as it is, and away from what it was. Here’s my take on what we’re working through.