This approach is widely used in industry and the service sector. It’s known as a Kanban board. It’s usually implemented as part of a raft of measures to continuously improve the efficiency of processes and the quality of physical products and service outcomes.
Hey Josh! Great to see you here. Hope you enjoy the new book, and I love being on campuses! I feel filled with intellectual energy whenever I visit a campus.
We use Kanban at work, and it's helpful -- though it doesn't keep "emergency high priority" things from creeping in. My problem isn't too much to do on the job so much as managing the queue of things I want to do in total.
To manage my non-work to-dos, I have a series of task lists on my phone with titles like In Top Of Mind, Fix Me, Groceries, House, and Books. When I think of something I'd like to do (someday, or right now), I add it to one of the lists. Right away this eases anxiety that I'll just forget about it. As my priorities change I move things between lists or up and down. I never put due dates on anything. As I get things done, I delete them.
I wouldn't recommend this method to everyone, but it works for me.
Interesting point Freda! Now that you mention it, part of the trouble for one group at Broad was that they had no room for emergency things, because they were packed so tight, and those things were always coming up. So eventually that had to leave a little slack, and just realize that emergencies were regular occurrences. ...And thank you so much for sharing your system! I'm going to steal "Fix Me" as a list. That's just delightful. And I have that same feeling of once I file something, it eases my concern. I have this all the time with articles, where I'll bookmark them for a folder, and it makes me feel ok to move on. Some of them I come back to read, but most I never do. But it allows me to move forward without concern. Anyway, thank you for sharing your system. I think it will give others who peruse the comments ideas for things to try.
Honestly, my entire ambition in life is to do less. I've spent too much of it cramming in more and trying to extract more out of my teams. The reframe is all about focusing on what really matters
What a gift to yourself, and your teams! I've been doing this since leaving corporate tech and it's been absolutely wonderful...didn't realize how consumption-oriented I'd become even as a pseudo-minimalist. We're in such an age of "productive consumption": hustle, stay busy, listen to all the podcasts, keep up on every issue. It's changed my life to let go of external titles/success metrics, simplify, create way more than I consume
And it never ends! Like the consumption+productivity loop just keeps spinning and you're not supposed to get off. It's destructive and makes saying "no" not just difficult but guilt- and shame-ridden. Good for you Emily, you're a rockstar for making that change!!!
I've really enjoyed reading your other books. I'm interested in using your new book (Inside the Box) as a required reading for my university course this Fall (evidence based health course). Do you know if/how I can obtain an instructor copy? Congrats!
Congrats on the new book! Adding to my list, given how very much I appreciated "Range." I'm glad there are people like you helping fix corporate dysfunction. Your description of "bolting AI onto everything" is so apt, very much like putting lipstick on a pig.
My nearly 4 years since leaving corporate tech have been a party of subtraction and I mostly love what's left, but you've got me mulling where else I might practice this.
The Broad Institute example is striking precisely because it applies so naturally to medicine, where the same structural failure plays out with higher stakes.
Clinical guidelines often grow by accretion. New evidence arrives, a recommendation is added, a screening interval narrows, a biomarker enters the protocol. What happens far less reliably is the inverse: a disciplined process for deciding what should come off the wall. The result is close to what Epstein describes, far more in motion than can be done well, except that in medicine the fragmentation does not merely produce "workslop." It can produce care that is simultaneously over-tested and under-reasoned.
The analogy extends to AI in clinical settings. We are beginning to bolt tools onto existing workflows, generating more output, more flags, more alerts, more dashboards, often without first asking which problems actually needed solving. An AI that surfaces seventeen risk signals for a single patient does not answer the question that matters most: which one should change what we do next?
The discipline of choosing what not to do is harder in medicine than in most fields, because removing a test or an intervention can feel like withholding care. But the Broad team's insight applies directly: making everything currently on the protocol visible, and forcing a conversation about what actually moves outcomes, is itself a clinical act. Constraint is not the opposite of good care. It may be the precondition for it.
Discernment feels more important than ever, something that more information and more computation can’t necessarily solve.
I agree documentation is the first critical step to see what’s out there, and then deciding what to do based on one’s personal values and goals is the hardest part — any tips on that front?
This is true in coaching too. We study coaches at the Impactful Coaching Project, and one of the hardest parts of developing competence in the modern era is the sheer volume of information, the discernment required to separate what actually serves your athletes from what just sounds good is a skill in itself. Coaches love adding, a new drill, a new metric, a new film breakdown, because adding feels like progress and subtracting feels like giving up. What athletes end up counting on isn't the depth of what we built, it's how much of it we were honest enough to remove. Can't wait for the book to arrive tomorrow!
So, you’re telling us that… you learned to narrow things down by going to Broad? 😏
But seriously: Congrats on the new book! Excited to check it out. Your emphasis on embracing constraints and doing the painful work of prioritization certainly resonates for me. As I like to say, “When you do a bit of everything, you never do much of anything.” And also agree on the increased risk from AI: Speed is addicting, but going fast in the wrong direction can be worse than standing still!
Hahaha...my only saving grace is that it's pronounced <Brohd> (rhymes with "road"), so I'm off the hook;) ...thanks so much for the kind words, and the insight, Jonathan.
This approach is widely used in industry and the service sector. It’s known as a Kanban board. It’s usually implemented as part of a raft of measures to continuously improve the efficiency of processes and the quality of physical products and service outcomes.
It's a great system! I've been doing my own makeshift version.
A+ title. I’m going to use that with my team who tries to do too much.
I said that line in a talk recently, and people kept repeating it back to me, so I figured it resonates;)
Thank you!
*picks up packet of sticky notes*
*grabs pen*
*steps toward wall*
I used to do this all the time but, ahem, got too busy. ;-)
Haha...perfect! I need to remind myself too, Nita.
Can't wait to read the new book, David. Pre-ordered! Would love to find a way to get you on campus at Harvey Mudd sometime :)
Hey Josh! Great to see you here. Hope you enjoy the new book, and I love being on campuses! I feel filled with intellectual energy whenever I visit a campus.
David - brilliant as always. Congratulations on your new book. Can't wait to read it. It's on my to-do list....
.Also, I will investigate Kanban boards. I need one badly :)
Catherine, we all do;) Or some version of it.. Thank you so much for the kind words, and your support of my work.
We use Kanban at work, and it's helpful -- though it doesn't keep "emergency high priority" things from creeping in. My problem isn't too much to do on the job so much as managing the queue of things I want to do in total.
To manage my non-work to-dos, I have a series of task lists on my phone with titles like In Top Of Mind, Fix Me, Groceries, House, and Books. When I think of something I'd like to do (someday, or right now), I add it to one of the lists. Right away this eases anxiety that I'll just forget about it. As my priorities change I move things between lists or up and down. I never put due dates on anything. As I get things done, I delete them.
I wouldn't recommend this method to everyone, but it works for me.
Interesting point Freda! Now that you mention it, part of the trouble for one group at Broad was that they had no room for emergency things, because they were packed so tight, and those things were always coming up. So eventually that had to leave a little slack, and just realize that emergencies were regular occurrences. ...And thank you so much for sharing your system! I'm going to steal "Fix Me" as a list. That's just delightful. And I have that same feeling of once I file something, it eases my concern. I have this all the time with articles, where I'll bookmark them for a folder, and it makes me feel ok to move on. Some of them I come back to read, but most I never do. But it allows me to move forward without concern. Anyway, thank you for sharing your system. I think it will give others who peruse the comments ideas for things to try.
Looking forward to moving this book into the funnel!
Perfect comment!
Honestly, my entire ambition in life is to do less. I've spent too much of it cramming in more and trying to extract more out of my teams. The reframe is all about focusing on what really matters
What a gift to yourself, and your teams! I've been doing this since leaving corporate tech and it's been absolutely wonderful...didn't realize how consumption-oriented I'd become even as a pseudo-minimalist. We're in such an age of "productive consumption": hustle, stay busy, listen to all the podcasts, keep up on every issue. It's changed my life to let go of external titles/success metrics, simplify, create way more than I consume
And it never ends! Like the consumption+productivity loop just keeps spinning and you're not supposed to get off. It's destructive and makes saying "no" not just difficult but guilt- and shame-ridden. Good for you Emily, you're a rockstar for making that change!!!
I've really enjoyed reading your other books. I'm interested in using your new book (Inside the Box) as a required reading for my university course this Fall (evidence based health course). Do you know if/how I can obtain an instructor copy? Congrats!
Congrats on the new book! Adding to my list, given how very much I appreciated "Range." I'm glad there are people like you helping fix corporate dysfunction. Your description of "bolting AI onto everything" is so apt, very much like putting lipstick on a pig.
My nearly 4 years since leaving corporate tech have been a party of subtraction and I mostly love what's left, but you've got me mulling where else I might practice this.
The Broad Institute example is striking precisely because it applies so naturally to medicine, where the same structural failure plays out with higher stakes.
Clinical guidelines often grow by accretion. New evidence arrives, a recommendation is added, a screening interval narrows, a biomarker enters the protocol. What happens far less reliably is the inverse: a disciplined process for deciding what should come off the wall. The result is close to what Epstein describes, far more in motion than can be done well, except that in medicine the fragmentation does not merely produce "workslop." It can produce care that is simultaneously over-tested and under-reasoned.
The analogy extends to AI in clinical settings. We are beginning to bolt tools onto existing workflows, generating more output, more flags, more alerts, more dashboards, often without first asking which problems actually needed solving. An AI that surfaces seventeen risk signals for a single patient does not answer the question that matters most: which one should change what we do next?
The discipline of choosing what not to do is harder in medicine than in most fields, because removing a test or an intervention can feel like withholding care. But the Broad team's insight applies directly: making everything currently on the protocol visible, and forcing a conversation about what actually moves outcomes, is itself a clinical act. Constraint is not the opposite of good care. It may be the precondition for it.
Discernment feels more important than ever, something that more information and more computation can’t necessarily solve.
I agree documentation is the first critical step to see what’s out there, and then deciding what to do based on one’s personal values and goals is the hardest part — any tips on that front?
This is true in coaching too. We study coaches at the Impactful Coaching Project, and one of the hardest parts of developing competence in the modern era is the sheer volume of information, the discernment required to separate what actually serves your athletes from what just sounds good is a skill in itself. Coaches love adding, a new drill, a new metric, a new film breakdown, because adding feels like progress and subtracting feels like giving up. What athletes end up counting on isn't the depth of what we built, it's how much of it we were honest enough to remove. Can't wait for the book to arrive tomorrow!
So, you’re telling us that… you learned to narrow things down by going to Broad? 😏
But seriously: Congrats on the new book! Excited to check it out. Your emphasis on embracing constraints and doing the painful work of prioritization certainly resonates for me. As I like to say, “When you do a bit of everything, you never do much of anything.” And also agree on the increased risk from AI: Speed is addicting, but going fast in the wrong direction can be worse than standing still!
Hahaha...my only saving grace is that it's pronounced <Brohd> (rhymes with "road"), so I'm off the hook;) ...thanks so much for the kind words, and the insight, Jonathan.