The efficiency trap

There's a paradox I think about often.

The more efficient you become, the busier you get.

It sounds backward. Shouldn't efficiency create more free time? Shouldn't better systems, faster tools, and optimized workflows buy us back hours in the day?

In theory, yes. In practice, almost never.

I've experienced this firsthand. A few years ago, I went deep on productivity. I read the books. I tried the apps. I optimized my morning routine, my email workflow, and my task management system. And for a while, it felt like I was winning.

But then something strange happened. The more I optimized, the more work expanded to fill the space. The faster I cleared my inbox, the more emails arrived. The quicker I finished tasks, the more tasks appeared. I wasn't gaining time; I was just processing more volume.

Oliver Burkeman calls this the efficiency trap. The idea is simple but devastating: every time you get faster at something, the demands on your time expand to fill the gap. You're not winning. You're just running faster on the same treadmill.

This happens for a few reasons. First, when you become known as someone who "gets things done," people bring you more things to do. Your efficiency becomes a magnet for other people's priorities. Second, there's something psychological going on, a belief that if we just optimize enough, we'll finally feel on top of things. But that feeling never comes. There's always more.

Dan Martell, in Buy Back Your Time, frames it differently but arrives at the same place. He argues that the goal isn't to do more things faster. The goal is to do fewer things, and buy back your time for what actually matters. Time with family. Time for thinking. Time for the work that only you can do.

The trap is believing that efficiency will eventually create breathing room. It won't. The only way to create breathing room is to stop filling every gap.

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good things." — Steve Jobs

This quote has haunted me ever since I first read it. Because Jobs isn't talking about saying no to bad things. He's talking about saying no to good things. Opportunities that seem worthwhile. Projects that could be interesting. Requests from people you like.

Focus isn't about rejecting the obviously wrong. It's about rejecting the subtly distracting.

Cal Newport echoes this in Slow Productivity. He argues that we've inherited a broken definition of productivity from the factory floor, one that equates visible busyness with value. But knowledge work doesn't work that way. The best thinking happens slowly, with space, with room to breathe.

And yet we keep cramming our calendars like we're trying to prove something. We wear busyness as a badge of honor. We mistake motion for progress.

Greg McKeown, in Essentialism, puts it bluntly: "If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will."

That's the trap. And that's the escape.

So what's the way out?

I don't think it's doing more. I think it's doing less, but with more intention.

Not saying yes to everything. Not optimizing every minute. Not treating your calendar like a game of Tetris you're trying to win.

Instead: choosing a few things that actually matter, and protecting the time to do them well. Letting some balls drop, on purpose. Accepting that you will never "catch up," and that's okay.