How Constraints Can Help You Instead of Holding You Back

The idea of positive constraints has helped me see things differently

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

I first learned about the idea of positive constraints through Tim Ferriss. Several years ago, he had gotten a dog named Molly. He talked about some of the challenges (and opportunities) of having a dog while doing what he does (travelling, speaking, podcasting).

He said that having Molly was great because anytime there were opportunities to travel long distances, he would decline them OR if it was a speaking gig, arrange with the organizer so that he could bring Molly along and have a pet-friendly hotel. He was also conscientious about staying out late with friends because he knew he had Molly to take care of at home (or even if Molly was okay to spend the night alone, Molly would certainly wake up in the mornings for a walk which meant Tim would have to sacrifice sleep to stay out.

While some people may see these as constraints (and negative in the sense that they may be holding Tim back from doing more speaking gigs, hanging out with friends, etc.), I (and you, I’m hoping by the end of this) can also reframe these into positive constraints.

How constraints can be reframed

If for example, rest and sleep are important to you, it’s helpful to have a dog (or a child) that sleeps early and wakes up early because it sets a boundary around when you can sleep (or forces you to sacrifice and pay for it the next day).

Or if it’s important to spend more time with family and get off your device when you’re off work, you might set your network router to turn off the internet on all devices at specific times of day. Again, I see this as a positive in multiple ways: it makes you take an extra step if you want the internet (and people are inherently lazy), and if you find yourself doing something else other than spend time with family, you may realize spending time with your family isn’t the priority you say it is (your actions say more than your words).

Positive constraints you can introduce in your life

Here are several ‘constraints’ I have applied to my life to help me form better overall habits:

• Set an automatic investment of money into savings and investment accounts — this way, you’re not spending and investing what’s left, you’re instead, investing and then spending what’s left.
• If you don’t have a pet or child, you can encourage an earlier wake-up time by scheduling an activity first thing in the morning (such as an exercise class, a run with a friend, etc.). This also means you need to sleep earlier otherwise you aren’t going to get sufficient rest.
• Leave your laptop charger at home and work at a cafe. Whether you’re working, writing, etc., you don’t have time to procrastinate because you only have a limited amount of time to spend on your laptop before it turns off. Get to it or lose it.
• Setting artificial deadlines for yourself. Psychology research has shown that deadlines are an essential tool for increasing productivity and motivation. If you have a task or project without a deadline, consider creating one, even if it’s artificial. The trick though is to pretend that the deadline matters to you — and you might do this by giving yourself a small reward if you meet the deadline.
• Time blocking is a technique I’m only getting used to now — it’s the idea of setting aside a specific amount of time for a task. The interesting thing about time blocking is that you set an artificial deadline for yourself (see above), and you can measure your progress against your estimate so that in the future, your time estimates for your work are more accurate.
• One in, two out. Whenever I get a new piece of clothing, I donate two pieces of clothing. This reduces the amount of clutter I have in my closet, but it also makes me think about when I want to acquire some new clothing — do I want to get rid of two other pieces of clothing just to get this new one?
• No complaints. I don’t always succeed and when I do find myself complaining, I force myself instead to listen to others complain and nod along instead of chiming in. I have to say that when I find myself in a complaint session with colleagues or peers, the only way I have found myself to not chime in with complaints (and it’s easy to do), is to change the subject.