When Efficiency Backfires: The Hidden Cost of "Making Life Easier"

I noticed this recently with a clothing styling app I’ve used for years. It started as a simple way to avoid unnecessary decisions. A box arrived, it worked, and I moved on. No effort.

Then the platform “improved”. More options. More previews. More steps.

Instead of reducing the mental load, it expanded it. I found myself comparing, researching, and refining choices that used to require no thought. I had turned a solved problem into an ongoing task.

This isn’t about clothing. It’s about a broader pattern I see everywhere: we try to optimize our lives and end up creating more work for ourselves.

Leaders do this when they layer new tools onto old habits. Founders do it when they over-engineer systems that don’t need complexity. High performers do it when they equate control with safety and inadvertently build processes they don’t actually need.

At a horizontal level, we focus on better tools. At a vertical level, we question the underlying assumption: Why am I doing this at all?

A few useful questions: What am I maintaining out of habit rather than necessity?

• Where have I added steps to a process that was already functional?

• What am I trying to control that no longer requires control?

• What work am I doing purely to reassure myself?

This is the heart of vertical development — examining the mental models beneath our actions, not just the actions themselves. Growth comes from recognizing where we’re over-solving, over-managing, or over-optimizing.

Sometimes the most effective move is to pause before building the next solution. The clarity usually comes from that pause, not from another tool.

I’m choosing presence over unnecessary productivity. And I’m curious what that would look like for you. Where have you added effort to something that was already resolved?

If this brings anything up for you, I’d welcome your perspective. Just reply and share what you’re noticing.

With gratitude and curiosity,
Natasa