The idea that eliminating friction can cause problems might sound unusual, as we’re used to thinking about more efficiency producing more effectiveness, but among engineers like me, this concept is commonly understood. Too little friction can lead to feedback loops that spiral out of control, as happens when a microphone gets too close to a speaker

A mid-task context switch is when you have to stop an otherwise self-contained task and switch your attention to something unrelated before returning to the original object of your attention.

Another useful expansion of the Kanban defaults is to include a column for storing background notes and research generally relevant to a project.

our reform efforts in this book focus on the workflows that coordinate knowledge work, not the skilled execution of the work itself.

Once you’ve identified a process that does seem like a good candidate for automation, the following guidelines will help you succeed with the transformation: Partitioning: Split the process into a series of well-defined phases that follow one after the other. For each phase, clearly specify what work must be accomplished and who is responsible.

for an individual knowledge worker, this might describe the rate at which you’re hitting milestones or completing projects.

Our instinct in the knowledge work setting is to obsess about factors like worst-case scenarios—how can we prevent bad things from ever happening?!—or to prefer the convenience of simple (but costly) protocols to more finicky (but optimized) alternatives. The information theory revolution tells us that these instincts shouldn’t be trusted.

A key question to ask about any attempted shift toward specialization is what happens to the leftover work once everyone starts doing less? Many of these tasks will simply disappear as it becomes clear that they’re not actually that important to producing valuable output.

The idea of strictly limiting email length is more than a gimmick. It instead represents a step that too few take in our current digital age: the placing of clear constraints around what email should and should not be used to accomplish.