The power of constraints

How smart constraints improve focus, creativity and performance, and how to add the right ones to your business.

There’s a cautionary tale of General Magic, a 1990s startup that set out to build the first smartphone a decade before Apple. It had famous backers and a team of brilliant ex-Apple engineers. But with no firm deadline or feature list, the scope of the phone never stopped growing. The product shipped years late, bloated with features, and almost nobody bought it.

Then came the iPhone, built by Steve Jobs, a man famous for saying no and putting unreasonable constraints on his team. The iPhone was a hit, and it reshaped how we all live.

Throughout history, humans' best work has come under constraints. In the case of the iPhone, success was everything Jobs refused to add. "It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas," Jobs has said of focus.

Research shows again and again that constraints improve creativity, focus and performance. As business owners and leaders, let’s explore how we can use constraints to achieve better outcomes for ourselves and our team… 

Why your brain needs borders

By default, the human brain takes the path of least resistance. This is why total freedom tends to produce your most habitual work rather than your best work. Your brain follows the most familiar path, which is usually the easiest one.

A constraint does two things at once: It blocks the easy path, forcing your brain to search for a new one, and that search is what we call creativity. It also narrows your attention. With fewer options on the table, your focus intensifies on the ones that remain. 

We picture creativity as needing a blank canvas and endless options. But it rarely comes from freedom. It comes from working against a limit. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon spent his career studying how creativity works and found that creativity isn't a mysterious flash of genius but ordinary problem-solving, the mind running a structured, rule-guided search for solutions. 

'One finds limits by pushing them.' - Herbert Simon

Children's author Dr Seuss is a classic example. In 1960 his publisher bet him he couldn't write a book using only 50 different words. He took the bet and wrote Green Eggs and Ham, one of the best-selling children's books of all time.

Sports science has built a methodology on this called Constraints-Led Coaching. Coaches deliberately shrink the field, change the rules or limit touches, and players develop skill faster because every rep demands sharper decisions. 

Constraints also help leaders beat decision fatigue: the endless choices that drain energy and focus. Should I take this client? Try this strategy? Change this offer? A simple constraint, e.g. a ‘we never discount’ rule, shuts down hundreds of small decisions before they start.

So how do we add the right constraints to our business to increase focus, creativity and reduce decision-fatigue? 

Start with the goal

The point of a constraint is never the constraint itself. It’s to achieve a desired outcome.

In my coaching experience, constraints are best used when progress has stalled on a specific goal. Often this looks like a business owner who knows what to do, there's just nothing constraining their focus to do it. 

So the question isn't "what should I do?" It's “what constraints will set the conditions for success?”. 

Four places to add constraints

Constraints add necessary friction to bring focus to specific areas. There are different kinds of constraints, including, but not limited to:

Time constraints.

This is the most obvious constraint, yet can be overlooked. Have you ever noticed that you’re less productive on days where your calendar is open and free? Work expands to fill whatever you give it. So give yourself less time. 

A good example of this is how much work you tend to get done the week before a holiday. Nothing sharpens your priorities like a booked flight. A holiday itself works as a constraint too. Properly unplugged, your business has to run without you. 

Resource constraints.

There’s a saying, it’s not the businesses with the most resources that win, it’s the ones that are most resourceful. There are plenty of stories of entrepreneurs using what little resources they had to build incredible, successful businesses. 

For most businesses this looks like setting a budget on resources to force team members to be resourceful with what they have. 

Environment constraints.

Your environment, and the people in it, shape how you show up. Want to get fit? Join a gym class. It's hard to skip a workout when you're surrounded by people committed to it. The same goes for any skill: put yourself where it's normalised and expected. When I worked in corporate travel, I learned about the industry fast by going to conferences and meeting people in it, rather than reading about it online. In fact, at one conference in Singapore, I met a new friend, Steve Hui, who later became my first client upon leaving corporate. 

A small business coach does the same thing. Whether you meet in a group, one-on-one, or virtually, they create a space apart from the daily grind, one where growth is expected and you're accountable to the outcomes you set. Which leads to…

People constraints.

This is the strongest one. Tell someone you trust that you'll do something, and you're far more likely to do it. Private goals that live in your head are easy to drop. But when you've committed to something with another person, it is much harder to walk away from it.

We know this to be true, and yet we can still avoid it. Find trusted people who you can be accountable to. 

People bring a second kind of constraint too: responsibility. Since becoming a father, my decision-making has sharpened. I think twice about risk, about time, about what I say yes to, because someone else depends on me now. 

What happens when you add constraints

A new constraint feels worse before it feels better. Here’s why: When a new constraint is added, your brain, in its default survival mode, fixates on the constraint itself as a problem, rather than the goal behind it. 

Psychologists tell us that when we restrict something, the mind rehearses what it's lost. Cut sugar to eat healthier and for the first few weeks all you can think about is chocolate and ice cream. The new boundary feels like deprivation, and this is where most people quit. But push through, and the cravings fade. You stop thinking about what you gave up and start seeing what you were aiming for, with a clear run at it.

Here's an illustration. A professional skater at the Rockefeller Center rink weaves through hundreds of public skaters, effortlessly, throwing in little twirls and jumps as she goes, never touching a soul. Someone asked her afterwards how she moved through the crowd so gracefully. Her answer: "I don't see the people. All I see is the ice."

That's what a constraint looks like once it's done its work. The limits disappear from view, and all that's left in focus is the thing you're aiming for.

So my encouragement is this: lead with constraints on purpose, don't avoid them. Put the right ones in place, with a coach if it helps, and watch your focus sharpen and your progress lift.

Further reading on this topic: ‘Inside the box’ by David Epstein. 

Written by Lachlan Nicolson.