Top 8 'Strategic-Subtraction' Productivity Habits to learn for New Grads to Escape the 'Busy Work' Trap - Goh Ling Yong
Congratulations, you’ve landed the job! You’ve navigated the interviews, accepted the offer, and you’re ready to make your mark. The first few months are a whirlwind of new faces, new systems, and a powerful, burning desire to prove you belong. You say "yes" to everything, stay late to finish small tasks, and your to-do list becomes an epic scroll of good intentions. You’re constantly busy, but are you being effective?
This is the "Busy Work" trap, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles new graduates face. It’s the illusion of productivity, where your calendar is packed and your inbox is overflowing, but your actual impact feels minimal. You spend your days reacting to requests, attending directionless meetings, and polishing tasks that don't move the needle. You're churning, not creating. The result? Frustration, exhaustion, and a nagging feeling that you're not living up to your potential.
The solution isn't to work harder or master some complex new software. It’s a counter-intuitive philosophy I call 'Strategic-Subtraction.' Instead of asking, "What more can I add to my day?" you start asking, "What can I take away?" It's about ruthlessly eliminating the non-essential to create space for the work that truly matters. It’s how you go from being a busy employee to an invaluable team member. Here are eight strategic-subtraction habits to help you escape the trap and build a career defined by impact, not just activity.
1. Create a "Not-To-Do" List
We're all familiar with the classic to-do list. It's our daily roadmap, our source of small dopamine hits as we check off tasks. But its evil twin, the "busy work" list, often hides in plain sight. A "Not-To-Do" list is your secret weapon to fight back. It’s a pre-meditated decision to subtract activities that drain your energy and provide little value.
This isn’t about being lazy or avoiding responsibility. It's about being fiercely protective of your most valuable asset: your focus. By deciding in advance what you will not do, you remove the need for in-the-moment willpower. You create clear boundaries that allow you to direct your energy toward high-impact work. This simple shift in mindset can be transformative for a new grad trying to navigate a flood of new demands.
How to do it:
- Start your week by identifying 3-5 things you will not do.
- Example 1 (The Email Trap): "I will not check my email for the first hour of the day." This allows you to start your morning proactively on your most important task, rather than reactively to others' agendas.
- Example 2 (The Meeting Maze): "I will not attend meetings that don't have a clear agenda and stated goal sent out beforehand." This forces organizers to be more respectful of your time and ensures meetings are productive.
- Example 3 (The Distraction Device): "I will not keep my phone on my desk while doing focused work." Place it in a drawer or across the room to eliminate the temptation for mindless scrolling.
2. Master the Art of the "Gentle No"
As a new grad, your instinct is to be agreeable. You want to be seen as a team player, someone who is eager and helpful. This often translates to an automatic "yes" for every request that comes your way, no matter how small or how far outside your core responsibilities. This is a fast track to burnout and becoming the go-to person for everyone else’s low-priority tasks.
Learning to say "no" is one of the most critical skills for long-term career success. The key is to do it gently, strategically, and with respect. A "gentle no" isn't about rejection; it's about clarification and negotiation. It demonstrates that you understand your priorities and are thinking strategically about how you can provide the most value to the company.
How to do it:
- The "Not Right Now" Response: "That sounds like an important task. Right now, I'm fully focused on completing the Q3 report for my manager, which is my top priority. Could I get back to you on this next week?" This shows you're engaged but protects your current focus.
- The "Help Me Prioritize" Response: Go to your manager and say, "I'd be happy to help with Project X. Currently, my priorities are A, B, and C. To make sure I do a great job on this new request, could you help me understand where it fits in with my other tasks? Should I de-prioritize one of them?" This frames you as responsible, not reluctant.
- The "Alternative Solution" Response: "My schedule is packed this week, so I can't jump on that myself. However, I know that Sarah in marketing was just working on a similar analysis. She might be the perfect person to help." This is helpful without adding to your own plate.
3. Apply the 80/20 Principle to Your Tasks
The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In a work context, this means a small fraction of your efforts will produce the majority of your results. The "busy work" trap is what happens when you spend all your time on the 80% of tasks that only yield 20% of the value.
Strategic-subtraction means actively identifying and focusing on your high-impact 20%. To do this, you have to be honest with yourself about what activities truly move the needle for your team and the company. This requires a shift from measuring your worth by the hours you log to the results you generate. It's a principle I've seen leaders like Goh Ling Yong champion: effectiveness is not about the volume of your work, but the value of your output.
How to do it:
- Conduct a personal audit. At the end of a week, look back at everything you did. Ask yourself: "Which of these tasks directly contributed to a major team goal?" and "If I could only have done three things this week, what would they have been?"
- Identify your "20%". Are you in a sales role? Maybe 20% of your clients generate 80% of your revenue. Are you a software developer? Maybe 20% of bugs cause 80% of user complaints. Are you a marketer? Maybe 20% of your content drives 80% of your leads.
- Double down on what works. Once you identify your 20%, structure your day to protect that work at all costs. Do it first, when your energy is highest. Subtract, delay, or minimize the other 80%.
4. Perform a Ruthless Calendar Audit
Your calendar is not a public filing cabinet for anyone to dump a meeting into. It is the blueprint for your success. If your calendar is a back-to-back wall of meetings, you have no time for the "deep work" that produces real value. New grads often feel they have no control over their schedule, but you have more agency than you think.
A ruthless calendar audit is about subtracting meetings and commitments that don't serve a clear purpose. It’s about reclaiming your time and treating blocks of focused work with the same respect as a meeting with your CEO. This proactive approach prevents your week from being dictated by other people's priorities.
How to do it:
- Block "Deep Work" time. Schedule 90-minute to 2-hour blocks in your calendar for focused, uninterrupted work on your most important projects. Title it "Focus Time" or "Project X Work" and treat it as an unbreakable appointment.
- Question every recurring meeting. Once a quarter, look at all your recurring meetings. Ask yourself: "Is this meeting still necessary? Do I need to be there? Could this be an email update instead?" Propose a change to the meeting owner if you think it can be improved or eliminated.
- Require an agenda. Make it a personal policy to decline meeting invites that don't have a clear purpose or agenda. You can do this politely: "Excited to join! Could you share a quick agenda so I can prepare and contribute effectively?"
5. Tame the Notification Beast
Pings, dings, pop-ups, and banners. Every notification is a tiny, insidious interruption that shatters your focus. Research shows that it can take over 20 minutes to fully regain your concentration after being distracted. If you're getting notifications every few minutes, you're essentially spending your entire day in a state of fractured attention.
Subtracting notifications is one of the easiest and most impactful changes you can make. It’s about switching from a reactive mode, where you respond to every digital tap on the shoulder, to a proactive mode, where you engage with communication on your own terms. This allows for the sustained concentration required for high-quality, thoughtful work.
How to do it:
- Turn off all non-essential notifications. Go into your phone and computer settings and disable notifications for email, social media, and news apps. You don't need to know the second an email arrives.
- Configure your team chat app (Slack, Teams, etc.). Mute channels that aren't critical. Set your status to "Focusing" when you're in a deep work block. Encourage colleagues to only use the "@channel" or "@here" tags for truly urgent matters.
- Use the "batching" method. Instead of checking email and messages constantly, schedule specific times to do it. For example, check them at 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM. In between those times, close the tabs and focus completely on the task at hand.
6. Automate or Simplify Repetitive Tasks
Many entry-level roles involve a fair amount of repetitive, administrative work. While some of it is unavoidable, a surprising amount can be simplified or automated, freeing up your mental energy for more complex problem-solving. This is the art of subtracting manual effort.
You don’t need to be a coding wizard to do this. Often, it's about using the built-in features of the tools you already have or simply creating a streamlined process. By investing a small amount of time upfront to build a system, you can save yourself hours of tedious work in the long run. As a content writer for Goh Ling Yong's blog, I use templates constantly to subtract the repetitive setup work and focus on the creative writing itself.
How to do it:
- Email Templates: If you find yourself writing the same type of email over and over (e.g., project status updates, responses to common inquiries), save it as a template or canned response.
- Email Rules/Filters: Set up rules in your inbox to automatically file, flag, or archive certain types of messages. For example, all non-urgent newsletters can be automatically moved to a "To Read" folder, keeping your primary inbox clean.
- Checklists: For multi-step processes you do regularly, create a digital or physical checklist. This removes the mental load of having to remember each step every time and ensures consistency.
7. Embrace "Sufficient" Over "Perfect" (for Low-Stakes Tasks)
Perfectionism is the best friend of "busy work." As a new grad eager to impress, you might spend hours over-analyzing an internal email, endlessly tweaking the design of a low-stakes presentation, or triple-checking a routine report. This is a form of procrastination disguised as diligence.
Strategic-subtraction involves recognizing that not all tasks are created equal. Some require your absolute best A+ effort, but many only require a solid B+ to be effective. The skill is learning to tell the difference. By subtracting the unnecessary polish from low-stakes tasks, you conserve your perfectionistic energy for the projects where it will actually make a difference.
How to do it:
- Categorize your tasks. Before starting, quickly ask: "Who is this for, and what is the goal?" An internal draft for your manager's feedback has a different standard of "done" than a final proposal for a major client.
- Use a time-box. For a low-stakes task, give yourself a strict time limit (e.g., "I will spend no more than 20 minutes on this update email"). When the time is up, send it. This forces you to be concise and prevents overthinking.
- Focus on the 80% solution. Ask yourself, "What is the core purpose of this task?" Fulfill that purpose cleanly and efficiently. The final 20% of polish often takes 80% of the time and adds marginal value. Is it worth it for this specific task? Usually not.
8. Apply the "One-In, One-Out" Rule for Commitments
Your capacity is finite. You cannot infinitely add new projects, responsibilities, and committees to your plate without something giving way. The "One-In, One-Out" rule is a powerful mental model for protecting your bandwidth and preventing overwhelm. The rule is simple: before you take on a new, significant commitment, you must consciously deprioritize, delegate, or eliminate an existing one of similar weight.
This might sound bold for a new grad, but it's a mark of maturity. It shows your manager that you're thinking strategically about your workload and are committed to delivering high-quality work, rather than just accepting a high quantity of it. It opens a conversation about priorities and ensures you’re always focused on the most valuable things.
How to do it:
- Visualize your workload. Think of your major responsibilities as slots on a shelf. If all the slots are full, you can't add a new item without taking an old one off.
- Frame the conversation. When a new project comes up, you can say: "I'm really excited about the opportunity to take on this new initiative. To make sure I can give it the attention it deserves, could we discuss my current projects? I want to ensure my focus is on the highest-priority items for the team. Perhaps we could pause work on Project Y while I ramp up on this?"
- Do it for yourself. Even if you don't have a formal conversation with your manager, apply this rule to your own discretionary efforts. If you decide to join the office social committee (a new "in"), decide to step back from an optional lunch-and-learn series (an "out") to keep your time balanced.
Your Career Is Defined by What You Don't Do
Transitioning from academia to the professional world is a massive shift. The old rules of "more is better"—more study hours, more extracurriculars, more pages written—don't always apply. In your career, your value is measured by your impact, not your effort.
Adopting a "Strategic-Subtraction" mindset is your key to unlocking that impact. It's about being the person who declutters their own workday to focus on what truly matters. It's about trading the fleeting satisfaction of a cleared inbox for the lasting achievement of a well-executed project. This isn't a one-time fix; it's a set of habits you'll refine throughout your entire career.
Start small. Pick just one of these eight habits to focus on this week. Maybe it's creating your first "Not-To-Do" list or turning off your email notifications for two hours. The goal is to prove to yourself that by doing less, you can achieve more.
What is one "busy work" habit you are committed to subtracting from your work week? Share your pledge in the comments below—we'd love to hear from you!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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