Submit your Question: Spotify – click the button below. All other platforms – send me a DM on Instagram or email: [email protected]
You’re drowning in obligations, tasks and responsibilities that multiply faster than you can clear them. More meetings, more projects, more commitments and somehow, you’re still not getting ahead. I’m sure we’ve all been there.
I recently sat down with Donna McGeorge to discuss her latest book, Red Brick Thinking and what she shared completely shifted how I think about problem-solving. Because here’s the thing: we’ve been taught to solve problems by adding more. More effort, more resources, more systems. But what if the answer is actually subtraction?
Donna McGeorge is a keynote speaker and bestselling author who’s obsessed with helping people reclaim time and space for what really matters. She’s written 15 books (five of them bestsellers) and her ideas have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Fast Company. Known for cutting through corporate waffle and challenging the default ways we work, Donna brings sharp truths and practical frameworks that stick.
Her latest book, Red Brick Thinking, tackles our addiction to adding more when the real solution is strategic subtraction, clearing the clutter mentally, physically and on the calendar so life doesn’t get swallowed by work.
The Red Brick Problem
Donna runs a problem-solving exercise using a Lego bridge with one leg longer than the other, balanced by a red brick at the base. When asked how to fix it, almost everyone adds more bricks to even it out. But the elegant solution? Remove the red brick. Simplify instead of complicate.
That’s the metaphor for everything we’re doing wrong in business and life. We’re piling on solutions when we should be removing obstacles.
Addition Bias Is Killing Your Productivity
Donna’s research uncovered something called “addition bias”, the human tendency to solve problems by adding more rather than taking away. We add more meetings to improve communication. More processes to increase efficiency. More tools to boost productivity. And we wonder why we’re more overwhelmed than ever.
Creating space doesn’t mean doing more. It means letting go.
The Three Types of Red Bricks
Donna identifies three categories of red bricks weighing us down:
Emotional bricks: Grudges, obligations, guilt – the mental clutter that drains your energy without delivering value.
Structural bricks: Outdated policies, unnecessary procedures, roles that no longer serve their purpose but persist because “that’s how we’ve always done it.”
Cultural bricks: Norms and traditions we follow out of habit, not necessity. The unquestioned practices that everyone accepts but nobody actually benefits from.
Identifying and eliminating these burdens creates room for what actually matters: meaningful work, genuine relationships, strategic growth.
Strategic Subtraction Over Constant Addition
This isn’t just about cutting unnecessary meetings or ditching outdated roles. It’s about fundamentally shifting how you approach problems. Instead of automatically asking “What can we add?” start asking “What can we remove?”
That question changes everything. It forces clarity. It demands prioritisation. It reveals what’s actually essential versus what’s just comfortable or familiar.
Red Bricking Your Life
I’ve already seen this concept ripple through my circles. Colleagues are “Red Bricking” their weekends, removing commitments that don’t serve them. Clients are questioning long-held practices at work that consume resources without delivering results. The language is catching on because the concept is both simple and transformative.
You don’t need another productivity hack. You need to remove the things preventing productivity in the first place.
Your Future Self Will Thank You
If you’re consumed by busyness, here’s your permission slip: stop adding and start subtracting. Identify the red bricks in your personal space and work environment. Remove the non-essentials. Create sustainable change by doing the work now that your future self will be grateful for.
The space you create won’t just reduce overwhelm, it’ll reveal opportunities you couldn’t see when you were buried under unnecessary obligations.
What’s Your Red Brick?
Take a moment. Breathe. Look at what’s weighing you down. What are you carrying out of obligation, not necessity? What processes exist because nobody’s questioned them? What commitments drain you without delivering value?
Now remove them. Cherish the feeling of letting go. Create a lighter, more spacious path towards your actual goals.
The magic and momentum you’re chasing? They’re hiding under the pile of red bricks you keep adding to.
Stop building. Start removing.
LINKS:
Connect with Donna:
Website: https://donnamcgeorge.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnamcgeorge/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmcgeorge/
Connect with Janine:
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube
Mentioned in this episode:
Apply to our Elevate Mastermind