Life moves at the speed of its slowest part
Stop optimizing. Instead...
Progress doesn’t come from optimizing everything—it comes from fixing the one thing that’s truly holding you back.
Most people, whether in business or life, spread their efforts evenly across tasks, believing that improvement everywhere will lead to success. But the Theory of Constraint reveals the flaw in that approach: no matter how efficient you make the non-bottleneck areas, the system as a whole cannot outperform its weakest link.
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is simple, yet profound: every system has a bottleneck—a single weakest link that limits overall performance. You can optimize everything else, but until you address that constraint, the entire system remains stuck.
In business, companies chase growth by improving multiple departments—marketing, sales, operations—without addressing the core constraint that limits output, like slow production or poor inventory management. In life, people chase productivity hacks, self-improvement routines, and new skills, all while ignoring the real blocker—be it time mismanagement, an inefficient process, or a limiting belief.
What people don’t normally do is ruthlessly prioritize. TOC forces you to stop spreading your effort thin and focus everything on the constraint until it’s resolved. Only then does real progress happen—often faster and with less effort than expected.
The Anatomy of a Constraint
Goldratt, the father of TOC, categorized constraints into two types:
Physical constraints: Capacity, resources, or infrastructure.
Policy constraints: Rules, habits, or mental models that limit throughput.
But life is messier than business operations. Our constraints aren’t as obvious as an overloaded assembly line or a slow production machine. They hide in plain sight, often misdiagnosed as laziness, lack of discipline, or bad luck.
To make TOC useful, we can categorize personal constraints into three categories:
Resource Constraints: Not enough time, money, or energy.
Process Constraints: Inefficient habits, systems, or workflows.
Mindset Constraints: Beliefs, fears, or assumptions that hold you back.
Think of them as layers. Resource constraints are surface-level—obvious and easy to blame. Process constraints run deeper, often disguised as “busyness” or overwhelm. But mindset constraints? Those are the root cause, shaping how you approach everything else. Ignore them, and no amount of skill or effort moves the needle.
Here’s how each plays out in life:
Resource Constraint: You want to get fit but feel you lack time. The constraint isn’t motivation—it’s an overloaded schedule. You could keep buying workout apps (strength focus), but nothing changes until you reclaim your calendar.
Process Constraint: You’re trying to save money but keep overspending. Budgeting (strength) won’t help if you lack a clear process for tracking expenses.
Mindset Constraint: You avoid applying for a promotion because you assume you’re under-qualified. Skills (resource) aren’t the problem—your mindset is the bottleneck.
Most people attack symptoms, not root causes. They focus on strengths and ignore constraints — like upgrading a car’s engine while ignoring a flat tire.
Finding Your Personal Bottleneck
Identifying constraints starts with paying attention to friction—the areas where effort doesn’t equal progress. If you’re working hard but not moving forward, there’s a bottleneck somewhere.
Ask yourself:
What goal feels frustratingly slow or out of reach?
Where do I feel stuck, no matter how hard I push?
What keeps falling to the bottom of my to-do list?
Which area of my life feels the most draining right now?
The answers usually point straight to your primary constraint. Working around it won’t help.
The only way forward is through.
Take a stalled project. If you keep missing deadlines, is it really because you need better time management (resource)? Or is the process unclear? Or are you avoiding it because of perfectionism (mindset)?
Constraints can be internal or external, but the ones that hold us back the most are often the ones we overlook. It’s easy to blame external factors—time, money, circumstances—but more often than not, the real constraint lies in how we respond to those limitations. Whether it's an inefficient system, a lack of clarity, or an outdated belief, progress remains stalled until we address the root cause rather than just its symptoms.
The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Constraints
When constraints go unaddressed, they compound. What starts as a small friction point quietly grows into chronic stress, missed opportunities, and burnout.
Worse, ignoring constraints often leads to misguided effort. You double down on strengths, convinced that working harder will solve the problem. But without unblocking the bottleneck, more effort only drains energy faster.
It’s why highly capable people stay stuck. They’re skilled, motivated, and resourceful—but blind to the one constraint holding everything back.
Breaking the Bottleneck
TOC offers the Five Focusing Steps1 for overcoming bottlenecks. I’d like to distill them into three practical steps.
1. Elevate the Constraint
Focus all energy here. If lack of time is the issue, stop optimizing everything else and reclaim your calendar. If self-doubt is the blocker, invest in confidence-building—mentors, therapy, or small wins.
This step requires ruthless prioritization. It’s counterintuitive but powerful: when everything feels urgent, fix the bottleneck first, even if other tasks get delayed. Otherwise, the backlog keeps growing while you chip away at the wrong things.
2. Subordinate Everything Else
In business, this means aligning all processes around the bottleneck. In life, it’s about setting priorities that reflect your true constraint.
If poor sleep limits your energy, sleep becomes the priority—not squeezing in one more task. If unclear goals slow your career, clarity becomes the focus—not another certification course.
Subordination is uncomfortable because it forces trade-offs. But without it, you spread yourself thin, fixing nothing.
Until the bottleneck eases, nothing else deserves attention.
3. Repeat the Process
Constraints shift as you grow. Fix one, and another emerges. Life, like business, is never bottleneck-free—just bottleneck-aware.
Think of it like leveling up in a game. You clear one obstacle, only to face the next challenge. But with each bottleneck removed, you move faster, with less resistance.
Final Thoughts
Life moves at the speed of its slowest part. You can optimize everything else, but until you face the true constraint, progress stalls.
You might wonder: How does this differ from the advice to focus on your strengths?
Strengths determine how fast you could go, while constraints determine how fast you actually go.
TOC reminds us: don’t do more, unblock more. It’s not about abandoning your strengths—it’s about giving them room to work.
What’s your bottleneck? Find it, fix it, and watch everything else accelerate.
https://www.leanproduction.com/theory-of-constraints/
This is a genuinely helpful piece. I loathe the cult of optimization because it feels like the only thing it optimizes is chaos and a sense of defeat. This puts things into a more helpful context. Thanks a lot Jenni!
Couldn't help but notice on saturday I wrote about (almost) the same concept but from a different angle. In weak link problems you're as strong as the weakest part. Maybe that's why your post popped up in my feed...nice take!