Useful friction
Why some effort is worth preserving
“Like anything useful, social media becomes clutter whenever it is a distraction.”
— The Minimalists
Choosing what stays
AI is very good at removing effort.
With a few prompts, tasks that once took hours now disappear in seconds. Friction collapses. Time opens up. The promise is obvious: less work, more space.
Minimalism is often mistaken for the same thing: making things easier.
But minimalism isn’t about eliminating effort indiscriminately. It’s about choosing which effort is worth keeping.
Not all friction is a problem to be solved. Some friction is a boundary. Some effort is a thinking surface.
Many tasks we call mundane quietly serve a purpose. Washing dishes. Walking without a destination. Rearranging a desk. Rewriting a paragraph slowly instead of prompting for ten alternatives. These actions do not scale, and that is precisely why they matter. They slow the nervous system. They create room for thought without demand. Ideas surface without being summoned.
AI excels at removing instrumental friction, the kind that exists purely to get from A to B. Minimalism asks a different question: which forms of friction help us stay present, attentive, and grounded?
Delegating administrative work can restore energy and focus. Delegating every moment of slowness erodes something else. The quiet intervals where attention settles. The low-stakes moments where thinking wanders. The sense that not every action must justify itself with output.
As AI continues to compress time and collapse processes, the more important design decision may be what we choose not to automate. What we protect. What we allow to remain slow, manual, and imperfect.
Not because it is efficient, but because it helps us think.
00: Work without end
The premium edition of Minimalism Life returns on January 14 with an essay on the quiet disappearance of the off switch—and why rest now feels less like recovery and more like resistance.
Work no longer ends. It thins, stretches, and seeps. Into evenings. Into weekends. Into moments that once held nothing at all. The phone stays within reach. The inbox never quite closes. Being “off” has become provisional—a setting that can be overridden at any time.
This essay traces how rest shifted from a shared rhythm to a personal failure of discipline. How exhaustion became proof of commitment. And how the simple act of stopping—without justification, optimization, or productivity theater—now reads as defiance.
Not a guide to better boundaries. Not another system for balance. Just a closer look at what we lost when work stopped having an edge, and what it might mean to reclaim one.
Subscribe for $5/month or $50/year to read the full essay when it lands, and unlock the full archive of long-form reflections on simplicity, restraint, and intentional living.
01: Journal
Read entries from the archive of the Minimalism Life® community journal
Saying goodbye to our home: letting go to gain freedom
Words by Shannon Colton
Three reasons to seek other POVs: we all do what we do for a reason
Words by The Minimalists
My anxiety and minimalism: finding beauty and calm in clear spaces
Words by Hector Borba
Share your story
Do you have an interesting story you would like to share on minimalism.com? We want to read about it. You have the opportunity to write about your experience of how minimalism has impacted your life and get your words published in our community journal.
02: Minimal art
From our curated gallery
03: Shop
Discover our hand-picked minimalist products in the Minimalism Life® shop
04: Brands anchored by simplicity and sustainability
Minimalism can mean frugality and owning less, but it can also mean supporting ethical brands with sustainability at their core. Here are a few you might find interesting—just remember, clothes are not an investment.
Collars&Co: minimalist polo shirts
Steele & Borough: vegan, lightweight, and water repellant bags
Void Watches: simple Swedish timepieces
Meller: minimal shades
WAHTS: minimal monochromatic menswear
Mismo: bags and accessories from natural materials
Floyd: Unique and distinctive travel cases
Nordic Nest: Scandinavian design for real homes
Discover more minimal brands on minimalism.com
Some things were never meant to be optimized and have all their texture smoothed out.
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