How to Use the Mental Models of Pruning and Refactoring to Simplify Your Life

Feb 14, 2023

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. - Martin Fowler

The two mental models described below can improve your focus and lead to quantum gains in efficiency. Pruning and refactoring arise from the software development domain, but can be applied to personal or business productivity. Pruning involves removing unnecessary or unproductive elements to promote growth, efficiency, and focus, while refactoring involves improving existing systems or processes to make them more efficient and effective.

Prune : to reduce especially by eliminating superfluous matter. Eliminating what is not necessary.
Refactor: restructure so as to improve operation without altering functionality. To organize to make more efficient.

Pruning

Pruning is the process of removing unnecessary or unproductive elements in order to promote growth, efficiency, and focus. This can apply to various aspects of life, such as simplifying your schedule, eliminating bad habits, streamlining a project or process, or decluttering your physical or digital space. Pruning can help eliminate distractions and allow for better use of resources, ultimately leading to more effective decision-making and achievement of goals.

Mental Models Related to Pruning

Occam's Razor - a principle that suggests the simplest explanation or solution is often the best.
The Pareto Principle - also known as the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This can be applied to focus on the most important aspects of a task or project, while minimizing effort on less impactful elements.
First Principles - a process of breaking down complex problems into fundamental principles and building up from there. This involves questioning assumptions and eliminating non-essential elements to arrive at the most basic and essential components.

All of these mental models involve simplification and prioritization to improve efficiency and effectiveness, similar to the process of pruning.

Refactoring

Refactoring as a mental model involves the ongoing process of improving systems or processes by restructuring, simplifying, and optimizing existing components without changing their overall function. Refactoring is a key concept in software development, where code is often refined and simplified to make it more efficient, maintainable, and scalable. However, the concept can also be applied to other areas, such as business processes, personal habits, or organizational structures.

In refactoring, the focus is on making small, incremental improvements to a system or process, rather than making wholesale changes. This requires a continuous improvement mindset, where feedback is used to identify areas that can be improved, and changes are made in a systematic and deliberate way. The result is a more efficient and effective system or process that is better suited to the current context and can adapt to changing needs over time.

Mental Models Related to Refactoring

Marginal Gains - the idea of making small, incremental improvements in many areas that add up to significant overall progress. Similar to pruning, this approach focuses on continuous improvement and optimization of resources.
Incrementalism - a philosophy that emphasizes making small, gradual changes to a system or process rather than making wholesale changes. This can help minimize disruption and ensure that the system or process remains functional during the refactoring process.
Feedback Loop - a process of obtaining and using feedback to improve a system or process. Refactoring often involves seeking out feedback on existing systems or processes, identifying areas that can be improved, and making changes based on that feedback.

Examples of Refactoring and Pruning

Refactoring is the process of restructuring, reorganizing to improve behaviors or habits to increase efficiency. Similarly, pruning involves removing unnecessary or redundant elements to improve efficiency and focus.

Pruning removes, while refactoring simplifies and reorganizes code.

Refactoring

Simplifying processes.
Improving naming conventions and creating standards.
Organizing notes to make them clearer.
Modifying your learning process via a feedback loop.

Pruning

Removing unnecessary elements.
Prioritizing a backlog.
identifying and eliminating any commitments that are no longer serving your interests or goals.
Eliminating bad habits.

Conclusion

Pruning and refactoring are powerful mental models that can help you improve your life by removing unnecessary elements and optimizing existing components. Individually these mental models are powerful but when they are combined they can become a superpower. By adopting a continuous improvement mindset and applying these principles to various aspects of your life, you can achieve greater clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and ultimately reach your goals with greater ease and satisfaction.