The Personal Development Elimination Diet
Test whether a habit actually helps by removing it and watching what changes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 72%
Borrowed from the medical elimination diet, this method flips self-improvement from additive to subtractive. Instead of asking what to add next, you strip out a practice you assume is helping and observe whether anything actually declines. Because most people stack many habits at once, they can never attribute results to any single one; removal isolates the variable. The key discipline is patience: the drop-off from stopping something can lag by months, so a short test produces a false all-clear. If nothing meaningfully worsens over the window, the habit was costing management overhead without paying its way and can stay cut, freeing bandwidth for the 20% of practices that drive 80% of the result.
Origin
Discussed on Modern Wisdom's 2020 year-end wrap-up by Chris Williamson and the Propane Fitness team, framed as the personal-development equivalent of an inflammation elimination diet.
Core principles
- 01Self-improvement is additive by default; subtraction is the underused lever
- 02You rarely know which habit is actually producing a result when you stack many
- 03If you can get the same outcome with fewer inputs, fewer inputs win
- 04Removing a habit is a cleaner test than adding one
- 05Effects of stopping can lag by months, so run the test long enough
How to run it
- 1
Inventory the stack
Write down every recurring practice you run, from cold showers and breathwork to apps and standing projects.
Pro tip Include low-visibility items like wardrobe choices and phone apps, not just marquee habits.
- 2
Pick an unverified assumption
Choose one habit you believe is helping but have never actually tested by its absence.
Watch out Do not remove a keystone habit and something else at the same time, or you lose attribution.
- 3
Remove it for a defined window
Stop the practice entirely and hold a set observation period rather than an open-ended one.
- 4
Watch the target metric long enough
Track the outcome the habit was meant to protect, and extend the window because decline can surface months later.
Pro tip A three-month lag is common; a two-week test can wrongly clear a habit you actually needed.
Watch out Delayed reactions mean a quick 'no change' is not proof the habit was useless.
- 5
Keep it cut or reinstate
If nothing meaningful worsened, leave it removed and reclaim the bandwidth; if it did, reintroduce it as verified-essential.
Watch out Do not over-prune to the point that you stop doing everything; the goal is fewer, not none.
In the wild
Johnny had built an elaborate morning stack: cold showers, breathwork, reading, trampolining, skipping, walks and ROMWOD. Over 2020 he stripped almost all of it. Testing ROMWOD by removal, he found his injury rate stayed the same, evidence the practice was not earning its slot. His morning collapsed to a single longer meditation, and he reported the same overall results with far more bandwidth and a simpler structure to manage.
→ Same functional results with a drastically simpler routine and more mental bandwidth.
Common mistakes
Ending the test too early
Because decline from stopping a habit can lag by months, a short window gives a false all-clear and you cut something you actually needed.
Removing several habits at once
Pull one variable at a time; strip multiple practices together and you can no longer attribute any change to a specific one.
Pruning down to nothing
Subtraction is a corrective, not a religion; cut too far and you stop doing the genuinely load-bearing 20%.
Is it for you?
Best for
High-agency people whose routines have quietly bloated with stacked self-improvement practices.
Not ideal for
Someone currently doing nothing for themselves, where the answer is to add, not subtract.
From the transcript
“test something's worth by taking it away for a while and see if you notice anything or see what changes”
“try not doing something that you think is helping and see if you're right or not. If you're right, great.”
“The delayed reaction to stopping something and not noticing the decline or the improvement for three months.”
From the episode
Our Biggest Lessons From 2020 - #261