The Friction Audit: Find the Sticking Points That Are Slowing You Down or Keeping You Stuck
Feeling Stuck? The Breakthrough Paradox
When you’re stuck—whether in your career, your fitness, or just getting through the damn day—freedom is what you crave. You want momentum, ease, a way forward. But here’s the paradox: the antidote to feeling stuck isn’t more freedom. It’s purposeful constraint. What you need isn’t an open road, but a map, a strategy, and a little pressure in just the right places. Enter the Friction Audit—a method by NYU’s Adam Alter for identifying and eliminating the micro-barriers that keep you from making progress.
Because let’s be real: high achievers like you don’t stall out due to lack of ambition. You stall because something—sometimes obvious, sometimes sneaky—is adding drag. It’s time to find those sticking points and sand them down.
The Friction Audit: How To Find the Sticking Points
Step 1: Identify the Friction
Where’s the Drag?
Before you go full force trying to “fix” things, slow down. Diagnose first. Not all friction is bad—some constraints force better decision-making and focus. But unnecessary friction? That’s the killer of progress.
Ask yourself:
What tasks feel disproportionately hard?
Where do I keep hitting the same roadblock?
What’s the first thing I procrastinate on?
Where do I feel the most resistance—mentally, physically, emotionally?
This isn’t just about external obstacles (lack of time, money, resources). Often, the biggest culprits are internal: self-doubt, perfectionism, decision fatigue, or just plain burnout.
Example: You’ve been trying to get back into a fitness routine, but every time you think about it, you spiral. You don’t have time. The gym is inconvenient. You’re exhausted. The friction here isn’t just logistics—it’s your mental bandwidth and decision overload.
Solution: Find the smallest possible action that reduces friction. Maybe it’s setting out your workout clothes the night before. Maybe it’s a 10-minute walk instead of a full-blown gym session.
Step 2: The Intervention—Eliminate, Automate, or Adapt
Three Ways to Reduce Friction
Once you’ve found the sticking points, it’s time to troubleshoot. You’ve got three choices:
Extract – Can you remove the friction point entirely?
Streamline – Can you simplify or automate the process?
Adapt – If you can’t eliminate the friction, how can you work around it?
Example: Work Performance Slump
You feel sluggish in the afternoons and can’t focus. You power through with caffeine and sheer willpower, but it’s not sustainable. Your friction point? Energy management.
Extract: Cut out back-to-back meetings that drain you.
Streamline: Automate meal prep so you’re not crashing from poor nutrition.
Adapt: Schedule deep work in the morning when your brain is fresh.
If you’re burned out, no amount of “pushing through” will fix it. The solution isn’t in forcing more effort, but in removing the barriers making everything harder than it needs to be.
Step 3: Confirmation—Did You Actually Fix the Problem?
Test, Measure, and Adjust
This is where most people fail: they tweak one thing and assume they’re done. But friction points are sneaky. They evolve. So your fixes need to be tested.
Ask yourself:
Did this change actually make things easier?
Am I moving faster, smoother, with less resistance?
If not, what new friction points emerged?
Dr. Stuart Aldon, an expert on high-performance habits, calls this the Friction Loop—a process of continuous refinement. The key? Keep testing. If one intervention doesn’t work, adjust and try again.
Example: You committed to an evening wind-down routine to improve sleep. But after a week, you’re still waking up groggy. Time for a deeper look: is blue light from screens the problem? Is your caffeine cutoff too late? Adjust, test, repeat.
Final Thoughts
High achievers often assume their struggles come from not working hard enough. But the real issue? Wasted effort on unnecessary friction. The Friction Audit isn’t about doing more—it’s about removing the things that slow you down so you can do what actually matters.
So, what’s dragging you down right now? Identify it. Intervene. Test. And then? Watch how much faster you move.
Your next breakthrough isn’t about more hustle. It’s about less drag.
Ready to audit your friction points? Let’s get to work.
Article References
The sources cited in the article:
The NYTImes (NYT). “Feeling Stuck? 5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Life.” NYT - Feeling Stuck? 5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Life
NYU Books. "Anatomy of a Breakthrough - Adam Alter." NYU Books - Anatomy of a Breakthrough
Adam Alter Website. “Adam Alter Author Website.” Adam Alter Website
Oprah Daily. "5 Hacks to Get Unstuck, According to New Research." Oprah Daily - 5 Hacks to Get Unstuck
