What is friction-maxxing and is it the productivity hack we all need?

Your to-do list is getting longer by the day, and though you have the best of intentions, it's proving difficult to get through.  The latest productivity hack may help you scale the work mountain and even help your children build resilience 

Mike Quayle: If we take the shortcuts, we don’t get the growth in expertise. Picture: iStock

In early January, an article appeared in the online publication The Cut, calling for 2026 to be the year of friction-maxxing. Its author, Kathryn Jezer-Morton, called for people to break away from the comforts and conveniences of modern life and intentionally choose small, safe inconveniences that build tolerance and ultimately joy.

“Tech companies are succeeding in making us think of life itself as inconvenient and something to be continuously escaping from,” she wrote. “Reading is boring; talking is awkward; moving is tiring… thinking is hard… Speaking at all — overrated. These are all frictions that we can now eliminate easily, and we do.”