In the field of human-computer interaction (yes, people actually study it; and no, it doesn’t involve talking robots) there’s a fair amount of talk about something called “excise.” Literally speaking, excise is a type of tax, apparently inspired by Holland. In the realm of computer interaction design, excise is basically the extra work you have to do, not related to the actual task at hand, because of design limitations. For instance, when it takes five minutes of tooth-grinding and hair-pulling frustration to figure out where in that mess of folders you saved an important file you need to print, that’s excise. When you want to attach ten photos to your email and you can only attach one photo at a time, that’s also excise.

Interaction designers try to get rid of as much excise as possible.

In the rest of life, I think we often CREATE excise for ourselves without realizing it. Unfilled time can be frightening, and we sometimes like to fill it up by complicating simple tasks and thwarting ourselves. We do unnecessary tasks we have no desire to do simply because they’re expected or habitual, shortchanging our true priorities in the process.

I wonder how many design principles could be applied to streamlining life.