What if the secret to transforming your life had nothing to do with adding more discipline, creating more willpower, or forcing yourself to do things you hate?
What if, instead, the key was simply understanding how a dinner plate works?
Here’s what we mean: When you fill your plate with nutrient-dense foods - vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats - something magical happens. Not because these foods have special powers, but because of simple physics: There’s less room for everything else.
You don’t have to fight the cookies. You don’t need heroic willpower to avoid the processed snacks. You just...run out of room.
This is the crowding-out principle, and it can change how you think about building the life you want.
Why “Just Stop” Never Works
Most advice about behavior change focuses on elimination: Stop scrolling your phone. Stop eating junk food. Stop staying up late. Stop wasting time.
The problem with “just stop” advice is that it creates a vacuum.
When you remove something from your life without replacing it, that empty space gets filled by whatever’s most convenient - which is usually the exact thing you were trying to avoid in the first place.
Think about it: When you tell yourself, “I’m going to stop mindlessly scrolling Instagram,” what happens during those moments when you would normally scroll? If you haven’t intentionally filled that time with something better, your brain defaults back to the path of least resistance.
You’re fighting against human nature instead of working with it.
The Physics of Daily Life
Just like your dinner plate, your day has finite space. Twenty-four hours. Limited attention. Bounded energy.
The magic happens when you start approaching your days like a nutritionist approaches a meal plan: Instead of focusing on what to eliminate, focus on what to include. Fill your days with so many high-value activities that there’s simply less room for the low-value ones.
When you consistently fill your mornings with movement, your evenings with meaningful connection, and your work hours with focused deep work, something remarkable occurs: The time you used to spend on distractions naturally shrinks. Not because you’re fighting against them, but because you’ve crowded them out.
High-Nutrient Activities vs. Empty Calories
In nutrition, we talk about nutrient density - foods that pack maximum nutrition into each calorie. Your daily activities work the same way.
High-nutrient activities are those that serve multiple purposes and compound over time:
A morning workout doesn’t just improve your fitness; it enhances your mood, energy, and decision-making for the entire day
Calling a friend doesn’t just maintain that relationship; it provides stress relief, perspective, and emotional support
Reading for 30 minutes doesn’t just increase knowledge; it improves focus, reduces screen time, and provides mental stimulation
Empty-calorie activities take up time and mental energy without contributing to your long-term wellbeing:
Mindless scrolling feels productive but rarely adds value
Checking email constantly creates busyness without importance
Consuming news all day increases anxiety without increasing agency
The goal isn’t to eliminate all empty-calorie activities (just like you don’t need to eliminate all treats from your diet). It’s to crowd them out by filling your days with so much good stuff that there’s naturally less room for the not-so-good stuff.
The Crowding-Out Strategy in Action
Here’s how to apply this principle systematically:
1. Map Your Current Plate
Track your activities for three days without changing anything. Don’t judge, just observe. Where does your time actually go? How much of your day is filled with high-nutrient activities versus empty calories?
2. Identify Your High-Nutrient Activities
Using the five factors of health as your framework, list specific activities that serve multiple purposes and align with your values. These become your “vegetables” - the things you want to fill your plate with first.
3. Start with Addition, Not Subtraction
Instead of trying to quit bad habits, focus on consistently adding good ones. Schedule your high-nutrient activities first, during your best times of day. Be intentional about filling your plate with the good stuff.
4. Watch the Natural Crowding Effect
As you consistently prioritize high-value activities, pay attention to what naturally gets crowded out. You might find you’re automatically scrolling less, not because you’re fighting the urge, but because you’re genuinely busy with better things.
This isn’t about perfection or having zero downtime. It’s about intentionally curating your days so that your default activities align with your values.
Your Implementation Strategy
You can start this crowding-out approach today with whatever system works for you.
Use a simple notebook to list your daily high-nutrient activities. Create a basic spreadsheet to track your priorities. The key is visibility - seeing whether you’re actually filling your days with what matters most.
Many people in our community have built their own tracking systems around this principle. Some use habit apps, others prefer analog methods. The specific tool matters less than the commitment to consistently choose high-value activities over low-value ones.
For those seeking a streamlined approach based on this philosophy, the new ChaseTracker app simplifies identifying and tracking high-nutrient activities across all areas of life. It’s built for people who understand that the secret isn’t eliminating bad habits - it’s consistently choosing better ones until they naturally take over.
The ChaseTracker is available exclusively to Chase Club members because crowding out the noise with what matters isn’t a one-time decision - it’s a daily practice, and that practice is more sustainable when you’re doing it alongside others.
The Compound Effect of Better Choices
Here’s what happens when you consistently apply the crowding-out principle: Your life starts changing without it feeling like you’re constantly fighting against yourself. Instead of relying on willpower to avoid distractions, you’re simply too busy with meaningful activities to get distracted.
Your days become full in the best possible way - packed with activities that energize rather than drain you, that compound rather than subtract from your long-term goals, that move you toward health, happiness, and living with your heart on fire rather than away from them.
The secret isn’t more discipline. It’s better choices, made consistently, until they crowd out everything else.
Start filling your plate with what matters most. The rest will take care of itself.
