The Path of Least Resistance: Are You the Stream Others Flow Through?

Water is relentless yet simple in its pursuit. It flows downstream, carving channels through the earth, always seeking the path of least resistance. It doesn’t fight the terrain—it adapts, finding the easiest route to its destination. There’s a quiet brilliance in that simplicity, but when we apply the same principle to the workplace, it reveals a subtle trap many of us fall into: becoming someone else’s path of least resistance.

Think about your workday. You’re deep in focus, tackling a project that demands your full attention, when a colleague pings you with a quick question. Then another stops by your desk for “just a sec.” Before you know it, your inbox is a steady drip of requests, each one small but collectively eroding your time and energy. Why does this happen? Because you’ve become the streambed—the easiest route for others to get what they need. You’re reliable, approachable, and willing to help. Noble traits, sure, but they come with a cost: your own priorities get deprioritized and set aside temporarily.

It’s not that people intend to derail you. They’re just following their own natural flow. If they can get an answer from you faster than digging through a manual, searching a database, or puzzling it out themselves, guess who they’ll turn to? You’ve become their shortcut, their path of least resistance. And while it feels good to be the go-to person, there’s a hidden inefficiency at play—not just for you, but for them too. By always stepping in, you’re unintentionally training others to lean on you instead of building their own resilience.

Now, let’s flip the lens. Where are you flowing too easily? We all have our own paths of least resistance—those habits or tendencies that pull us away from what matters most. Maybe it’s saying “yes” to every request because it’s easier than negotiating boundaries (future post diving deeper into this). Maybe it’s checking Slack every five minutes because it’s less taxing than wrestling with a complex problem. These are the subtle currents that carry us off course, often without us noticing until the day’s end when we wonder, “Where did my time go?”

Recognizing the Flow—and Redirecting It

The first step to reclaiming your focus is awareness. Notice when you’ve become someone else’s stream. Are there patterns in the interruptions? Specific people or types of questions that keep resurfacing? Like water pooling in the same worn groove, these moments reveal where your accessibility has made you the default route. Then, ask yourself: What would happen if I weren’t so easy to reach? Would they figure it out? Most likely, yes—and they might even grow stronger for it.

Next, look at your own flow. What’s pulling you toward the path of least resistance? Is it the lure of quick wins over deep work? The comfort of being needed? Identifying these tendencies isn’t about self-criticism; it’s about understanding your own terrain so you can redirect the current.

Building Dams and Channels

Here’s where the real work begins: intentionally shaping your workday so you can be both effective for yourself and valuable to others. A few strategies I’ve seen work wonders:

1. Set Guardrails for Your Time: Block off focus hours on your calendar—and treat them as sacred. Communicate this to your team: “I’m heads-down from 9-11 a.m., and 1:30-4:30 p.m. but I’m available outside of that.” It’s not about being unavailable; it’s about being deliberate and intentional.
2. Redirect the Flow: When someone comes to you with a question you know they could solve, gently push back. “Have you checked the shared drive yet?” or “What do you think the next step might be?” It’s not deflection—it’s empowerment. Over time, they’ll carve their own paths.
3. Raise the Terrain: Make it just a little harder to interrupt you. Close your door (if you have one), put on headphones, or set your status to “busy”, turn off notifications on your phone, outlook, and slack and then build dedicated times of the day into your schedule where you check all of these. Small barriers signal that your time isn’t always an open stream.
4. Channel Your Own Energy: Pick one or two high-impact tasks each day that deserve your best focus. Start there, before the day’s currents sweep you away. It’s like building a dam to hold back the flood until you’re ready to let it through.

The Bigger Picture

Water doesn’t stop flowing—it adapts. The goal isn’t to block every request or become an island. It’s about balance: being a resource without becoming a riverbed worn thin by others’ needs. When you protect your focus, you’re not just preserving your own productivity—you’re modeling what it looks like to work with intention. And that’s a ripple effect worth starting.

So, next time you feel the pull of someone else’s flow—or your own—pause. Ask: Am I choosing this path, or is it choosing me? Then adjust the current. Because while water may always seek the easiest route, we don’t have to. We can build the channels that lead where we want to go.

What’s one way you’ve redirected the flow in your workday? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.