Sometimes it’s as simple as that.
We live in a culture that’s all about more. More hard work, more hours, more sales, more emails, more meetings. More. More. More. What if, just for a moment we gave “less” a try.
More hard work
The journey of overdoing “more” is paved by buzz words and zeitgeisty business trends. We hear things like “high performance culture” and we think we must do more to reach these heights. And sure, growth is needed, abundance is great, big fan of expansion.
However sometimes if we apply – dare I say it – more foresight, we may see that there is such a thing as too much “more”.
- We do more but think less.
- We stress more but achieve less.
- We‘re more busy but less productive.
If all we do is add more to our diaries, inboxes and cortisol levels, we may eventually end up doing more, but achieving less.
They call all of this more-ness, ‘busywork’
/ˈbɪzɪwəːk/
It’s defined as “work that keeps a person busy but has little value in itself.”
That thought terrifies me. It feels like I might be gaslighting myself into thinking I’m productive when I’m actually just busy.
However, think about it. The more I do, the less I strategise and plan and see the bigger picture. I add more targets, I add more team status meetings, I add more presentations.
And, my day clogs up, and I feel very productive. I do this almost mindlessly. It would take more thought to intentionally plan my day and clear my diary, but with the intention of achieving more.
Feels very Mark Twainish in its irony.
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” -Mark Twain
I don’t have time to think about working smarter, so I’m working harder.
Think about it. Let’s say you want to sell more in Q4 than Q3. Logically then, we need to do more customer visits, we need to sell more products, we need to work more. Which adds up. Makes sense.
So, we add on zeros and percentages and green and red arrows to our target spreadsheets, and we rationalise that more effort means more profit.
But…
The art of less
I know this heading sounds like something a lazy person would say to rebrand laziness. But what if we said we want to achieve more in Q4 by doing less.
Now, this requires more thought. This requires the art of strategic thinking. This requires rethinking. Questioning the way we do things.
Not just asking can we do more? But rather, can we do better?
It’s like the saying, “What got you here, won’t get you there” (thanks Marshall Goldsmith). If you think of work through a ‘journey to destination’ lens, it’s easy to think we must just put our heads down and walk more to get further. When actually, if you just look up, there was a shorter path all along.
Work smarter > Work harder
Words to work by. Live by. Think by.
To do less by thinking more, is all about a smarter way. It’s not the ‘easy way out’. But it is easier, thanks to technology.
We live in a digital age whereby technology can not only help us find a shorter path but also help us find the right path.
Technology can ease the burden of work a little, so we can think more. It can do the tasks, the admin and even provide the insights. Rather than spending our time, skillsand resources on collating information, we can spend it on applying that information and on learning and growing from it.
Now, that’s smart.
Access to less
As we have established, it’s initially easier to just “do more” to get more, while the idea or process of trying to get more by doing less can seem overwhelming. So, how does one do it? You give yourself time.
Take time to rethink and re-strategise your process. Time to consider if there is a way to implement technology, or any other options, that can simplify these processes. Make them more streamlined.
If the answer is ‘yes‘? Which it will be. Say yes to whatever helps you achieve more with less.
