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Episode 88: Do Less Well
When we started my last company, we had a performance dynamics consultant tell us that we needed to “Do Less Well”. He said we were trying to take too much on and we were all going to fizzle out. That we were busy, but we could be more productive.
Nearly a decade later this has stuck with me.
In fact, I often think about how Elon Mush, Oprah, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, etc. get some much done and how do they prioritize what gets done and what doesn’t? After all, money can’t buy time. Sure you can pay someone to do things for you, but still, how do they accomplish so much with the same amount of time as everyone else.
I frequently give the advice to manage your priorities and not your schedule. I think that is something I excel at. Still, I am always striving to do less well. To have more free time, but increase effectiveness and productivity.
I believe the answer lies in this quote from finance expert Nathan Morris who said,
“It’s not always that we need to do more, but rather, that we need to focus on less.”
I have also heard it said that simplicity is identifying what is essential and eliminating everything else.
Other than managing priorities, I have found a few other hacks that I think help.
1) I am a list maker. I have lists for everything, but if it is important it goes straight to my calendar. Things that get scheduled get done. A the end of the week I review my list and cross the things off that were never really important. Things that don’t move the needle . . .
2) I don’t try to IMMEDIATELY respond to everything that gets thrown at me. This one can be hard because I take a great deal of pride in my responsiveness. However, squeezing in busy work between scheduled priorities is not often effective. I find that if you wait just a day (or a few hours in some cases) to respond to someone that they resolve the issue before you get back to them. It still amazes me how often this works, and you are still being responsive.
So this week I encourage you to schedule your priorities, cut out things that aren’t essential, and do less well.
Welcome to the Limitless Podcast with Nathan Jovanelly. Thanks for tuning in.
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By NateJovWhen we started my last company, we had a performance dynamics consultant tell us that we needed to “Do Less Well”. He said we were trying to take too much on and we were all going to fizzle out. That we were busy, but we could be more productive.
Nearly a decade later this has stuck with me.
In fact, I often think about how Elon Mush, Oprah, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, etc. get some much done and how do they prioritize what gets done and what doesn’t? After all, money can’t buy time. Sure you can pay someone to do things for you, but still, how do they accomplish so much with the same amount of time as everyone else.
I frequently give the advice to manage your priorities and not your schedule. I think that is something I excel at. Still, I am always striving to do less well. To have more free time, but increase effectiveness and productivity.
I believe the answer lies in this quote from finance expert Nathan Morris who said,
“It’s not always that we need to do more, but rather, that we need to focus on less.”
I have also heard it said that simplicity is identifying what is essential and eliminating everything else.
Other than managing priorities, I have found a few other hacks that I think help.
1) I am a list maker. I have lists for everything, but if it is important it goes straight to my calendar. Things that get scheduled get done. A the end of the week I review my list and cross the things off that were never really important. Things that don’t move the needle . . .
2) I don’t try to IMMEDIATELY respond to everything that gets thrown at me. This one can be hard because I take a great deal of pride in my responsiveness. However, squeezing in busy work between scheduled priorities is not often effective. I find that if you wait just a day (or a few hours in some cases) to respond to someone that they resolve the issue before you get back to them. It still amazes me how often this works, and you are still being responsive.
So this week I encourage you to schedule your priorities, cut out things that aren’t essential, and do less well.
Welcome to the Limitless Podcast with Nathan Jovanelly. Thanks for tuning in.