Welcome to our fourth Midweek Motivate. The middle of the week can be tough for leaders. The goal of midweek motivate is to give you one practical idea that you can try for yourself or with your team right away. And this week we’re looking at doing less with less, but more of the right things.

It’s a common expression - we need to do more with less. But I think it’s time to challenge that. Instead of doing more with less, maybe we need to do less with less, but more of the right things. The focus then shifts from activity and productivity, to importance and impact.

Here are some things you can try this week:

1. Look at your purpose. What really matters for you and for your role? And then apply that importance lens over the work you do. If there’s work that’s not important, then challenge whether you need to keep doing it.
2. Be prepared to say ‘no’, or at least ‘let me think about it’. A key to doing less with less is to carefully consider any additional work being passed your way.
3. For every new initiative, kill off an old initiative. The same goes for meetings. That’s a great way of testing just how important the new initiative or meeting is in the context of what you’re already committed to.
4. Trial some new artificial constraints. How would we do this with fewer people? How would we do this in half the time? Innovation often requires constraints. Having all the time and resources in the world can actually reduce innovation.

So this week, focus on doing less with less, but more of the right things. Look at your purpose, be prepared to say no, be prepared to kill off old initiatives, and trial some artificial constraints. Let me know how you go, and you can get in contact via the Leadership Today website - just go to the connect page - or you can email me directly [email protected] Let me know how you go and have a great week.