How doing fewer things helps you do more
You know that time when you had to do 5 things at once and then some?
It’s no fun, why? Because you’re overwhelmed with no end in sight, even though you desperately need rest!
Not only that, but work itself demands more — a boss may say that if you aren’t doing several things at once then you must not be doing your job.
This term, pseudo-productivity, is what’s burning you out. But there are ways to do less that will still help you achieve more.
Automations
Simple to use, hard to set up. Yet having these can make a huge difference.
Cal Newport describes a fellow arthur, Jenny Blake, in his book Slow Productivity, saying:
Jenny sent me a spreadsheet of every software subscription she maintains for her business… includes over fifty paid services… adding up to roughly $2,400 a month in subscription fees.
That’s an incredible amount?! While many of us may not see the need to expend this much of our paycheck, Cal goes on:
There’s a good reason, however, for this expense: these professional software services eliminate or simplify administrative work. Jenny’s investing serious money… to seriously reduce the size of her task lisk.
Even if you’re thinking right now either, a) I don’t have that big of business to simplify or b) I like doing administrative work, trying out automations that suit your business using tools like Make, Zapier, and Notion can make a huge difference in how you manage both your time and energy.
Ask for help
Depending on who you ask, this can be the simplest or hardest thing to do. So I go with this guideline:
- Do I know this person well?
- Does this person want to do this work?
- Can they expend enough time to do this task for me?
The tasks you want to eliminate can be handled by someone else in a breeze, only if they’re willing to either be an employee or a teammate in helping you out!
The goal
If you want to feel less overwhelmed in an area of your life, using automations and asking for help can knock a lot of excess work from your time.
Having room to breathe helps you not only do better work, but also to get done what matters.
After all, life wasn’t meant to be rushed through.