Work Less, Achieve More

For all progress human civilisation has made over the past thousands of years, one thing we have still not cracked is work. We compulsively wish we had more time in a day, perhaps wishing sometimes we could finally win against God and extend the day beyond its firm 24-hour limit. Needless to say, no one has cracked that puzzle yet, not even ChatGPT. And as usual, the Universe continues to shake its head, laughing at us in return. 😂

But is more time truly the answer to our woes?

Probably not. For every extra minute, hour or day that you have, do you honestly use this time productively to get stuff done? Tell me honestly, you probably don’t.

To the contrary, you find every possible distraction or excuse to prevent yourself from achieving what you need to really achieve – You resort to cleaning up your inbox, to having your fifth coffee catch-up for the day, or to colour-coding your calendar invitations, or even deciding to take a ‘break’ from the laptop by rearranging the books on your shelf so they’re in alphabetical order. Heck, you even decide that you need another break since arranging your books in alphabetical order is simply not good enough, and so you decide to group your books ‘by theme’ instead.

And then you decide your bookshelf needs dusting, and then you decide you have too many books, and the-

Stop it.

Stop it right now; you’re driving me insane.

Really.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: The more time you have to complete something, the more bullsh^t you’ll find to fill the time with.

Or as Parkinson’s Law states:

"Work can be stretched like rubber to fill the time available for it."

The truth really stinks, doesn’t it? No pun intended 🤭

So here’s what you do…

Shorten your timeframes right now. Yep, do it! Shorter timeframes = Less time for rubbish. You’re forced to cut your work to the most essential things around.

Don’t listen to everyone else. There’s a reason why half the world is sooooo unproductive, and that’s because everyone likes being lazy with their work. If they had more free time, they wouldn’t know how to fill it. Enter the paradox of free time…. for a latter letter.

Now, you might say to me: Worldly Philosopher, pseudonymous internet guru who has existential crises for breakfast (apparently), who the f^ck are you to talk? I have to do everything. I’m already productive. What if I really, really, just realllyyyy need that extra time?

Well, enter a second life lesson my friend.

You don’t ‘have’ to do ‘everything’ because not everything is ‘essential’.

Controversial, I know.

Don’t quote me on it; quote Marcus Aurelius:

“If you seek tranquillity, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Do less, better. Because most of what we do or say is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more tranquillity. But to eliminate the necessary actions, we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well.” — Marcus Aurelius, Book 4, Meditations.

So might I implore you to combe through your mind and challenge every belief and hidden assumption like you would with an in-law that won’t shut up, or that chatterbox in your meetings that somehow thinks they are as “innovative” as Elon Musk (‘cause that buzzword never gets old).

Look back through your life, my friend, and you’ll find a rich tapestry of experiences that really weren’t as essential as what you made them out to be. From the work assignments that weren’t the be-all or end-all of your job, to the first dates, to that coffee catch-up you missed with your boss because you slept in – Not all of it matters. The world moves on.

Besides, good work doesn’t come from getting ‘everything’ done; it comes from getting the ‘right’ things done. It’s why Steve Jobs was able to turn Apple around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy – He culled Apple’s product line to a handful of core items so Apple could sell less amazing items rather than a shit-tonne of overcomplicated, mediocre trash.

Trust me, my friend, when I say this:

WORK LESS, ACHIEVE MORE.

***
If I were to be brutal, I would say that work occupies more of our time, our mental stamina and mental bandwidth to the exclusion of everything else, whether it be family, relationships or hobbies. No sooner are we asked, “what do you do?” when people first strike a conversation with us. Work is more than just an activity we leave behind after 5pm; it is our passion, and more fundamentally, our identity.

Perhaps it is more apt to think of work as its own living ‘thing’; a living, breathing monster in and of itself. We become that monster.

How, then, do we tame the monster of work so it does not consume us? That is something we shall attempt to answer in the next five letters.

Drop me a comment below so we can navigate the world of work together!