As leaders and entrepreneurs, we feel the responsibility and pressure to make quick decisions and choice. To act quickly when new opportunities come along.
But tackling everything that comes your way distracts you and clouds your focus. New opportunities call for an adjustment of your strategy and associated new actions and tasks.
This leads to less time to work on the actions that matter - despite working more.
The challenge is not performing many small tasks, but the challenge is the cognitive effort (mental and physical energy) required to remember them, plan them and, of course, execute them.
So how can you work fewer hours but make the hours you work more profitable? How can you accomplish more in less time?
You better have it quiet
I often use this statement to keep myself sharp and focused on what really matters and who I am doing it for. It's not just about doing less, but also about reducing time and energy waste. Your time and energy are limited factors, so it is crucial to be intentional and frugal with them.
By spending your time and energy on things that matter and doing the right things at the right time for the right people (top clients), you not only increase the number of hours you give the most value and spend on the most profitable activities, you also improve the quality of those hours. This leads to a more efficient and effective use of your resources, which ultimately results in better results and greater job satisfaction.
Creating routines and systems
A powerful way to do this is through systems, creating routines. Many get itchy from the word routine, but we all go on it incredibly well. Routines reduce your mental overhead, because the routine becomes your daily/weekly rhythm and causes you to do things on autopilot. Unconsciously doing things your way every day (read your routine 😊).
For example, of my weekly rhythm and routines:
- Sports every morning before breakfast
- Do my most important work every morning, start at the same time
- Maintain blocks in my calendar, where I do set tasks, appointments and meetings on the same days/days each week. In doing so, I cluster the same tasks to maintain my focus and attention.
- Answer emails and messages before/after my lunch and end of day
- Maintain a fixed clock stop and do not work in the evenings (my time for myself and my family)
When activities become routines, you hardly need to think about them. Your brain adapts and resistance to routine disappears. In other words, you get more done in less time and with less stress.
The frameworks I often write and share about are also systems/routines. These are repetitive processes that reflect a set rhythm, your rhythm that allows you to deploy the right actions at the right time. Like your strategy, frameworks are not static. First, they are very personal because we all have our own rhythms and routines. Second, they change and grow with you as you yourself continue to develop and grow personally and professionally.
Work at a natural pace
In the race to grow fast, it is easy to treat ourselves like machines. To push relentlessly and ignore our need for rest and innovation. As I experienced myself in the rat race before starting my own business.
During my 20-year career in international corporate business, I always had a second job in the sports industry in addition to my full-time (plus) job, where I taught sports classes for 15 years as an instructor and trainer. Even when I became a mother, I maintained this rhythm. With my boundless energy and tight routines, I got everything ball worked. But the Corona lockdowns brought my own constructed rat race to a halt and made me realize what on earth I was doing.
I was a machine running in sixth gear, stuck in a position that was no longer mine, no longer challenged, under stimulated ánd over stimulated. My energy and happiness levels were below par, a bore-out in prelude to burn-out, and this had to stop. I wanted to return to my own natural pace, where I could do what I am good at, energize and make an impact. Not as a machine, but being able to perform and contribute with my drive and energy.
Doing what you do best, are energized by and make an impact with
Since childhood I have been a sports fanatic, so my natural pace is energetic and active. I like to draw the parallel between entrepreneurship and elite sports because I see and experience many similarities, such as:
- Train in short, intense sessions,
- Avoiding overload and overtraining to optimize performance,
- Health as a priority with nutritious food and plenty of good sleep,
- Collaborate with a team of experts to maximize performance.
To work at your natural pace, implement a system focused on your energy that allows you to perform at your best and achieve your goals.
- Keep two lists: a "spare" list for all tasks and an "active" list with the 3-5 most important tasks.
- Put new tasks on the "active" list only when you have completed the current ones and let the rest go until you have sufficient capacity in time and energy.
- Clean both frames once a week.
This system forces you to take on new tasks only after existing ones are completed, because working harder is not always a profitable strategy. By using your own strategic smart system, full of drive and energy, you achieve more at your own natural pace.
Know your rhythms and limits, and attract new tasks as your capacity increases. In this way, you will accomplish more with less resistance.
Focus on quality
In the startup world, the mantra is often "quantity over quality." Provide more iterations. One of my principles is "better done than perfect." My drawing below shows why. No need for me to explain further, right?
Rather imperfect actions, than perfect inactions
Reach more
While this principle is valuable, it's easy to forget that not all repetitions are equal. After all, you need more repetitions of good quality.
For example, how can you write quality content?
- Writing 100 articles in one hour with ChatGPT?
- Or spending 100 hours hand-writing one high-quality article?
Measure your productivity and the value you deliver by quality rather than quantity. If you are only 1% getting better at what you do, you are creating more value in less time. In short, you are achieving more in less time, with more energy and profitable growth.
Because the compound effect - the effect of stacking - contributes to that: achieving 1% more every day is unlimited long-term growth in your impact, revenue and freedom.
Achieve more in less time by working smarter strategically.
What are the 1% actions you will deploy to achieve more in less time AND maximize the compound effect for profitable growth?
One Life. Lead it. Live it.
Have a great week,
Gerdi
Strategic leadership and grow again on a personal, business and financial level.
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PS. Also want to become the visionary leader of your life and business? Schedule a free appointment with me. I will be happy to discuss what opportunities and growth possibilities I foresee for you.
Book tips:
Books that have helped me:
Leadership & Entrepreneurship
The Diary of a CEO - Steven Bartlett
Tribes - Seth Godin
Principles - Ray Dalio
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek
Leading From The Emerging Future - C Otto Scharmer
Transformational Presence - Alan Seale
The Big Leap - Gay Hendricks
PS2. I have a whole book list. If you are interested and would like to receive my favorite book list? Send me a message and I'll send you my favorites list. Sharing = multiplying.
Because you know what you have to do and what you want to leave in the world
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