Working Harder isn’t the Answer

We do it because it's the most visible form of productivity.

It is a way to prove to others that you are doing stuff and checking things off the list.

Hard work is necessary in order to be productive, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

At some point, you start to be negatively productive.

It means scheduling your time according to your natural rhythms:

• Do your most important work at the beginning of the day if you are a morning person.
• Don't feel bad about sleeping in because you stayed up late at night to work if you are a night owl.

Acquire new skills that will help you get more things done in less time.

• Consume information and learn about other people from your field, about their mistakes and methods.
• Apply what you learn.

• Find an Accountability Buddy
• Create a morning ritual for the first hour of your morning
• Use the Pomodoro Technique to break your work into chunks
• Make a “Not-To-Do List” with the things that waste your time
• Use freelancing platform to outsource tasks 
• Batching similar tasks into one chunk.
• Practice systems like David Allen’s Getting Things Done for task management.

One reason we work too hard is that we are using that hard work to make up for a lack of courage.

Example: Instead of firing the team member who is dragging down the project, we work harder to make up for them. Firing them takes courage.

• Courage is in choosing to work less because we are confident in our own productivity time, even if that means having a 5-hour workday.
• It is having a difficult conversation with someone at work.