I stopped trying. My work got better.

My teammates spent entire week on a task that took me 15 minutes to complete.

I remember that day so well - while they were already deep in work, and I was clueless waiting for my manager to explain the daunting task.

Sales forecast for two thousand products for the upcoming season.

They had lunch at their desk while working, and I was just getting more anxious that I was falling behind.

Before I tell you what happened next, let me ask you something.

Have you ever stayed over hours because everyone else did?

You were done with work for the day. Sent out all the messages in your backlog. You even cleaned your desk, but everyone around you was still typing madly on their laptops. It would feel deeply inappropriate to get up and leave, wouldn’t it?

The idea of hard effort equals worthy results is the backbone of our work environments.

Being always “green” on Slack works as a proxy of commitment.

The person who stays longest is the one who is noticed.

This week pay attention to how your teammates behave. What are the patterns which scream - I’m putting in the extra mile!

Maybe they don’t take a lunch break.

Maybe they always repeat “I don’t have time, I’m too busy” and wear that busyness as a badge of honour.

Once you’ve spotted those behaviors, look into the mirror and ask yourself honestly - how many of those patterns do you repeat?

We are immersed in the rush and busyness of work. Yet there are people who grind less and achieve more. It’s not that they are smarter than you, they just ask themselves better questions.

My manager leaned back relaxed in his chair, and with 5 clicks showed me how to run an excel formula to calculate growth on each product category. This sorted out 80% of the forecast task and took him 1 minute. The remaining 20% were the key revenue drivers which required more precise thinking. This second part took us 14 minutes.

And my teammates were still not even halfway done with their own product forecasts.

The anxiety that was building up on me for entire day while I was waiting for directions was dissolved in a split second and left me with my mouth wide open - this monstrous thing can be done differently?!

I could have blindly followed my teammates example and spent a week on manually calculating every single number. Instead, I learned how to ask different questions.

The three key questions that I always ask myself before I start working on a task:

1. What matters most?

2. How can this be done differently?

3. Where am I putting more effort than I should?

The questions worked right away. But the harder shift took years.

For a long time I dismissed wins like this. 15 minutes felt like cheating. It was the work that nearly broke me - that felt like the real, honest work.

We do not appreciate things that come easy to us. You know, that thing you didn’t even notice you’ve done.

This is where your biggest strength is.

Take a moment to review your last two weeks.

What was a struggle? What came naturally?

The latter is what charges your batteries, rather than draining your capacity.

Now, let’s make use of that.

What have you done differently about those two opposing tasks?

How can you apply the “easy” approach to one of the “drainers”?

The work that drains you is not necessarily the most difficult work - it’s often the work you are approaching with an effort-heavy mindset. Now you have tools to make the task at hand easy without diminishing its results.

Don’t forget the last step - give yourself credit for being smart about the “doing”, rather than being “hardworking”.

Imagine yourself on a Sunday evening. Instead of quickly checking Slack “just in case”, you’re excited about how easy you will make this week - find one task that came easily to you and apply your approach to the difficult ones.

Remember, your tasks don’t own your actions, you are the owner of the process. This is what happens when you stop judging yourself by the amount of effort.

There is a trap though. Once you free up your capacity you might be tempted to take on more tasks. That’s a downward fall towards burnout.

Next week we’ll chat about how to allow yourself to live that free time, instead of filling it up with work.

thank you for reaching until the end.

big hug,

zuz