Get more done by doing less, better
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Why doing less may sound counterintuitive, but it’s the key to achieving more – through clarity, focus, and following well established best practices.
If your team is missing deadlines or struggling to deliver, chances are you’re trying to do too much at once. It’s one of the most common challenges I see in organisations, and while it may feel productive, the result is typically the opposite – everything goes slowly.
It may seem paradoxical, but the secret to getting more done is doing less – and doing it better.
Doing less🔗
Think of a congested motorway, often caused by nothing more than too many vehicles trying to go too fast. Smart motorways solve this by reducing the speed limit, meaning everyone gets where they're going more quickly.
- Limit work in progress - Focus on fewer activities at any one time to avoid distractions and bottlenecks.
- Break work down and descope - What is the smallest possible thing you can do to move something forward? Be obsessed with this, which is hard as a founder who wants everything tomorrow :)
- “Stop starting, start finishing” - complete outstanding work before picking up new work or make a clear decision to stop them entirely.
Doing less, better
The "better" comes from good organisational hygiene - applying proven best practices, and clear communication. Together, these create the engine of delivery – the consistent ways of working that keep teams moving efficiently and effectively.
Good practices aren’t bureaucracy unless applied poorly. Done well, they eliminate confusion, speed up progress, increase the likelihood of success, both in the short and longer term.
- Ruthless prioritisation – Stack rank your priorities and tackle them in order. When you’ve reached the capacity of your team, stop. Never have more than five (you likely won’t get to the fifth anyway, if you’re being properly disciplined about it)
- Clear outcomes – Agree on what success looks like before you start. Vague goals create confusion and waste time on rework.
- Follow proven common best practices – Whether building apps or running marketing campaigns, stick to tried-and-tested well known industry best practices. They’re not hard to find, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel (ChatGPT can help you here).
- Effective communication – Ensure everyone knows the priorities (especially if they change) and understands the “why” behind what they’re doing.
Focus is the real secret🔗
As Michael Porter, a leading expert in strategy, said, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
By focusing on fewer things, doing them well, and being deliberate about what you do and don’t do, you’ll achieve far more than you expect. Success isn’t about doing everything – it’s about doing the right things, well.
