Power of Doing Less at Work

In a world driven by the pursuit of 100% productivity, we often overlook the hidden dangers of this relentless push for efficiency. However, by taking a closer look, we discover that it can become a trap, causing exhaustion and hindering progress.

Welcome to this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, where I delve into the philosophy of doing less, better with Master Certified Coach Amelia Noel. Join us as we explore the transformative power of narrowing our focus and honing in on the essential tasks that truly propel our businesses forward.

Through this discussion and practical examples, we uncover:

🌟 The myth of multitaksing.

🌟 Why "Doing Less, But Doing Well" is better?

🌟 How to prioritize our work projects?

🌟 How to set healthy boundaries?

🌟 How to embrace a a new philosophy of  doing less?

Amelia is a master certified coach, podcast host, Columbia MBA and former Wall Street investment banker and Fortune 500 strategy consultant who helps overworked and overwhelmed corporate professionals break free from the stress of the corporate grind and create sustainable success in their careers.  Through her 1:1 Breaking Free from the Grind™ coaching program and podcast, corporate workshops, and speaking events, Ameila has helped 100s of clients working for companies in business, finance, and corporate law.

You can learn more about Amelia at:

IG: @breakingfreefromthegrind https://www.instagram.com/breakingfreefromthegrind/ 

LinkedIn: Amelia Noel https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelianoel/

Website: www.amelianoelcoaching.com

🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at: https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟

My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!

🌟 🌟 🌟 You can learn more about ME- the host at https://www.aeshatahir.com

Follow me on IG and LI to learn more

https://www.instagram.com/tone_and_strengthen/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aeshatahir/

Transcript

Welcome to the nine to five wellness podcast,  a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host Aesha Tahir. 

 Hello, and welcome to this episode of nine to five wellness show in today's show, we are going to talk about power of doing less at work. And this topic is kind of like very important. To me personally, because in today's fast paced business world, we are always multitasking. I work with my clients and they tell me how they have like 10 things that they're working on at one time.

And I and I tend to do the same. And honestly, multitasking is often like praised. In reality, by focusing on a smaller number of tasks and executing them exceptionally well is where you can achieve greater levels of success.

And for,  taking a deep dive into this topic, I have. My wonderful friend, Amelia Noel, with me over here. Amelia is a master certified coach, podcast host, Columbia MBA, and former Wall Street investment banker and Fortune 500 strategy consultant, who helps all of us. Overworked and overwhelmed corporate professionals break free from the stress of the corporate grind and create sustainable success in their careers.

Through her one on one breaking free from the grind coaching program and podcast, corporate workshops, and speaking events, Amelia has helped hundreds of clients working for companies in business, finance, and marketing. And corporate law. So I'm super excited to talk to Amelia about this. 

Welcome, Amelia.

Thank you, AEsha. It's so good to be back and see you again.  

It's 

so 

good to have you here. You know, I have been really struggling with this myself, and I see my clients struggling with this all the time too.  And I want to start with this multitasking that we are doing a lot of, especially, I, I don't know, I feel like since I work from home,  I tend to get more distracted, like, , I'm going to finish an email, and then,  I have a spreadsheet that I'm working on, and I haven't even finished the email yet, and I just switch.

 Everyone thinks that it seems to be an effective way to get more done in less time, but that's not the case. So, let's debunk the myth of multitasking.  

Let's do it. So, it's so interesting, right, because from a really young age, growing up in school, then going on to college, and And business school and whatnot, I feel like this idea of multitasking we've been told is highly prized and highly coveted.

And so, so many of us, myself included for over a decade when I was working in corporate thought that, Oh, my ability to jump from task to task to task to task to task is something that's going to benefit my employer and benefit my team, or even personally benefit my family, benefit my friends, those around The reality is, is that a focused brain.

Will create more focused results, a brain that's present, a brain that's engaged, a brain, a brain that's focused, produces the most effective, focused, potent products, whether it's personal results or professional results, whereas a scattered brain, a brain that is fixated on multitasking, jumping from task to task, to test, to test, to task actually produces more scattered results.

Okay. What's also interesting when it comes to multitasking is that studies have shown there is actually, they call it a mental switching tax. When we are changing constantly the types of activities that we're trying to do back to back to back. So for example, if we are trying to multitask and we're jumping from doing more creative, Tasks at the beginning of our day to suddenly jumping to something that feels very administrative to then jumping to something else that feels very high, high level, big picture thinking  there is an actual ramp up and ramp down that our brain needs to go through.

And so when we're constantly. ramping up or ramping down to change the type of task our brain is doing. It takes us more time and more energy and more stamina and more brain power to make those switches. So when we are multitasking, when we're switching between all those different types of tasks, we're actually slowing ourselves down and we're not showing up as well as we could be.

For that next task that we need to do.  

 I have read a research study on this very recently, and that was kind of like the food for thought for this conversation to that our brains aren't designed to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, like physiologically, and I'm going to talk about physiology, of course.

Yeah. Physiologically, when we switch rapidly between the tasks, it leads to more mistakes. And decrease productivity and burnout. So it's like we think our brain is capable of doing it. But you're actually just like you said, you're actually switching from one task to the next. So your brain is continuously Think of it like as an on off switch.

So, you know, you're just turning it on and off continuously.  If you did that to a light bulb, how distracting that would be, right? 

Yeah.  And how much quickly the light bulb would burn out.  

Exactly.  That's what you're doing to your brain though.

I can't tell you how many times I have felt frustrated, because I would invite someone to like a professional event, and then, you know, Forget to follow up or, you know, I messaged someone to propose an idea for like, you know, a collaboration or a business.

And then I'm so busy to follow through it  and I can see how, like, if I did less.  and focused on just one task,  I would  have better relationships, better collaborations and not just for myself and my business, but like, just for organizations and institutions at large, like if we started implementing it.

So why doing less, but doing it well? It's better for you, for the organization, for our well being, and for the rest of the world. 

Yes. Yes. And that idea that you're saying doing less, but better is such a powerful mindset and motto to embrace in your professional life as well as in your personal life. So, you know, You mentioned earlier, my specialty and area of expertise is helping high performing corporate professionals who are working very stressful jobs and are feeling overworked and are feeling overwhelmed actually create more sustainable success for themselves.

By doing less, but better. So, so often if we're high achieving or if we're high performing, we have the thought, we have the belief that more is more. If I do more, I'll help more people out. I'll create more value. I'll do better on my performance reviews. And oftentimes what we do when we have beliefs like that is that we are the source.

We are the driving force of our overworking and we can tend to over deliver in a way that's not helpful to our clients or our teams, or if it's a personal situation, our family or our friends, we tend to overcomplicate  deliverables or  overcomplicate how we're approaching something. And what, what we so often do is we.

Get asked to do something or something comes up that we might be interested in, like you said, a potential business connection or a partnership, and we just dive right in without first stopping to think is a, is this something I want? Is this a top priority for me? And if it is, secondly, what is the most important thing I want to accomplish by doing this task?

So what is the most single most important thing I want to accomplish by reaching out and fostering this relationship by saying yes to this request, by starting to pursue a new endeavor when we can actually stop and ask ourselves, do I want to do this? Why is it important to me? And what's the most important thing I want to create here?

We will create and do less work, but it will actually be better. It'll be more meaningful. It'll be more impactful  and that's a huge mindset shift to make especially if you're naturally a high Performer and a high achiever whether that's in your professional life or your personal life.  

 Yeah just to Simplify the tasks, right, simplify  and then create some space for yourself  to understand, is this the right thing to do?

And just like you said, what are you trying to accomplish through this?  So I want to talk about what you're trying to accomplish through this. Through this project or just in general  when we are working on different projects or when we are working in our own businesses like in our own organization like you and I do I want to talk about how it's connected to our purpose  and how doing less can help us actually.

Connect better  to our why, why we are doing this, do you have any tips for that?  

Yeah. So in terms of connecting to your purpose, a lot of times I work with clients who, you know, they're feeling overworked, they're feeling overwhelmed and they're very unhappy in their current career and they're doing so much at work and working so many hours doing all of the things.

doing more that they aren't able to create time and space first to simply explore what is my purpose? What do I like doing? What do I want for my career? What do I want for my life? What are my unique gifts? How do I want to serve this world? And so when we're able to embrace first doing less to start asking ourselves every day, how can I simplify what's on my plate?

What is something I can delete from my plate or delegate to someone else on my plate? When we actually start asking ourselves those questions and embracing doing less, we're able to create real time and space in terms of hours to start exploring. What do I want to do with my life? How do I want to serve this world?

How do I want to show up in this world? So that's, that's the first way that doing less and embracing the art of doing less allows us to create time and space to meaningfully explore. What do I want my purpose to be?  

Having that space to explore what do I want my purpose to be?

Because without it, if you're not enjoying the process, I think it comes down to like, you're not in love with your work anymore. If you're doing so much that you're exhausted. And you're not enjoying it. You're gonna lose your sense of purpose, right?

 Simplifying your workflow, delegating the work to others setting boundaries, right? Around how much you can take on. Necessarily saying yes to everyone and everything,  which tends to be hard to do, right? Let's talk about that a little bit, setting down, it ties into, , doing less.

Exactly. Setting boundaries and saying no, whether you're actually using the word N O or some other form of, I can't, you know, take on this task right now. It is so hard because for so many of us, and this is something I struggled with for years when I worked in corporate, we, we want to be helpful. We want to be a good team player.

We want to be there for our family and friends. We in order to actually Start embracing saying no or not right now or later in the future or even asking, you know, who else could help you with this task or this need. We really have to start shifting how we see and how we think about setting boundaries themselves and saying no, saying no and setting boundaries.

It's not a bad thing. It doesn't mean you're letting people down. I offer to clients I work with that the more you can embrace setting boundaries and see setting boundaries, saying no as a helpful thing to those around you, because it makes you a more relaxed, rejuvenated. focused person. If we start seeing setting boundaries and saying it was a helpful thing as a positive thing, as a way to be there for ourselves and those around us, the more willing will we will be to actually start doing it.

And I always offer a start small. So  If you're not used to setting boundaries or saying no I always say start by, by doing something really simple and easy. So start every day looking for one boundary that you want to set, like decide that first thing in the day, or look for ways, one simple thing that you can say no to, or not now to Or who else can you ask to help you with this?

A super easy one for anyone that works in the corporate world is declining a calendar invite. So for those of us that work in corporate, you know, so often we get pulled into meetings that we know we don't really need to be a part of and so that's a really simple way to get in the habit of saying, quote, unquote, notice something is by declining meeting invite requests that You know, you really don't have to be a part of the meeting. 

Yeah, I know.  Like with all my corporate clients, there are so many meetings on the schedule, a lot of times they are unable to actually even block the schedule to do their work. 

Right. 

So  evaluating your priorities and then understanding where you need to be and where you can actually, you know, just maybe get a summary of the meeting at the end and not be there.

That's wonderful. So, okay. For our listeners who. Want to embrace doing less and embrace a new philosophy of work, which we are talking about, like one that values sustainability, well being, holistic growth. What are some tips beyond like setting boundaries where they can actually, that can help them create a work schedule where they're doing less, but they're, Awesomely productive.

Yes. Yes. Such a great question. So there are a few tools and concepts that I offer to my clients to help them do less, but better. So the first is I always offer, we want to embrace developing what I call a mission critical mindset. So instead of working or being from a mindset of, I have to do all of the things.

I have to over deliver. We want to embrace a mission critical mindset. And so what a mission critical mindset is, is a mindset that commits to only focusing on the one thing that's most mission critical for you that day and tabling or deleting or delegating everything else. A mission critical mindset, it's a highly effective, it's a highly focused, it's a highly present and productive mindset that feels good.

So when we're embracing a mission critical mindset, when we're consciously telling ourselves and identifying what is the single most important thing, the single most mission critical thing I want to focus on. This hour or this afternoon or this day, we become very calm, very flexible, very creative, and it feels very refreshing.

It's not stressful. And so in order to start training yourself to develop a mission critical mindset, I ask, or I offer that you ask yourself three questions at the start of your day. So before you turn on your computer, Before you check your phone for that day. And those three questions are what, why, and when, so the, what is asking yourself, what is the number one, most mission critical thing I want to focus on for a set period of time.

So again, whether it's that morning, that hour, this day, Actually identifying that for yourself and writing it down so you are constantly reminded of it. Put it on a stick, you know, on your monitor, you know, write it in your journal, however, you know, whatever you use that you'll see it. The second question I want you to ask yourself is why is that thing so mission critical when we're able to really consciously remind ourselves or tell ourselves why this thing is the most important for me.

This morning or this hour, it creates a sense of certainty for ourselves. We feel good about focusing our effort on that thing. And it also create commitment to, to that actual thing. So we feel committed to staying focused, even if someone else comes in and is asking us to do someone else. And then the third question I want to ask yourself is by when do you want to accomplish that thing?

So is it. By the end of this morning, is it by the end of the day? The end of the hour, I always tell clients that the task will take as long as you tell yourself it will take. Usually what we do is we don't take a moment and tell ourselves, we don't consciously decide when we want To complete this task, we just kind of jump in and do it.

And so when we do that, we're not as effective with our time and we burn ourselves out because either we tell ourselves, oh my gosh, this thing needs to be done right now, right away, I gotta go, heads down. Do it when the reality is there's no rush  or the opposite.  We aren't as effective with our time because we tell ourselves if we haven't decided on when we want to be done with something, Oh, I can procrastinate.

I can, you know, do some things over here, do some things over here. And then right before we actually need to get the thing done, it's like this mad dash at the finish line to do it. So. Neither is an effective use of our time. Neither is a sustainable way to approach what's on our plate. And so really developing a mission, critical mindset, getting clear on what's the most important thing you're going to focus on for a set period of time.

Why is it so important? And then by when do you want to complete the task helps us create sustainable success in our personal lives and our professional lives.  

I was actually talking to , a client this week, and this is exactly what has been happening for her  not setting a timeline is  Causing her to procrastinate  and I just said  those exact words that you said whatever time you give to yourself, you're going to actually finish the work in that  you have to decide, like, realistically, what kind of time it's going to take you to work on this project so that you don't procrastinate every month because she has the same kind of projects every month.

And, it's almost like,  in exercise and fitness industry, we call them smart goals,  it's almost that concept as you were,  talking about it.  Is it achievable? And then is it realistic? And then what is the time, so setting a timeline helps you to accomplish the task. And as you said, it could be either you're giving yourself way too much time or you're giving yourself way too little time, and then rushing and getting exhausted in the that way.  I recommend my clients to practice mindfulness in the day, before they set up the workstation  in the morning.

Now, my, one of my activities that I would suggest to them would be   write down your most important task of the day, and then set a timeline for that. Because that can also be one of the ways to practice mindfulness and that would set them up for success.  Thank you for sharing the three question process.

Of course. I do this every day for myself as well. And it has been incredible just over the years of doing this, how much it has helped me embrace. A more sustainable mindset in my personal life and in my business. And it's so fun to see it working for clients as well.  

 Any parting thoughts, anything you would like to add on to this topic? 

Yeah, I think that the last thing I will say is, especially for those of us that consider ourselves. overachievers or high performers doing less can feel and will feel scary at first because it's changing things up on yourself.

You're doing things differently. And so our brain senses change as being unsafe. So I want to normalize that, that as you start experimenting with doing less feelings of fear or doubt or even frustration will be normal. And the other thing I want to say too, is when you're think of doing less as an art form, it requires experimentation.

It requires trying new things. It acquires make, it requires making some mistakes along the way too. And so I would just offer that doing less. but better looks different for everyone. It's an experimentation. It's a process. And I just encourage you to be really kind with yourself as you're starting to implement embracing a more mission critical mindset and asking yourself, what's the number one thing I need to focus on today, or asking yourself, what can I delete?

What can I delegate? Have kindness, have compassion, stay curious throughout the process.  

I just love this. First of all, you know me so well. 

We're very much aligned.  

And then going hard on yourself if you can. 

It changes day to day, hour to hour. So it's a matter of just constantly being kind, reminding yourself we're experimenting.

There's no perfect. Way to do this. 

Yeah.  And there isn't. There isn't. And I think  changing the mindset is so important that  don't think of it as a failure because it's the process. It's part of the process. You have come to that part of the process where you now understand that this Certain way of work is not going to be productive for you, for you, yourself, because we are all unique individuals. 

No one system can work for each and every one of us. Exactly. So it's just a sign that, you know, you now understand what's not going to work for you.  

Exactly.  

Like you said, , try something different. Try something new. New keeping that curious mindset.  Like just being curious about  what else can you do?

Maybe you're more productive in the mornings. Maybe you're more productive in the afternoons. Maybe you're more productive in the evenings when, you know, you put your kids to bed. Like, it depends on your,  Life and people in your life, too, don't discount that. And yes, I'm thinking, Oh, no, I'm just gonna get all of this done in the morning.

And if I'm not doing that, I'm unsuccessful.  In my practice, too, I see a lot of people just going down on themselves  because they think that there is  one way of doing stuff.

  When that's the mindset we have, we just stop exploring. So I'm so glad you mentioned that. Okay. So Amelia, I'm sure  our listeners are  curious, where they can find you and where they can learn more about you. 

Yeah, definitely. So in terms of, about myself and the, my practice and programs and coaching I offer my website is probably the best place to reach Best place for all of that.

So that's www. amelianoelcoaching. com. And I'm happy to share that with you. I should to to drop in the show notes or whatnot. If you love this type of. Of work. And if you're a corporate professional who feels overworked and overwhelmed, you're wanting to create more sustainable success in your career.

Another great way to follow me and to get tips and information and, and, Tools on creating more sustainable success in your career is to listen to my weekly podcast. It's called breaking free from the grind. New episodes drop every Friday at nine Eastern. Actually the episode dropping tomorrow, April 12th will be on the power of doing less.

So it's a great compliment to, to this chat here. And then also you can follow me on LinkedIn, Amelia Noel, or on Instagram. At breaking free from the grind. So great ways to connect, find out more about my programs and coaching as well as get some free tips and tools on how to create more sustainable success in your career. 

Great. Thank you. I'm going to all the all of your sorry, links in the show notes and and the listeners will be able to find you. And. Make sure that you listen to Amelia's podcast episode this, that drops this week, this episode, the week that this drops, which is like Sunday of this week. What are we in today?

Let me just check the date. It is April 11th. So that would drop like the Sunday of this week. So yeah, it would be the same week. So you will get a lot of like, Good tits about power.  And thank you, Amelia. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank 

you so much, Aisha. It's so great. Always chatting with you and it's so good to see you again, too. 

Same here. 

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