Maybe We Should Do Less

Maybe We Should Do Less

John Paul Derrybery

A company, I once worked for, hired a fancy consultant and held a company-wide leadership meeting. In my opinion, it was not a healthy culture to work in, and those fancy consultants can help, but they are better at nudging a healthy culture into a better place than they are at turning around a deficient culture. It's an enormous ask for one person to make that type of change in a place in a day's worth of work. The whole gist of this guy's pitch was, if there is something at work that you hate doing, stop and see what happens.

I know what you're thinking; it's a ridiculous idea. Can you imagine just stopping the most annoying thing at work? It would be chaos. Yet, my boss at the time knew I would take it very seriously, and she found me after the fact and said I couldn't follow this advice. I asked, "Why does the company pay this guy so much, and then, minutes after he stops talking and tells someone not to follow his advice."  She replied, I know you would go through with it.

She was correct; I was walking out of that meeting and going to engage in never answering internal emails again. I would call or go talk to the person in person, but I was done with all the stupid emails we send during the work day. Years later, I find myself thinking about that interaction and leaning toward the goofy consultant was on to something. Not the complete email boycott; while we still send too many emails in life, I can't engage in not answering any internal emails. But I do engage in responding to as few as possible and prefer to call or go visit the office in person way more. It's better for relationships- I promise you it is.

The consultant was onto this idea; we all do too much. We all tend to think, "If I don't, the place will fall apart." That type of stress and pressure destroys our bodies, distorts our thinking, and ruins relationships. Yet many of us can't force ourselves to do less of the stuff we hate and do more that brings us joy. Somehow, we have forgotten- joy is a much better place to be than misery.

As I have let go of tasks that cause misery, even if I have to complete them still; and focused on the joy that comes from most of my job; I have noticed a change in me, but more importantly, the people around me. I'm more the type of leader, father, husband, friend, etc., that I want to be; and I have noticed that those around me are also engaging in joy, a lot more. Not everyone, mind you. Some people can't let go of their misery. But for those who can, we have found a better state of mind, less jaded, less looking out for revenge, and, for me, the appropriate amount of emails. It's funny that in numerous situations, life is improved by doing less; maybe we all should give it a go at some point.