Most of your work doesn’t matter.
Readtime: 3.5 minutes
A few years ago, I noticed something really uncomfortable about my work.
I was busy from morning until night.
Lots of calls, emails, and reports. Meetings about meetings.
But when the day ended, I struggled to explain what I’d actually achieved.
Not what I touched. Not what I attended. But what I had actually achieved that made a real difference.
And that’s when I realised that most of the work we do is unnecessary.
And unnecessary work is far more exhausting than real work.
The myth of “working hard”
We’ve been taught that effort equals value.
If your calendar is full, you must be important.
If you’re always behind, you must be in demand.
If you’re exhausted, you must be contributing.
But look closer.
How many hours disappear into status updates that no one reads?
How many meetings exist only because cancelling them would “look bad”?
How many decks are built to justify decisions that were already made?
Maybe some of it is hard work.
But much of it is also pointless work. It’s theatre.
A necessary caveat
Some of this work is genuinely required.
If you work in banking, professional services, healthcare, or any heavily regulated industry, a chunk of what you do exists for good reasons. Regulation. Risk management. Audit trails. Legal protection.
That work isn’t optional. And pretending otherwise just alienates people.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth.
Even inside highly regulated environments, unnecessary work still piles on top of necessary work. And the two often get blurred together until everything feels equally urgent, equally important, and equally draining.
The result is a workplace where activity is rewarded more than outcomes, and where the easiest way to look valuable is to stay endlessly busy.
No wonder everyone’s tired.
The quiet cost no one talks about
Here’s the part that really hurts.
Unnecessary work doesn’t just waste time.
It steals energy from the work that actually matters.
When your best hours are spent updating dashboards, responding to Teams threads that could have been ignored, or preparing for meetings that shouldn’t exist, there’s nothing left for thinking, creating, or solving real problems.
Or that work gets pushed to the evenings and weekends.
And you blame yourself for being behind.
But the issue isn’t effort. It’s where that effort is being spent.
What you can do (even if you don’t control the system)
Most people can’t just decide to stop doing things at work.
And telling them to “be ruthless” without acknowledging that reality isn’t helpful.
But there are small shifts that are possible for most of us:
First: Get clear on which work is truly non-negotiable.
Regulatory deadlines. Client obligations. Legal requirements. Once you name those, everything else stops pretending to be equally sacred.
Second: Shrink the surface area of unnecessary work.
Shorter updates. Fewer slides. Clear agendas. One decision per meeting instead of five vague discussions. You’re not refusing the work. You’re containing it.
Third: Protect one block of energy for real outcomes.
Not more time. Better time. Even a few hours a week where you’re working on something that actually moves the needle can change how work feels.
None of this is too radical. And that’s the point.
The bottom line
We’re not burned out because we’re weak.
We’re burned out because too much of our working lives is spent on work that adds no real value.
Some unnecessary work is a fact of life.
But letting it consume everything isn’t.
The question isn’t, “Can you handle more?”
It’s, “What would happen if you handled a little less of what doesn’t matter?”
That’s often where the relief starts.
If you try this out – let me know how you get on. I reply to every email.
Thanks for reading.
Mostyn
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