The fastest way to increase your impact
Readtime: 2 minutes
Hello,
After last week’s email, a few people replied saying things along the lines of:
“I recognise the work you’re describing. The work where my judgement matters, where I feel genuinely useful, and where the outcome would be worse if I wasn’t involved. I just don’t know how to get more of that.”
When that kind of work only makes up a small percentage of what you do, over time you’ll be busy, but you’ll feel underused.
And it’s likely that the work where you add the most value gets pushed to the edges of your day. Early mornings. Evenings. The gaps between meetings. “When I get a chance.”
That’s when frustration creeps in because you know you’re capable of more than this.
People either resign themselves to it, quietly disengage, or make a rushed move driven by irritation.
But there is a better outcome, even while staying in your current role. Where your work feels very different because a larger percentage of your time is spent on the things that really matter.
That’s the work most people enjoy more, because it’s meaningful, consequential, and uses their talents properly.
The question is “How do I increase the concentration of this kind of work?”
In my experience, that starts with understanding why it gets diluted in the first place.
If you’re capable and reliable, work tends to expand to overfill your availability. More things that technically need doing, but don’t really need you.
And unless you intervene, the mix never corrects itself. (In fact it will most likely gradually get worse.)
Here’s something practical you can do to start shifting it.
Look back over the last couple of weeks and ask yourself:
Which pieces of work involved me deciding something, not just delivering it?
Where did people come to me for judgement, not output?
Which moments changed the direction of something, rather than just progressing it?
That’s the work we’re talking about.
Increasing the concentration of good work often starts by shifting from being involved after decisions are made, to being more involved before they are.
Here are four ways you can do this:
Slow things down before you start. Ask: “Would it be useful to spend ten minutes thinking about this before I start?”
Ask one upstream question: “What’s still open here, and what’s already decided?”
Make sure you know the problem you’re solving. Ask: “Can I sanity-check the problem before we go too far?”
Discuss what success actually means. Ask: “What would a good outcome look like here?”
The next step is smaller than people expect.
Pick one recurring commitment that sits outside this ‘good work’ category. One meeting, task, or responsibility that takes up your time without really using your judgement.
And ask:
What would happen if I reduced my involvement here?
What’s a lighter-touch version of this that still works?
Who else could own this, even if they’d do it differently?
You don’t need to redesign everything at once.
But over time, increasing the percentage of work where your judgement matters changes how work feels, as well as the impact you make.
And when you make a greater impact, you’ll increase your income over time too.
I hope that has sparked some thought for you.
Reply and let me know!
See you next week.
Mostyn
P.S. Atomic Ambition starts on Monday (26th January, 2026). This is your last chance to join the only live cohort in 2026. It’s for experienced professionals and leaders who want to significantly increase their impact, income, and influence in 2026. Full details and payment link here. Use code NEWSLETTER for 10% off.