Why work feels better when there’s less of it
Readtime: 2 minutes
Hello,
Over Christmas and New Year, I took most of the time off and was away with other people for the best part of three weeks.
I still needed to do a few things for my business, such as building an automated email sequence for Atomic Ambition, publicising a webinar (today at 5:30 PM if you missed the publicity!), and a handful of email conversations with key coaching and speaking clients to finalise arrangements for January.
But my time for work was very limited.
And what surprised me was this: I enjoyed all of the work I did during that period.
Not because it was easy. But because it was concentrated on value adding activities.
With very little time available, I wasn’t doing everything. I was only doing the things that genuinely mattered. The work where my judgement and experience mattered. The work that would have real consequences if it didn’t get done.
Now I’m properly back at work full time, I’m doing “everything” again, and the contrast is noticeable.
It’s not that the work is suddenly bad.
It’s that there’s a lower concentration of the good stuff.
More tasks that need doing but aren’t as impactful.
This experience made me think about something I hear often, which is that people like their work but they wish there wasn’t quite so much of it.
I’ve said that myself many times, but I don’t now think it’s actually true.
What we’re really articulating when we say this is that that there are parts of the job we enjoy – normally the things we’re good at that add the most value – but they come along with a whole load of stuff we have to do that we don’t really enjoy. So when we say we wish there was less work to do, we really mean less of the latter, not the former.
When time is tight, like it was for me on holiday, I only did those things that really mattered, and I could see the value created by doing them. I think that’s why I enjoyed doing them so much.
(Maybe doing that work from a sunny terrace overlooking the ocean had something to do with it, but I really don’t think that’s the whole story.)
I think we often feel more fulfilled during intense, focused periods than during busy, sprawling ones. It’s not about workload. It’s about concentration of the good stuff.
If you think you’re the same, here’s a simple, practical way to use this insight.
Think back to the last period when you were genuinely short on time. Maybe it was a holiday you had to do some work on. Or a very packed week. Even a difficult personal time.
And ask yourself:
Which bits of work did I still make time for?
What work did I not miss at all?
That’s useful data.
Because the work you instinctively protect when time is scarce is often the work where you create the most value. And over time, your impact, income, and influence will grow when you increase the concentration of that kind of work, rather than just trying to do more of everything.
This isn’t about avoiding the necessary parts of a job. Some things will always need doing.
But it is about noticing when the balance has drifted too far away from the work that actually uses you well.
That’s often what people mean when they say, “I don’t hate my job, I just wish there was less of it”. They actually just want a higher concentration of the work that actually matters.
And that’s something you can start to shape, once you see it clearly. Whether in your current role, or the next.
I hope that has sparked some thinking for you.
P.S. A big part of Atomic Ambition is helping people to increase the concentration of high-value, meaningful work in their careers – because that is where happiness, fulfilment, and higher income align. If now is the right time for you, take a look here, we start on 26th January.
P.P.S. If you want to attend today’s webinar on How to know your best career move in 2026, you can register here (it starts at 5:30 PM UK time for one hour).