Do you immediately assume that doing less equates to being lazy? More than that, do you feel that if you aren't constantly 'on' that the world will assume you aren't a motivated, successful, go-getter?

Over the last few weeks, I've been a guinea-pig in my own 'what's the worst that can happen if I do less?' experiment and the results, so far, have been surprising. Not least because, truth be told, I have created an identity around going above and beyond, over-delivering and always being poised to pounce on the next idea that to make the decision to absent myself from that sense of urgency has been, dare I say, uncomfortable and unsettling.

Whether a down-shift in perceived effort is a good thing is something only time will tell, but nearly a month into this effort, I can definitely tell you what it feels like to consciously 'do' less and how that has been showing up.

It hasn't been particularly comfortable and, as someone who has also responded to my internal Sergeant Major immediately, to suddenly tell that loud, shouty inner voice 'not today' or 'not right now' has led to a fair amount of low level guilt.

Doing less has felt like choosing laziness.

However, doing less via conscious choice as opposed to apathy has changed the texture of my days - even this soon into the experiment. I'm practising this new, slower approach across work, nutrition and training and my one observation across all three is that I feel far more connected to all my tasks and less knee-jerk and reactive. More on this in the episode.

My main takeaway is that this reframe means I'm no longer living in a state of low-grade urgency and the knock-on effects of that have been pleasing so far...

Have a listen and let me know what you think of this experiment, whether you're trying it alongside me or whether this has made you look at your workload differently. Let's chat in the comments over on Substack...

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Have you been sold a lie?

What if doing more is actually a fast track to achieving less?

You know how it goes, you find more time in your schedule, you've become competent at a certain amount of work and so your instinct is to fill the time gap, add more to your workload and generally max yourself out.

I'm not wrong, am I? Women especially have been targeted by a culture of success meaning a side-hustle, having some sort of brilliant entrepreneurial idea that'll make millions and being able to do everything perfectly in all corners of our lives. Yep, we're all expected to be able to do our own accounts, bake a Bake-Off quality birthday cake with no notice and maintain a fitness regime that requires hours in the gym.

It's. All. Too. Much.

So, in this episode I look at the ways in which you can still get everything done but without the accompanying panic, stress, cortisol spike and general urgency that we've been conditioned to lock into in order to appear, and feel, like we're doing things properly.

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It's not that I've been going wrong, as such, but after eight months of effort towards body recomposition, I've had to acknowledge that something wasn't working. I'm not mad or upset because, ultimately, I've maintained my 50lb weight loss. However, if you've set your sights on a goal and after months of effort, you are no closer, it's only sensible to take a look at your output and see what you could be doing differently.

The plot twist here is that my new approach actually feels like doing less.

But, if you don't try you'll never know and as much as this is a huge trust exercise, I am also hopeful that this does work. To be more specific, I really want this to work because if it does then it means there's more than one way to skin a cat (horrible expression, but it's universal) and I can finally let go of the idea that the only way to get to where you want to be is to go at it full pelt until you eventually fall over.

As it turns out, this whole new approach has come at a time when I think I need it most, and not just when it comes to my training, but let me know what you think and if you have any examples where doing less actually got you more...

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