Move Forward in 2025. Comfort Won’t Get You There.

As the year comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about how to be more productive next year.

One big thing I realized is that productivity isn’t about getting more done.

It’s about getting the right things done.

And part of that is making sure you have the mental space to tackle the right things.

Tackling the right things often means doing things that push your comfort zone.

It’s the uncomfortable things that make us grow.

This is just as true in business as elsewhere in our lives: companies that embrace discomfort as a regular part of business are more likely to achieve their goals than those that don’t.

Companies that stay comfortable — which feels great in the moment — lose in the long run, which doesn’t feel so great.

Discomfort is a prerequisite for change.

If something is comfortable, it won’t lead to progress. It won’t even let you retain your current position.

Stasis doesn’t exist: organizations that embrace discomfort keep moving forward, increasing the distance between them and their static competitors. By standing still, static competitors keep falling further behind.

Just look at what happened to Sears.

But to embrace discomfort and create change, you need the energy to do it.

The more energy you have, the more discomfort you can embrace.

Yet most companies overwhelm their employees with so many tasks that they have little time to focus on the things that matter — things that can be game-changers for the company.

But the biggest issue isn’t lack of time. The big issue is that this overload drains people’s energy.

People have a limited amount of energy each day. So, when employees eventually get through enough of their tasks to tackle the important things ,  they only have a little energy left. And low energy doesn’t result in people embracing the discomfort that creates change.

Instead, low energy makes them embrace comfortable things that use less energy.

So, they’ll either:

• Tackle easy problems and put the big one-off to another day — ultimately spending less energy on them and less time than they should.

• Attack the big problems with default practices — applying comfortable methods that worked before rather than trying to solve the problem the best way possible.

When energy is low, discomfort is unlikely to be embraced. Change is unlikely.

By overloading employees, organizations unknowingly employ processes that embrace the status quo rather than create radical change.

And the only reason they aren’t falling behind is that many competitors have created the same organizational environment.

Great organizations ensure that people have the energy to embrace discomfort and create change.

Here are three strategies to help your team be more productive by creating an environment that gives them the energy to embrace discomfort and create change so you can outpace your competitors:

1. Only Have Essential Meetings

It’s rare to find a business person that doesn’t complain about meetings.

It’s obvious why: they sap time and energy. Too often, businesses approach meetings as if modern technology never developed. It’s as if they never bothered to update their operating system and are still using an antiquated Meetings app developed when meetings were the only way to share ideas and get things done.

But meetings aren’t always the best way to communicate.

If you just need to convey information, a meeting is not the best solution. Use email instead. Writing out the email may take more of your time than scheduling a meeting, but overall, it will save more time for more people.

Only have meetings when nothing else will come close to producing the results, like when you need to solve a big problem or get buy-in for a significant change.

Action Step

For every meeting, ask if there is any other way to accomplish the same goal.

If there isn’t a clear goal or there is another way to accomplish the goal, cancel the meeting.

Achieve the goal through an alternate method.

2. Narrow Duties

Giving more tasks to motivated high performers is tempting: they’ll get everything done.

But getting things done doesn’t equate to getting results. Even though they may complete all their tasks, they won’t be able to give the critical tasks the energy they need.

It’s better to have a person focus their energy on the things that can change the game rather than giving them more tasks.

The easiest way to do this is by eliminating tasks that don’t need to be done.

Most companies execute more tactics than they should: a large portion of their tactics doesn’t contribute much to the overall strategy.

And when they don’t contribute to the strategy, they don't contribute towards goals that matter.

Action Step

Tactics have a way of regularly creeping into your plans.

Take the time for regular reviews to make sure what you’re doing contributes to the results you want:

• Look at your strategy.

• Consider the strategy and how it contributes to business goals.

• Cut all the tactics that don’t push the strategy toward that goal.

3. Safeguard Focus Time

People should focus on the important projects when they have the most energy.

People have more energy earlier in the day, but too often they’re plagued with meetings and tasks that need to be done “right now.”

This approach results in them having to allocate time to the essential things late in the day when their energy is the lowest.

Allow people to set blocks of time where their productivity is high to work on the big problems. And, never interrupt that time with anything else.

Action Step

Determine when people have the most energy for doing what matters the most.

Protect those blocks of time for high-value tasks.

Don’t let seemingly urgent but barely consequential tasks get in the way.

Onward

It’s too easy to get caught in an endless stream of action that zaps energy away from progress.

These strategies will help your company become more productive by ensuring you don’t spend time just getting things done and instead find the time to improve what matters:

1. Only Have Essential Meetings

2. Narrow Duties

3. Safeguard Focus Time

So many companies get stuck in endless routines. They don’t break free. And they fall behind.

Constantly moving forward toward your goals is one of the biggest competitive advantages you can have.

P.S. If you need to determine what matters to your customers so you know what to focus on in 2025, reply to this email. I’ll send you an invite to a 15-minute discovery call to see how I can help you reach your goals.