You can feel inefficiency before you can see it

Over the next few days, I want to share a short series of thoughts about something that tends to show up quietly for firm owners – sometimes before they can name it, and sometimes only in hindsight.

There’s nothing you need to do right now.

This isn’t a challenge or a call to action. It’s simply an invitation to notice a few patterns that often emerge as a business grows.

Even though the year hasn’t officially turned yet, this in-between stretch can create just enough space to observe things a little differently.

Here’s one of those patterns.

Most people don’t need a report or a dashboard to sense when things are inefficient.

Sometimes, you can feel it.
Other times, you only realize it later, looking back.

Work starts to feel heavier than it should.
Simple things take longer than they seem like they ought to.
You may be busy all day, but progress feels like walking in sand.

You might even have a rough sense of how inefficient things feel.
20%.
30%.
40%.
50%

Not because you’ve measured it precisely, but because your energy is giving you feedback.

Tasks may live in a few different places:
– your calendar
– a notebook
– sticky notes
– a dry-erase board
– your head

Your to-do list might feel less like a clear plan and more like a running inventory of everything that hasn’t been handled yet. You get things done, but the list itself doesn’t get shorter.

And when you stop working – whenever that is – there can still be a low hum of unfinished work in the background.

If any of this sounds familiar, it doesn’t mean you’re disorganized.
Usually, it means that too much of the business is being carried in your head.

Brains are excellent for judgment, creativity, and decision-making.
They’re much less reliable as storage systems for ongoing work.

What shows up for many people in December as overwhelm, isn’t a “why didn’t I see thing coming” problem.
It’s usually just a signal about systems.

In the next email, I’ll talk about why these signals tend to appear right when a firm is growing – and why responding by simply working harder can quietly make things worse instead of better.