When working harder quits working
In the last email, I talked about how inefficiency often shows up as a feeling before it shows up as something you can point to.
There’s another pattern that tends to appear right around the same time – and it can be frustrating, especially for people who care about doing good work.
For a long time, working harder actually does solve the problem.
More focus.
Longer days.
Extra care.
Pushing through.
That approach gets you through school, exams, early career years, and often the first phase of running a firm. It’s effective – up to a point.
But then, sometimes suddenly, effort stops working the way it used to.
You might notice that:
putting in more hours doesn’t create the same relief it once did
staying later no longer produces a clean sense of “caught up”
the work keeps expanding to fill whatever time you give it
At this stage, doubling down on effort can start to feel fraught. Things hold together, but only because you are holding them together.
If this sounds familiar, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost your mojo.
And it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
It often just means the business has reached a level of complexity where effort alone isn’t the right lever anymore.
Hard work is still a key ingredient.
It’s just no longer the right tool.
What’s needed is structure – ways for work to move forward without requiring your constant attention, memory, and decision-making.
In the next email, I’ll talk about why this moment often coincides with changes in how a firm sells its work – pricing, tiered packages, or delivery – and why that can make the strain feel even strain-ier.
