What if the problem isn’t that you’re not doing enough…
…but that you’re doing too much of what’s already past its point of return?
This week, I applied Stop–Drop–Roll to myself. I paused and gathered data:
How many hours am I spending writing?
Who’s reading it?
Is the impact matching the effort?
I love writing. I’m about to submit a book proposal. Seven (plus) hours a week on essays isn’t irrational.
But here’s what I saw:
Those final hours each week spent trying to land a massive topic, covering all the angles I thought of in a single piece?
They weren’t compounding.
They were densifying.
And for readers, the insights of a heavy post aren’t always metabolized. Especially those in the second half…
The extra effort doesn’t always produce extra impact. That’s the law of diminishing returns.
So I’m experimenting.
Instead of racing through a new topic every week, we’re shifting to monthly deep dives. Letting ideas breathe. Creating white space. Building feedback loops. Reallocating time toward relationships and partnerships that could generate 10x or 100x impact.
Within days, I felt it: less rush. More connection. More joy in the writing.
And ironically? More traction.
So: in March — not accidentally Women’s History Month — we’ll spend the entire month exploring power.
Specifically:
What do we need to subtract from our power so it can do the good it’s meant to do?
But in the meantime, I’d love to know:
Where might you be trying just a little too hard?
And here’s a guest pass to join us in the 100 Day Subtraction Practice and start building the muscle of doing less, intentionally, to have more of the impact that actually matters to you.
Keep on rollin’!
Nell
