*Why your output is all that matters and how to maximize it to win.* #### Balance is a lie. For years a lot of us have been sold the same lie. “You do too much” “Protect your energy” “Work life balance” “Soft boy/girl era” etc. These approaches sounds wise and we connect with them for many reasons. Some of these statements may even sound like phrases you may say after putting in years of hard work. “I’m entering my soft boy/girl era” specifically. An era of softness that you’ve earned for the ungodly amount of work you’ve put in over the years. But here's a nasty truth that many don’t want to admit: **The people who are winning are doing more than you.** Not chaotically. Not desperately. But deliberately. This deliberate effort to do more compounds into many of the big wins you see from winners. This “boring” excellence compounds into a monstrous, unstoppable tidal wave of winning that may not be quite as apparent when interacting with these people. Here’s an example: Imagine you have “Winner A”. “Winner A” exhibits these specific behaviors. - Responds to emails slightly faster than average - Documents decisions and processes clearly. - Follows up when they say they will, every single time - Fixes small issues immediately instead of deferring them - Delivers **consistently** instead of occasionally and delivers in spectacular fashion. In isolation, none of these skills are very impressive or even difficult to execute. However, when placed in a fast-paced work environment, these skills compounded over years yield your stereotypically “winner,” who is getting promoted faster than expected, getting offers without applying , and overall is viewed as invaluable member of the team. Doing more is a skill and with intentional practice, it can be come as natural tying your shoes. It just takes consistent practice and effort. #### What Doing ‘More’ Actually Means Doing more doesn’t mean ungodly amount of hours or slaving away on tasks in an attempt to be “productive.” Doing more means: - More leverage - More reps - More completed work (_**I’m looking at you with all of those half-completed Udemy courses**_) - More exposure to actual feedback. Many view “doing more” as having a fully booked and optimized calendar. Thats not what I’m referring to. I’m referring to optimizing your output and tightening the gap between intent and execution until almost nothing is wasted. Here’s an example: A senior engineer keeps losing time to rework because projects start with vague intent/requirements. Instead of working more, they write a short execution brief before every task: the problem being solved, what “done” looks like, and who signs off. Execution starts with clarity, reviews get done faster, and rework drops significantly. The exact work doesn’t change, only the gap between intent and what ships does. From the outside looking in, that senior engineer looks like a winner who goes above and beyond but in reality they’re just making slight changes to optimize their output. That is the essence of what I’m getting at. Make small changes to your behaviors so that you are able to get compoundable output that will make winning inevitable. “4 Steps to Doing More” 1. **Agressive subtraction** 2. **Systems, Systems, systems** 3. **Volume Creates Clarity** 4. **Tighten the Feedback Loop** _Aggressive Subtraction_ Maximizing your output begins with cutting out the fluff. People that perform at the highest levels are usually described as having excellent signal to noise ratio. That’s just a fancy way of saying that they know how to determine what's important and what isn’t and focusing on the things that are important. That looks like waking up everyday and understanding what handful of tasks need to be completed in order to get you closer to your goals and here comes the hard part, only completing those tasks, nothing else. Cleaning out your inbox? That can wait, your tasks aren’t done yet. A new AI tool dropped and you want to try it out? Not yet, your tasks aren’t finished yet. Your mom sent you 10 TikTok with laughing emojis? Thats cool, you can watch it after your tasks are finished. Lets view it this way, if an activity you want to pursue in the moment doesn’t improve your skills, income, ownership, or health… …it’s optional at best, harmful at worst. _Systems, Systems, systems._ Everyone has experienced a sudden burst of motivation that has pushed you to complete a flurry of tasks. The main problem is that this burst of motivation is usually not sustainable and usually leaves us as quickly as it comes. Relying on motivation alone is a losing recipe for success. Here are where systems come in to play. Motivation tends to rely purely on emotions, which are fleeting in nature. Systems are mechanical in nature. This means they are predictable, consistent and most importantly reliable. People with high output don’t have to wake up inspired, with the right systems in place its almost as if they are waking up **pre-committed**. What does this look like? - Writing happens at the same time, regardless of mood - Training happens whether energy is high or low. - Learning is tied directly to output, not curiosity These consistent decision compounded over any significant period of time will yield you a much high output than just relying on your flurries of motivation that come and go. Try to identity how you can systematize areas in your life, so that tasks feel weird when they aren’t completed or you can’t move forward until x task is completed. You’re almost trying to me make it a game. _Volume Creates Clarity_ If you are someone who has ever at one point struggled with confidence, this section is for you. Many tend to view confidence as a fixed trait within people, either you have it or you don’t. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The volume of output you are producing will inadvertently feed your confidence. In other words, confidence is a side effect of volume. How? I’ll show you. You don’t figure things out by thinking harder the same thing over and over. You figure them out by doing more reps and letting reality correct you. Confidence and clarity reveals itself after putting in the required number of reps, you just need to figure out what that number is. I challenge everyone to give something 50 attempts, 100 drafts, or 1,000 repetitions and NOT improve. Imagine the engineer early in their career, who second-guesses every recommendation, its often over-explaining in meetings, hedging their language, and ask for validation before moving forward. Each decision feels heavy because it’s new and you just haven’t had the right amount exposure to it. Now picture your favorite senior engineer, they usually don’t rush to speak—but when they do, it’s very direct: _“This will fail accreditation unless we address X. Here’s the fix.”_ No need to hedge their language, no need for over-justification. This level of confidence didn’t come from mindset work or charisma. It came from sheer **volume**. Enough reps will collapse any uncertainty into intuition. Clarity becomes a byproduct of experience itself, not something you need to try to project. _Tighten the feedback loop_ Outout without feedback can very easily turn into delusion. Anyone of us who’ve stretch the limits if what LLMs can do knows how easy it is for unchecked output to slowly become loud and wrong. You don’t need to see wait perfection in the work you’re putting out. Ship it and let the universe tell you where you need to improve. Tighten your feedback loop so it looks something like this: **Ship → Listen → Adjust → Repeat** Imagine the aspiring content creator publishes drafts publicly instead of waiting for perfection. The posts that resonate with the world get shared, replied to, and saved. The ones that don’t disappear quietly. Very quickly, they know which ideas land and which ones where not the best for a wide audience. Near instant feedback, arming you with skills necessary to make the required changes. All thanks to the fact that you refused to wait for perfection. See how easy it is? What Doing More Looks Like in Practice Doing more isn’t about having 20 goals that you’re working on simultaneously or jumping to the next shiny object that catches your attention. It about doing the tasks that matter most, repeatedly, every single day. Give a similar structure a try: - One primary domain - One secondary domain - Daily non-negotiables Every day, you should strive to: - Create something - Train something - Improve something Every week: - Score output - Cut friction - Increase volume slightly These are boring. These are repeatable. There are effective. And when the outputs from this structure are compounded over years, it becomes impossible to lose. Thanks for reading.