Kelford Labs Daily: Do Less with More
How to do less when there’s more to do every day.
How can a person—a marketer, an entrepreneur—possibly do less and focus when there’s some new piece of technology or disruptive force emerging every day?
How can you cut back when there’s constantly more to do and think about?
By doing less with more.
What I mean is, when new tech new emerges—whether it’s something with apocalyptic overtones like AI or something more mundane and perfunctory like the launch of Threads—it can feel like we’ve got to jump on it.
Like it’s yet another thing we have to pay attention to, focus on, and take care of.
But here’s an approach I’ve found useful: Using the value I deliver as the lens through which I look at anything new.
When Threads launched, my question wasn’t, “Gosh darn it, is this another place I have to make an account?”, it was, “Okay, how could I use this to demonstrate my value?” It gave me the inspiration and motivation to give it a try, and I ended up kind of liking it. Of course, like every other Threads user, my posts have largely degenerated into chaotic nonsense, but when in Rome.
And when GPT dropped, my question wasn’t, “Oh no, is this going to take my job?”, it was, “All right, how do I use this to do something no one else—including this tool—can do?”
The idea is that when new things emerge—when we’re presented with more—we respond by considering how we could do less with it.
Just the one thing we’re best at, just the best way we know how.
And if we can’t, if it doesn’t work or we’re just plain terrible at it and not improving, we can jettison the tool, the platform, the promotion, and focus more on where we can demonstrate our value best.
Because in a world of increasing more, the advantage goes to those who can focus on what matters, instead of getting distracted by everything that doesn’t.
