Why it's time to stop glorifying the grind
No one cares know how hard you work. They care about what you can do for them.
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE #290
Busy? Are you sure? We need to talk because if you’re busy without being productive you needs to take a step back and you need to stop glorifying the “grind.”
It’s time to end the pervasive, toxic idea that more is always better.
More posts, more emails, more hours spent staring at a flickering cursor.
More is not more. More is a millstone around your neck.
We treat our businesses like boulders that need to be shoved up a hill by sheer brute force. But brute force is for amateurs. If you want to move the world, you don’t need bigger muscles; you need a longer lever.
The myth of the “busy” creator
Archimedes famously claimed that with a long enough lever and a place to stand, he could move the earth. He wasn’t talking about working harder; he was talking about physics.
Regardless of what you do, in your business there are specific points—leverage points—places where a tiny, calculated amount of time and effort produce a disproportionately massive result.
Most creators spend 90% of their time on “low-leverage” tasks: tweaking the font on a landing page, arguing in the comments, or color-coding a spreadsheet.
These kinds of people are pushing the boulder with their hands.
A leverage point is different.
It’s the headline that doubles your click-through rate.
It’s the hook that triples reader engagement and comments.
It’s the partnership that puts you in front of 10,000 decision makers.
It’s the structural change in your offer that turns a “maybe” into a “must-have.”
Finding the fulcrum
When you ask AI for a summary, it gives you the whole boulder.
It treats every sentence with equal weight.
But to be effective, you need to be a leverage hunter. You need to look at the mass of information and ask: “Where is the fulcrum? Where is the one spot where I can apply pressure to get the maximum movement?”
When you identify these points, you stop working hard (which is often just a socially acceptable form of procrastination) and you start working effectively.
You move from being a laborer and you become an engineer of results.
The 5 power prompts to help you finding your leverage
Stop trying to do everything.
Use these five prompts to find the long levers in your strategy:
The 80/20 Leverage Hunt: “Analyze this document and highlight the 3 specific leverage points where a small amount of effort would create a disproportionately large result. Explain the ‘physics’ of why each one matters.”
The Fulcrum Finder: “If I could only take ONE action based on this entire strategy to see a 10x return on my time, what would it be? Defend your choice by showing how it impacts the other variables.”
The Effort-to-Impact Auditor: “Map out the tasks mentioned in this text on a 2x2 matrix: Effort vs. Impact. Identify the ‘Quick Wins’ (Low Effort, High Impact) and the ‘Time Sinks’ (High Effort, Low Impact).”
The Force Multiplier: “How can I take the ‘Core Insight’ of this piece and turn it into a ‘Force Multiplier’? (e.g., Can it be automated, repurposed into 10 formats, or used to close a high-value partnership?)”
The Bottleneck Breaker: “Identify the single biggest bottleneck described in this process. If we remove or solve just this one thing, which other problems become irrelevant or easier to solve?”
Bottom line: Being busy is a choice, but being effective is a discipline.
Stop pushing the boulder.
Find the lever.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: Using AI as a partner
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.