This is a more recent lesson, it took me a long time to understand it and even more time to accept it: a team can handle a certain quantity of work, anything above that quantity decreases the quality considerably. In the long run, the only thing that matters is quality.

After I started Akcedo, I began to take all kinds of projects in order to create relationships which would guarantee the cash flow of the company. To tell the truth, I was afraid and I panicked, but this is a story for another post.

What followed was a period of long work days, with a few noticeable situations of 20 hours of work per day. That's something to avoid. If you find yourself working 15-20 hours per day, stop and make a radical change. You will as amazed as I was to find out that you will lose nothing.

Even after I stopped working so much, I continued with a long period in which I didn't say no to any projects that were coming to us. I was so innocent, that I was even proud about it. Again, the truth is that I was afraid of what would happen if I said no. Accepting all projects sometimes created spikes, but initially it was ok. In time the quantity of work grew, and accepting all projects became harder and harder.

At one point circumstances made it so we couldn't continue like this. It was incredibly hard to change my inflexible way of thinking, but I had no choice. So I decided which clients / projects are most important to us, and how much work we can handle considering our priorities. After that, I started saying no to lower priorities.

In case you don't know about the Pareto principle, this is the time to find out. What happened is exactly what the principle states: we eliminated the factors which were not producing relevant results, and kept only the top producers. After this step we had considerably less problems to think about, and our results improved because we were able to focus on the things that mattered most.

For me, the only problem in applying it in the first place was the fear of uncertainty. This fear stopped me from doing many things for a long time, but now the more I experiment with overcoming it the more I realize that uncertainty is not something to be afraid of at all.

So, know how much you want of something (especially if it's about your job, your time or your life), and don't be afraid to say no in order to keep it the way you want it. In these situations your mind can't help you with logical solutions so it will keep you paralyzed, but you should trust your instinct.

If you liked this post, I encourage you to read "The 4-hour workweek".