Why ‘Working Less’ Shouldn’t Be Your New Year’s Resolution (And What to Focus on Instead)

As another year winds down, you’re probably thinking: “I need to work less in 2025.”

Your diary is bursting with meetings, your team constantly needs support, and those client deadlines keep piling up.

Working less seems like the obvious answer to reclaim your evenings and weekends. But here’s the thing – making “work less” your New Year’s resolution is setting yourself up for failure.

If you’re a channel or account lead at a digital agency, you know the drill. You’ve tried blocking your calendar for deep work, saying no to meetings, and setting boundaries around your time.

Yet somehow, you still find yourself answering urgent client emails at 9 pm or reviewing deliverables on Sunday afternoon.

The problem isn’t your inability to stick to resolutions.

It’s that “working less” treats the symptom, not the cause.

When you’re managing understaffed teams, handling complex client relationships, and being responsible for quality deliverables, simply deciding to work less creates more stress.

It adds a layer of guilt when you inevitably need to put in those extra hours to keep things running.

Your overwhelming workload isn’t just about hours – it’s about how you’re spending them. As an agency leader, you’re likely stuck in a cycle of reactive management. Your days disappear into back-to-back meetings, urgent client requests, and constant team support.

Your to-do list grows longer while you’re busy putting out fires.

Your team has become dependent on your constant availability. They need your sign-off on everything, and clients expect immediate responses.

You’ve become the bottleneck, but not because you want to be. The system you’re operating in has made it this way.

Rather than making “work less” your resolution, focus on creating systematic changes that naturally reduce your workload:

Instead of jumping in to fix every problem, invest time in developing your team’s decision-making skills. Yes, this takes more time initially, but it’s the only way to break the dependency cycle.

Look at where you’re spending most of your time. Are you reviewing every piece of work? Attending every client call? Design processes that allow your team to handle more without compromising quality.

Don’t just say “I won’t work weekends.” Create clear escalation procedures, establish realistic response times, and ensure your team knows how to handle situations without you.

Start small.

Pick one area where you spend too much time and design a better system. Perhaps it’s creating a decision-making framework for your team, or establishing clear criteria for when something needs your review.

The goal isn’t to work less – it’s to work differently.

When you focus on building sustainable systems and capable teams, you naturally free up your time. That’s when you can truly reclaim your evenings, enjoy your weekends, and feel confident that work is handled effectively, whether you’re there or not.

Ready to make meaningful changes in how you lead your team and manage your workload? Let’s talk about how to transform your approach to agency leadership in 2025.