I burned myself out working 100+ hour weeks for three years at Google trying to earn a promotion. I was trying to do everything myself and thinking that working harder was enough. That approach did not work.

My manager changed the course of my career by telling me to do the most important thing first. I went on to lead business strategy and operations for the Google Search Ads team for six years as Chief of Staff, with no direct reports, while working 40-50 hours a week. In this lesson, I share what I learned so that you can also have greater impact while working less.