To her credit, Sharon didn't react badly (I might have). She asked, ‘What is it that others, or you, feel I'm not doing? Have I missed some deadlines or is my work not up to scratch?’ Her boss said, ‘No, no, your work is fine. I get great feedback. It's just that others seem to work longer hours.’
Sharon replied,
I'm focused and efficient. I have to be. I have to be able to hold the job down and get home to my family. When the quality or quantity of my output starts to be less than what you are wanting, please let me know and we can have a discussion about my work hours then.
I'm thinking she may have looked like a woman on the edge, because her boss agreed and backed away … slowly.
But let's not blame Sharon's boss. Urgency is the new black. ‘Busy’ is the natural response to ‘How's work?’ The effect is cultures that pride themselves on ‘fast‐moving’ or ‘adaptive’ workplaces. But they are often white‐collar sweat shops, pushing people beyond their limits, and the result is burnout.
Matthew Bidwell, from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, says of managers that when they can't measure outputs easily, they will measure inputs, such as how long you are spending at work.
Trading time for money
Sharon told me that in her workplace, people are often judged not by their outputs but by how many hours they spend in the office. Some were even careful to arrive five minutes before, and to leave five minutes after, their boss. I'm sure you have a similar story — most of us do!
My brother, for example, was once chastised in a performance review because he was ‘too cheerful and didn't exhibit signs of stress’, which indicated to his boss that he didn't have enough to do. He couldn't possibly be adding value and remain cheerful! My brother left that job shortly after and was told by colleagues that people kept discovering how much he did in a day. ‘Bill used to do that’ was the answer to just about every question asked about tasks in the department.
The notion that busyness, franticness and stress are indicators of hard work and productivity has been around for over 2000 years. It seems that we are somehow wrong if we aren’t feeling these things. The Stoic philosopher Seneca, author of On the Shortness of Life, arguably the first ever management self‐help book, argued:
People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.
The industrial revolution specifically linked time to money as the advent of artificial lighting enabled 10‐ to 16‐hour workdays. It wasn't until Henry Ford introduced the eight‐hour workday, and profits increased exponentially, that people started to think differently about productivity by the hour. His profitable methods, in effect, refunded two to eight hours to his workers every day.
We are also driven by a work ethic deeply rooted in Judaeo‐Christian traditions that persuades us that to be ‘idle’ is to be ‘ungodly’.
Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread. Proverbs 20:13
In a culture that values hard work and productivity, we feel we are ‘winning’ when we are going hard all the time. Because being busy increases our level of (self‐)importance and can become addictive, we may feel guilty or ashamed when we aren't busy doing stuff.
So we have a bit of conditioning to undo!
Instead of trading time for money, we need to trade energy for impact.
For example, we are all familiar with the model that says I give you x hours of my time in exchange for y dollars. But what if we instead focused on the idea that I give you energy, value and impact in return for dollars?
Instead of thinking about how many hours I need to put in, I think about exchanging the most valuable and impactful work each day.
Begin by asking yourself, where will I get the best return on my energy investment?
Reframe laziness
If you have a dog or a cat, watch them. They spend most of their time sleeping, with intermittent breaks for eating, pooping and running after a ball or a bird.
I think it's time to reframe ‘laziness’ and to enjoy life's pauses. Let's not be like Nathan Hubbard, former CEO of Ticketmaster, who in this tweet seems to be encouraging people to go hard over the holiday period.
For years researchers have proved time and time again the positive impact of restful activities:
Daydreaming, and even boredom, promote creative thinking.
Discovering non‐work‐related activities that both rejuvenate and excite you will provide the energy you need when it's time to get down to work. They also create an awesome contrast frame so you'll enjoy work‐related activities even more!
Being in flow: Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi coined this term in the 1970s for what happens when we become ‘so immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity that we lose sense of space and time’. And we get more done! Up to 500 per cent more, according to a 10‐year McKinsey study.
Socialising: We get cognitive boosts from social interactions and we also experience higher levels of intellectual performance.
Disconnecting from work: Those of us who are able to disconnect from work are healthier, more engaged when we are at work and less prone to procrastination.
Being less busy isn't the issue. The real opportunity here is to take time out. To stop and take stock of where you are at and make some decisions about how you want to work.
STOP AND THINK
Studies of brainwaves show us that creativity, innovation, inspiration and intuition are only available to us when our brain is in certain states of consciousness.
Have you ever heard someone say, ‘I just can't think clearly!’ or ‘I can't make sense of this!’ or ‘I just don't have the bandwidth for this’? Just ask the parents of a newborn who are not getting enough sleep. Typically, this is because they cannot access sufficiently the brainwave that helps you feel centred, relaxed and creative!
The Dutch principle of niksen means to slow down and opt out of productivity expectations. The idea is you take a big breath, pause, and give your mind and body a chance to rest and reset.
Writers and philosophers have been talking and writing about this for centuries. It's no secret that our aha! moments often happen when we're resting.
In Awakening the Mind, Anna Wise explains that while we rarely use just one kind of brainwave at a time, each has its own job or characteristics. For example:
Beta brainwaves are the most commonly used, and they're the fastest. Typically, these are accessed in a waking state of consciousness or when you're thinking — like now, as you read this book. They help us manage everyday things like driving a car, making judgements and remembering what we need to do. They are responsible for analytical thinking and problem‐solving.
Alpha brainwaves are the next fastest and are typically present when we are in a state of relaxation or distant awareness, such as when we are daydreaming. You can access alpha waves through anything that ‘zones you out’, like