It’s easy to convince yourself that working until your eyes bleed and your fingers cramp is simply what must be done when starting something new.
You can dangle yourself the carrot that it’s just until you get out of the first hole: “Once we’re live, it’ll all calm down and I’ll be able to relax”.
But that’s rarely how it goes. The reality is that you’re never going to be done. There’s always more work. New initiatives, new customers, new competition, new technology, new ideas.
Unless you learn to set healthy boundaries early on, human biology will set in and carve those habits into your psyche. Double so if you enjoy success. You put in all this pain, it worked, and now you can enjoy the pleasure; it’s too tempting for your brain to pass that up as anything but causality.
One pattern to help yourself fight the mad dash for the mirage of being done is to think of a good day’s work. Look at the progress of the day towards the end and ask yourself: “Have I done a good day’s work?”
Answering that question is liberating. Often, if the answer is an easy “yes,” you can leave your desk feeling like you accomplished something important, if not entirely “done”. And should the answer be no, you can treat it as an off-day and explore the 5 why’s.
It feels good to be productive. If yesterday was a good day’s work, chances are you’ll keep the roll. And if you can keep the roll, everything else will probably take care of itself.
Dr Nic
on 22 May 12Perhaps combine this daily activity with a Seinfeld Calendar to be able to show yourself you’ve been consistently productive and life is good.
Steve Castaneda
on 22 May 12I think one of the hidden benefits of putting in a good days work is that you can live the rest of the day without regret. All too often, I’ll consider myself done for the day even though I felt like I didn’t get anything done. Maybe I wasn’t being proactive (vs. reactive), or maybe I got caught up in one problem and put off the rest.
If I can focus on putting in enough work to consider the day productive, I’ll live the rest of the day without regret and sleep much, much easier at night.
Dmitry Nikolaev
on 22 May 12I remember this earlier before: many many sources (books, articles) about limited hours on work to be more productive. I don’t believe in the system for 10 years, and working “until your eyes bleed”. How was I wrong…
8 hours (or something constant). No more. Plan your day from the start. All non-important tasks to the end of the day (even if they are simplest tasks in the World).
I think the main reason (mentioned in article) that anyway you can’t get enough time for all, for anything. And anyway when you accept it (through your pain or through experience) you put only most important things and move through them first. It’s not mean you always forget about less-important tasks. That’s just mean if you will find time for them, they will be executed (maybe) sometime in the future.
Amy
on 22 May 12Interesting. Does it make sense that I can feel like I’ve done a good’s day work and at the same time feel like I’ve not accomplished anything? It’s mainly when I progress in projects but am delayed in completion of them.
But I definitely agree. There is always tomorrow. If you don’t realize this you’ll always feel burnt out and probably do less than you could do.
Timothy Alcock
on 22 May 12I did a good days work today “Yeah!” bring on tomorrow.
But seriously agree totally Rome wasn’t built in a day :)
Rafael Ribeiro
on 22 May 12Just saw this post as I’m almost finishing a typical “bad day”, with more hours than it should. Thanks again for reminding me what is all about….Fire the workaholic ;)
Anon
on 22 May 12For me the problem is focus, so many distractions.
Joe User
on 22 May 12Here, here!
I have never been more productive than when I was in a place where I could do just this (sadly these days, I’m paid more for my presence than for what I do).
I had a secret. I’d determine what I’d be happy to accomplish at the start of the day, then I’d stop when I’d finished the thing/things on that list, or when 6 hours had passed, whichever came first. My only goal was that I accurately estimate the amount of time my accomplishments would take, and that they’d never take more than 3-5 hours of effort in total. Any time I failed at this goal, I’d break up my problems so that it was easier to find 3-5 hours worth of happy to accomplish tasks.
Let me reiterate that. I have never been more productive (and happy) than when I could limit my effort to 3-5 hours a day.
Also, I’m positive that focusing on the feeling rather than the task was key to success. Course, I was also working from home, and didn’t have the constant interruptions to flow that are common in US workplaces…
Sadly, these days I feel like I’m paid more for my presence than for my production.
Brook Riggio
on 23 May 12@DrNic: I’ve made such a calendar for tracking up to 3 goals monthly: http://decielo.com/articles/403/may-2012-dont-break-the-chain-goal-calendar
I’ll have the June version out shortly.
It helps me with my focus immensely.
Michael
on 23 May 12Joe User, that is a wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing it.
JaySchu
on 23 May 12Interestingly, Seth Godin posted similar thoughts about getting comfortable with the “undone” and being able to walk away… Couldn’t agree more, there is always a near-infinite list what you could get done next. Learn to walk away and be happy with what you did!
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
JZ
on 23 May 12I’ve learned that while it may feel great to keep cranking when you’re under the influence of productivity, there’s always a price to pay. The juice keeps flowing and you feel great, but by 7pm you’re making mistakes or failing to see the simplest solution. So now your productivity is suffering, leading to more over-work.
Even if you don’t fall that far, after several days of really pushing it, you’re bound to hit the wall and pay for all that progress with a day where you’re just not feeling it. The tank is empty. Even if you had a great week, you’re going to have to pay the piper at some point.
Nick Rovisa
on 23 May 12Solid post.
I find using iDoneThis (http://www.idonethis.com) to be a great way to visualize what I get done each day. It’s simple, every time I “do” something, I enter it in. At the end of the day, it’s nice to see my list of 15-25 items completed- does a lot for the morale. Plus, it now offers analytics which help you understand what days are busier, among other things.
Figured I’d share in case others are looking for an easy way to visualize what they accomplish each day.
Thanks for the post!
Brett Allred
on 23 May 12Just re-read the workaholic section of Rework. I think this is a good addition to that section. Definitely useful for those of us who are constantly thinking of what needs to get done rather than what has been done.
W. Szabó Péter
on 23 May 12This is a nice blogpost, one of my favorites in the past few weeks of SvN. And I totally agree with it. Sometimes I enter a “working frenzy” and work 16+ hours, but I really want to change that bad habit. This is something I would really love to change that, since during those working frenzy times my productivity diminishes and I’m drifting towards becoming a sociopath. I’m no workaholic by all means, but those days are different…
Mike Critchley
on 25 May 12I just listened to Steve Espinosa of AppStack on Founders Talk saying that basically if you do any less than 60 hours a week in a start up you’re a lazy sloth who will ultimately lose. While I appreciate getting involved in a project, particularly when it’s a life’s work, it’s still life and you gotta live it!
I prefer the message that seems one of the core values of 37 Signals - Work-life balance. Ignoring the fact that working 12 hour days will turn you into a mistake-machine, it’s just not fun, dammit! Nor is it necessary - as you have pointed out before—working smart is a lot better plan than working 60+ hour weeks! Long live the work-life balance!!
Jason
on 28 May 12This only question I have is why didn’t I read this sooner!
This discussion is closed.