Relax so you can be more productive
February 11th, 2013 GTD Times Team - Staff ContributorsCategories | Getting Things Done | Inspiration | Latest News | Psychology of GTD
Tony Schwartz has some excellent advice about the value of relaxation for increasing productivity. Here’s an excerpt from his recent New York Times opinion piece.
Relax! You’ll Be More Productive
By TONY SCHWARTZ
Published: February 9, 2013THINK for a moment about your typical workday. Do you wake up tired? Check your e-mail before you get out of bed? Skip breakfast or grab something on the run that’s not particularly nutritious? Rarely get away from your desk for lunch? Run from meeting to meeting with no time in between? Find it nearly impossible to keep up with the volume of e-mail you receive? Leave work later than you’d like, and still feel compelled to check e-mail in the evenings?
Golden Cosmos
More and more of us find ourselves unable to juggle overwhelming demands and maintain a seemingly unsustainable pace. Paradoxically, the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less. A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.
Read the full article here.
I completely agree! My business is all about making the most of 10 minutes at a time for our own personal goals and well-being. When we think about how much time we “work” in a day (I read it’s 94.7 hours a week for a stay-at-home mom), we certainly deserve a little break. I recommend to my adult clients, as well as to students (who are overwhelmed with commitments to school/sports/community/etc.), to schedule a 10-minute break every hour. It’s not self-indulgent — if we don’t steal it for ourselves it just won’t happen. I have a database on my website (GiveMe10.info) where people can track their 10-minute goals and log their progress — hopefully guilt-free!
Here is what someone wrote as a commentary under that article you are pointing to. I think he or she is bloody wright. There is something obscene about always looking for more productivity, with the consequences on workers. These nap and vacation advices are all nice, but most people don’t have the choice, and you are not changing in any way a twisted system that always asks more from people. How about you GTD people start thinking about that ?
“Who exactly do you think you are talking to? I work in a call center and had a meeting where if we didn’t work more efficiently and faster we would be determined “burnt out” and let go. We’re temps so the ax is over our heads at all times anyway and it only pays $12 an hour. Vacation, what a laugh.
If you had been talking to say decision makers about how workers are treated that would have been something. Instead, your article is about how decision makers should treat, wait for it, themselves, with no consideration of whom they supervise.
Workers have become treated like machines and have little choice. Your privileged point of view is out of focus on the lives of most Americans today.”
Here is another very true reaction : “You have wrongly framed the discussion in terms of how to get maximum productivity and profits from employees.
What about the importance of treating workers as human beings? As people who need to eat, rest, think, and sometimes, yes, stare out the window bored.
Who cares whether a nap it is profitable or not? The issue is basic human respect for a humane workplace where a person can sleep for 20 minutes if they need it.”
And here is one last quote, that sums it all :
“If your article was directed at executives and upper management, you just told them that the sky is blue and water is wet. An excellent angle would have been to tell them that their workers need the rest, also.”