“If you want to be more productive, you need to become a master of your minutes”, is one of those phrases that we usually utter to ourselves when we pursue big projects. Whether you are a business owner or an employee, you tend to try managing it all – eat healthy food, build a successful project, take care of your living space, stay fit and above all stay happy.
Doing everything simultaneously can be quite exhausting, but contrary to every famous mantra for treating your business and life like a “race track”, may not be in your favour.
There was a time when Steve Warner, a highly respected partner with Ernst & Young used to work 12-14 hours a day and felt ceaselessly exhausted. Poor sleep, no time for family and exercise and many more health issues, are some of those problems that he used to face. There are many such issues that most of us face while responding to the high demands for extended working hours at the workplace. Eventually, this leads to declining engagement levels, increasing distraction levels, soaring medical expenses and high turnover rates.
Author of The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwartz, understands our hectic lifestyles and recommends managing our energy instead of managing our time. Schwartz advises treating our life and business as recovery and sprints, rather than treating them as a marathon.
The Myth About Time Management
We are living in a trap for ages, where we are forced to believe that working for eight or more hours at a stretch will increase our productivity and impress our managers and colleagues.
A workspace study conducted by ScienceDirect shows that on an average, every working professional experiences around 87 interruptions every day. This makes it difficult for them to stay focused and productive for the whole day.
A few years back, the Portland based artist and author, Lisa Congdon used to work on her projects for almost 12 hours without a break. However, after understanding the aspect of correct approach towards work, she restructured the work timings to accomplish the same amount of output. She started to split her day into shorter segments of 45-minutes and aimed to achieve the max of her productivity level, within the limited time frame.
The basics of maintaining energy level and focus in shorter time bursts are to apply flexibility to the shorter segments. This will help to utilise the time for some meditation and exercise. Getting rest within your work day will also assist you with lower stress level and hence achieve a better output, within the selected time for working.
This theory seems to make sense when seen in the light of research conducted by The draugiem Group, in 2014. The study was carried out to read the habits that differentiate their most productive employees from others. They used a time-tracking productivity app to do so. However, the results were highly surprising for them. Top 10% of their highest productivity employees never put any longer hours, as compared to other average performing employees. Instead, the core reason for their high productivity rate was a period divided into short intervals, followed by focused work. Their most productive workers had a pattern of 52 minutes of focused work.
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less and a reputed Silicon Valley consultant, believes that our traditional 24*7 work culture is not helping us be productive and come up with creative ideas.
Another study by Willard Kerr and Raymond Van Zelst conducted in Illinois Institute of Technology, in 1951 found that scientist who worked for 25 hours per week is no more productive than other scientists who spent only 5 hours in the workplace. In fact, on an average from two to four hours of focused work can serve much better productivity as compared to a traditional workday.
Five ways to manage your Energy, Not Time
As discussed above, to maintain your energy instead of managing time, you will have to treat your life as recovery and sprints. To do so, it is crucial to building recovery in equal parts.
#1 Schedule your recovery time
In our busy life schedule, we often forget to engage ourselves in recreational activities. No matter whether you want a break or not, you should plan relaxation activities or fun and stick to your plans.
#2 Double your break timings
Whatever the time is, that you think your mind and body needs to recover is not enough. Ideally, if you think you are too tired and you need an hour of recovering time, you should go for a two-hour break. Our mind tends to underestimate the effort that all of our hard work is putting on our mind and body. Therefore, when your mind calculates a degree of break time, double it.
#3 Enjoy your weekends with family and friends
Your family and friends can be a great stress buster and if you have a pet that is even better. Schedule a getaway with your family and friends on the upcoming weekend and you will no excuse but unplug yourself from work and work-related worries.
#4 List down your benefits of R&R and brainstorm some fun rejuvenating activities
Make a list of advantages that you think can motivate you and remind you to imply the breaks you want to set-up. Instead of a 24*7 planning for what to do in work, make a list of all such activities that bring relaxation and joy to you.
#5 Break your biggest achievable goals into small measurable chunks
Add a reward to your long everyday to-do list, to feel joyous. It could be anything from reading a book to going out for dinner or just chatting with a close friend. Break down your massive work burdens into smaller chunks and add some reward for yourself.
Once you can see how much you are struggling in your daily life to concentrate, you will be able to create rituals that reduce the relentless interruptions. These interruptions could be anything from manual interactions to technical defaults. If you want high productivity, use the methods of self-rewarding and start managing your energy rather than managing your time.
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