Productivity
Pace yourself
I heard someone say that they only gave 40% of what they’re capable of to their company job. They save the rest of their time and energy for themselves.
When I told a coworker about it later, I said that I’d feel too guilty to do that. But then we talked about how we burned out earlier in our careers because we pushed to the limit for years. And how it wasn’t worth the exhaustion and sacrifices to our personal lives.
If I could go back in time, I would do it differently. I’d stick more closely to a 40-hour work week and make more time for friends, hobbies, and relaxing. I probably would have had the same level of job success without the burnout.
Passive productivity
There are multiple ways of being productive.
I feel most productive when I’m typing on my computer, knocking out a PowerPoint or document.
I feel least productive when I’m sitting in front of the screen and not much is happening. I sometimes get frustrated with myself because it seems like I’m not focusing. But after every period of just…being there…I start typing again with more clarity about what I’m trying to express, or with a new idea of how to complete the project.
It might look like zoning out, but in reality, it is time spent processing my thoughts. Passive productivity is still productivity.
Leaders and Workers
In large workplaces there are leaders and workers, obviously. There must be people at the top setting strategic direction, delegating, and making decisions about where to invest. And there must be people to get the work done.
Yet in some corporations and the military, if you don’t continue to rise through the ranks, you are eventually pushed out. In one performance review system that I was familiar with, if an employee was considered unlikely to be promoted, they were docked in their review score and received fewer financial rewards. This was true even if they performed above expectations.
The belief was that the best employees would grow into higher-leveled positions and everyone else would eventually leave the company.
It seems short-sighted, doesn’t it? It’s a pyramid, with far more roles for workers at the base than roles for leaders at the top. Companies need many reliable workers at those lower levels to function, let alone thrive.
Not everyone has the qualities to be leader or wants to be a leader. Valuing the people who keep the business running is wise, especially in today’s environment, when employees who aren’t treated well are finding new places to work.
It’s hard to succeed in your job if you don’t fit in with the workplace culture
I recently heard someone say that the ability to succeed in the workplace depends on how well you adapt to the culture.
I wish I had learned that lesson at the start of my career. It could have spared me years of fighting to survive in workplaces where I would never have fit in.
I’ve had jobs that I stayed at too long past my expiration date. After the honeymoon phase, I slowly realized that the way I approached my work was not what those organizations wanted. Worse, in one of those roles, my work ethics were not aligned with the team’s.
If I could go back in time, I would have started looking for new roles as soon as I sensed that what I brought to those jobs — including my capabilities, ideals, and personality — were not valued. Instead, I burned out while putting my energy into trying to fit in better and succeed despite the environment. Towards the end, all my energy went to coping one day at a time.
What a waste.
On the other hand, I’ve been fortunate to experience some roles that were a great fit. My managers understood and supported what I was working on and how I did my job. I was mentored by people I respected. I could put my energy into my projects instead of navigating politics and temperamental managers. My skills and personality meshed with team’s charter and culture.
I accomplished a lot for those organizations.
I thrived.
Sometimes getting by is good enough
Everybody has the occasional unproductive day. After all, everyone gets sick once in a while, or just can’t get motivated. A lot of people struggle to start work on Monday mornings, or can’t be found online late on Friday afternoons.
What I rarely hear people talk about are the long stretches of time when someone slows down at work. Yet we all know that happens, and anyone who is in the workplace long enough will eventually experience something that takes a toll for weeks or months. People go through divorces, have deaths in the family, suffer from serious health issues, or struggle with other long-term problems.
I’ve had a few times in my career when I wasn’t anywhere near the top of my game because I was going through something big in my private life. Major life stuff can make it hard to concentrate.
During those times, I was worried about not being as productive as usual. But when I reflect back now, I recall that I still met my deadlines, showed up to meetings, and did the work I was hired to do. I just didn’t work at the fast pace that I normally do, and wasn’t striving for perfection with every task. I did what I needed to do at work while expending more energy on what needed to be taken care of at home.
And that is fine. That’s the way it should be, since we’re human and not robots. Life eventually stabilizes and work will take up as much time and energy as you are willing to spend on it.
What I want to remember is that lulls happen for everyone. But more importantly, we don’t always have to be working at our highest level. Save energy for what matters most. Sometimes that may be a work project and sometimes it is not.
Using momentum to gain motivation
This past Friday afternoon, I had three tasks remaining that I didn’t feel like doing. It was the end of the week, I was tired, and they weren’t projects that I had a lot of enthusiasm for.
I was tempted to put them off because they didn’t have strict deadlines. But I knew if I made that choice, I would continue to think about them over the weekend and wouldn’t fully relax.
I decided that I would open one of the work files and read through the existing material just to feel like I accomplished something. I do that a lot as a first step on projects. I’ve found that I often have better ideas and am more productive if I skim the work first and then come back to it a day – or even a week – later.
Once I opened the first file, I realized that the task was much easier than I anticipated, and I quickly finished it. I moved on to skimming the second project, which I had been dreading because it was long, and I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject matter. I was surprised that once I had a grasp of the content, I got inspired to do the work. Even though I wasn’t excited by the topic, I had little bursts of ideas about how to approach the task. Those sparks of creativity turned a chore into something fun to work on.
When I finished that project, I had built up momentum and didn’t want to waste it. I read through the final project and then…I lost some enthusiasm. That one was going to take a lot more time and brain power. I gave it another read-through and decided to put it aside.
I returned to all three projects after the weekend. The first two only needed light changes to finalize them. The third one was more difficult, but my initial effort had generated ideas in the back of my mind that helped me get into the work without wasting time.
My tiny amount of effort on Friday started the momentum to do any work at all, which in turn created motivation to keep at it. It was worth it, and I enjoyed my weekend without thinking about work.
Finding what works for you can take time
I’ve struggled to get enough exercise for a long time, but the last year was especially hard. The yoga studio I went to closed for a while and I’m not comfortable going during the pandemic anyway. I like going for walks, but there were times when the weather was too bad, or there was too much wildfire smoke in the air, or I just couldn’t get away from work before dark. I tried doing yoga at home with videos and other exercises but didn’t enjoy it enough to be consistent.
The lack of exercise was also increasing the ongoing discomfort I feel from old injuries and repetitive stress. I tried new pillows and bolsters and equipment to keep my posture in alignment. I got a stand-up desk device so I could alternate between standing and sitting while I worked. I replaced my desk chair with a swiss ball. Some of these things helped more than others, but I still had constant low-back pain.
Then I looked into treadmills that can go under desks. I had first seen one of these in 2014 and thought it would be great to have, but they were way out of my price range. But when I looked again a few months ago, there were models that cost less than six months of yoga studio fees that I was no longer paying.
I got the treadmill in December and for the last three months, it’s been amazing. At around 1 mile per hour, I can type and read my computer screen and forget that I’m walking. It’s so much more comfortable to be slowly and constantly moving throughout the day than standing or sitting for hours. Lately I can walk up to 7 miles before my feet and hips are too fatigued. Then I just fold the treadmill in half, shove it out of the way, pull my standing desk back down to regular height, and sit on the swiss ball until I’m done working.
I’m thrilled that I finally have a solution for working comfortably, reducing pain, and getting exercise. It took a long time and a lot of experimenting to figure out what works. I’ve been working at home since 2012, so it was quite a journey to get here!
Do you know what this journey is similar to?
It’s like searching for the right job.
It can take years of effort to find the right company, manager, and role. Bad jobs are exhausting and so is constantly looking for new positions. But there are many ways to explore what would be a good fit. Researching companies online, taking a class or reading about a field that seems interesting, or taking the initiative to build up skills that you like using are just a few. Some things may not lead anywhere and that’s fine – now you know what doesn’t work. The key is to keep at it until you find the right solution.
Recognizing when you need a break
I feel very fortunate to be working and enjoying my job right now, when so many people are unemployed or have limited opportunities to change roles. I also feel worn out from all the hours and energy I’ve put into both paid and volunteer work in the last couple of months. Although I have no right or desire to complain, I realize that I need to take a break before I start trudging through unproductive workdays or get so run down that I get sick.
Next week, I’m looking forward to a three-day weekend, when I will completely unplug from all work from Friday afternoon until Tuesday morning. This weekend, I practiced setting that boundary in a couple of ways. First, by letting others know I would fulfill my obligations during the workweek and second, by turning my attention back to the present whenever I started thinking about my work to-do list.
It wasn’t the most exciting weekend, but putting work out of my mind and focusing on what was in front of me made me extra appreciative of the great dinner I ate, the perfect temperature on my afternoon walk, and the fact that today was the first time in three weeks that I washed a load of laundry without a tissue hidden in a pants pocket.
Getting work done in difficult times
Even during less stressful times, I sometimes have trouble concentrating on my work. I can spend too much time worrying about everything on my to-do list, or lose focus when I’m interrupted, and then at the end of the day I’m disappointed with my output.
Then at the beginning of March 2020, my day-to-day anxiety spiked with the news headlines and worries about family and friends, and my work productivity took another hit. I knew I needed to break away from habits that were getting in the way of my work and replace them with simple, sustainable actions that help me succeed.
Different things will work for different people, but I have my best days when I do these two things:
- Commit to focusing on one thing at a time.
- Plan for something enjoyable when the workday is over.
Commit to focusing on one thing at a time
It isn’t enough for me to vaguely know that this is a good idea. When I wake up in the morning, I set an intention to focus on the task at hand, whether it is a work or personal project. I remind myself not to multi-task and to bring my attention back to what’s right in front of me if my mind starts to wander.
We’ve all heard about how mindfulness and being present helps us stay centered and mentally healthy. But it is equally true that splitting attention between multiple tasks and thinking about things besides what is in the present is harmful to wellbeing.
I didn’t take this seriously until I had a string of terrible workdays. I had a hard time concentrating and felt scattered because my attention kept jumping from the file I was updating, to the pings I got on messenger, to the meeting reminders, to the phone calls, on and on and on. By the end of the day I hadn’t made enough progress on anything to feel a sense of accomplishment. Instead I felt drained and frustrated.
It can be tempting to just do “one little thing” while on a boring conference call, and we can tell ourselves these little tasks like typing an email, or updating a file are productive, but any gains in time saved are cancelled out by the hit it takes to our brain power. If I’m really having a hard time staying focused in a virtual meeting, I take notes about what is being discussed.
Plan for something enjoyable when the workday is over
This could be anything that sounds nice; it doesn’t have to be anything grand. This is helpful because it gives you something to look forward to all day. It makes any tedious work feel temporary.
A recent fun thing to look forward to after work was having happy hour on my balcony. It was the warmest, sunniest day we’ve had all year and I was excited to have a little more time in the fresh air. I had planned to wrap up my work by 4:30 PM and go outside, even though I knew that my client would probably contact me about an urgent issue.
Sure enough, when I was halfway through a glass of chardonnay, my phone buzzed with a request to talk. It was no big deal. We chatted for all of 3 minutes, and I spent another 20 minutes on my laptop, while sitting on my living room floor with my feet on the balcony next to my glass of wine. Then I got back to enjoying my evening. If I hadn’t planned for my happy hour, I probably would have sat at my desk waiting in case my client needed me and I would have missed out on great way to wind down my day.
Another day’s plan was less ambitious: I decided that after I finished work and dinner, I would play a game on my phone for as long as I wanted before bed. Today’s plan is to bake chocolate chip cookies.
If it seems counterintuitive to be more productive at work by planning to have fun afterwards, consider how you feel when you’re looking forward to a big event, like an exciting vacation. It is a mood booster, and being in a good mood is great for productivity.
It also makes the not-so-fun parts of the workday more tolerable when you know that they will end, and you will soon be doing something that makes you happy.
Making it a habit
There are other things that also help me with energy and focus, like getting outside for a daily walk, eating nutritious food and limiting the amount of time I spend reading the news or social media. But I just do these things, without needing to be quite so intentional about it.
It takes time to build habits. Until it becomes an automatic part of my lifestyle to stay in the moment instead of multi-tasking, and to give myself something to look forward to every day, I need to remind myself to do these things. Sticky notes on my desk, a daily calendar reminder – whatever it takes.
These are stressful, uncertain times, which isn’t ideal for productivity. And yet for the last few weeks I’ve ended each day satisfied with what I’ve accomplished. And now I’ve got to complete my to-do list, which I’m excited about. Because when I’m done…there will be freshly baked cookies. Can’t wait!
Learning from experiences
Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.
-Victoria Holt
Lately I’ve had several work and personal situations that followed the same pattern:
- I put a lot of time and effort into a project.
- It did not go as I had hoped, and I was disappointed.
- Then, something changed, and the project turned out even better than I planned.
After noticing this trend, I reflected on how I had dealt with the disappointments. I was glad that I hadn’t wasted too much energy feeling frustrated, angry or sad because in each case, things ended up better than I had originally hoped for.
I’m glad for the positive endings. But even if I hadn’t been happily surprised, what good would it have done to dwell on the negative? Naturally, I was dissatisfied when at first, I didn’t get the results I wanted. However, those feelings were softened by focusing on what I had learned from the experiences.
In addition to the coincidence of this pattern occurring several times within a few weeks, what I remember is that the positive outcomes were unexpected. I was going down paths with clear visions of end results that did not materialize.
As it turned out, the work I did along the way was the important part. I learned from the experience…and it turned out wonderfully.
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