In our present, much publicized ‘grind’ culture, we often find people bragging about the number of 84-hour work weeks they put in. You may also find a friend telling you that he works out for 2 hours everyday in the gym, but his physique clearly doesn’t reflect it. Putting in these insane amount of hours per week, often leads to fatigue, burnout, which ultimately results in us quitting the activity altogether. What if I told you such marathon work hours are counter productive and there is a better way to get better results without putting in as much time? In the following article we will discuss how to get more work done in less time.
Before learning how to be more productive, first let’s revisit the formula we think, helps us get the most work done :
Understanding “Pseudo” Work :
work accomplished = time spent working
In accordance with the above formula, we think that putting in more hours per day will help us get more work done. Due to which, we put more number of hours. The above style of getting work done can be termed as “pseudo” work. “Pseudo” work is a term that reflects a low-focus, time-intensive marathon style of work.
As an example of pseudo work, consider a student who hadn’t studied for his exams and as a result got poor grades in class. In such a case, the student often shuts himself off from the world and starts to study day and night. But as often is the case, he finds such a rigorous study schedule to be too much for him to take and so he gets back to his old habits. However, as argued by computer scientist and author, Cal Newport, in his book, How to be a Straight A Student , there is a much more effective way to work, that will help one get more work done in less time.
“Focused” Work v/s “Pseudo” Work :
The following is the formula for “Focused” work, which is our secret key behind deciphering how to get better results :
work accomplished = intensity of focus x time spent
We often confuse time spent as the key to getting more work accomplished. Whereas, we totally ignore our intensity of focus while performing the task. As I discussed in a previous article titled, how to be more productive, the intensity of our focus, follows an ultradian rhythm, and due to mental fatigue, it decays during the day. As a result, the time spent on performing a task, does not yield us the same results, during the day. This also means that greater the effort that we put in sharpening our focus, the better will be the results obtained.
Let me the illustrate the difference between the effectiveness of “focused” work compared to “pseudo” work with the help of an example.
Consider the case of two students, Pappu and Pandu. They both study in the same class. Their assignment, is due on Monday. Pappu believes that amount of work done is equal to the number of hours he puts in. So he delays the work until Sunday and puts in a marathon session to complete the assignment by dividing his schedule as follows :
hour 1 : 10 units of work
hour 2 : 8 units of work
hour 3 : 4 units of work
hour 4 : 2 units of work
hour 5-10 : 1 unit of work
Total units of work done by Pappu : 32
Total time taken : 10 hours
As opposed to Pappu, Pandu knows the importance of focused work. He also knows the huge importance of focus in getting better results. So he starts working on the assignment on Saturday afternoon, and completes the assignment by Sunday morning, just by putting in 4 hours in total. His breakdown of task was as follows :
(Saturday afternoon) hour 1 : 10 units of work
(Saturday afternoon) hour 2 : 8 units of work
(Sunday morning) hour 1 : 10 units of work
(Sunday morning) hour 2 : 8 units of work
Total units of work done by Pappu : 36
Total time taken : 10 hours
As you can clearly see, Pandu got more work done ( 12.5 % more to be precise), while putting in 6 hours less. The key behind such a difference of productivity between Pappu and Pandu , was focus and recovery. Pandu got in more more work done by putting in small but intense rounds of work hours, and focused the rest of him time in recovery, so that he could start the next day with renewed vigor. As a result of which, he got more work done than Pappu, in significantly lesser time.
This phenomenon of short but focused work can be seen in lives of people from various walks of life, who have managed to reach at the top of their game. Dorian Yates, won Mr. Olympia( which is considered the biggest accomplishment for a bodybuilder) 6 times. He never worked out for more than 45 minutes a day ! Highly acclaimed writers such as Steven Pressfield, William Somerset Maugham, never worked for more than 4 hours in a day.
Thus we can conclude that in order to get more work done and hence better results, we need to put more attention on the quality of our focus by working in short but intense bursts and leaving sufficient time for recovery.
What are your views on the above article? What stops you from being more productive ? I would love to know in the comments below.
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