Relax. You'll be more productive
nytimes.com
Relax. You'll be more productive
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#2Interesting stuff - and specifically, the numbers recommended are interesting. I've heard a 4-hour work day recommended in a few places.
Personally, I tried working 4 hours a day some years ago, whilst dealing with a death in the family. I was startled at how close to my usual 8+hour workday my productivity was - indeed, I'm not sure, looking at output alone, you could have told my 4-hour period apart from my usual work cycle.
I'll be interested to hear if anyone tries this 90-minute cycle specifically, and how it works out for them!
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#3Article can be summarized in this line: "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."
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#4Interesting stuff - and specifically, the numbers recommended are interesting. I've heard a 4-hour work day recommended in a few places. Personally, I tried working 4 hours a day some years ago, whilst dealing with a death in the family. I was startled at how close to my usual 8+hour workday my productivity was - indeed, I'm not sure, looking at output alone, you could have told my 4-hour period apart from my usual w…
I think societal pressures would prevent a 4 hour workday even if it was more productive for many classes of worker.
A great many jobs are not fundamentally about productivity, for example a store checkout worker, a hotel receptionist and some IT operations work. In such cases the work is more about being available to cover certain hours and respond to various situations.
For such jobs it would become a hassle to swap workers around every 4 hours for no real benefit. Thus this sets a certain expectation for working hours.
If some types of workers were thus given significantly shorter hours within the same organisation there would be envy and shaming and accusations that those workers were not working as hard as anybody else.
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#5This message is very well known and understood.
The interesting question is 'why do foolish managers continue to treat their employers in poor ways that are known to decrease productivity?' In terms of productivity, it's a total lose-lose situation.
I'm 37, and I'm pretty sure that I have worked out the answer. Most corporations are run by people (the managerial class) who are more interested in power than results. They hire sycophants who kiss upwards and amplify pressure downwards. Competence is irrelevant; after all, any competent manager would resist managing their employees in ways that management science have proven to be unproductive.
I have been in a couple of these companies, and they absolutely rot from the head down.
At least in tech. we have the option of getting out, because such companies are generally not entrenched and are on track to fail. Unfortunately, in other parts of the economy, such companies are unassailably entrenched, so their workers have no choice but to work for stupid, evil, toxic organisations, or to change career.
The result of these organisations is that much of the US now has a toxic culture of 'if you're not stressed, you're not working'.
A friend also suggested to me that it's possible for groups of people to become 'addicted' to stress; it would be interesting to see more on this.
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#6Nice in theory but hard to put in practice in the more traditional 9-5 corporate environments.
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#7Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#8Interesting stuff - and specifically, the numbers recommended are interesting. I've heard a 4-hour work day recommended in a few places. Personally, I tried working 4 hours a day some years ago, whilst dealing with a death in the family. I was startled at how close to my usual 8+hour workday my productivity was - indeed, I'm not sure, looking at output alone, you could have told my 4-hour period apart from my usual w…
I think societal pressures would prevent a 4 hour workday even if it was more productive for many classes of worker. A great many jobs are not fundamentally about productivity, for example a store checkout worker, a hotel receptionist and some IT operations work. In such cases the work is more about being available to cover certain hours and respond to various situations. For such jobs it would become a hassle to swa…
A huge amount of those service jobs you listed, especially minimum wage, rely on specifically the 4 hour work day, or between 4 and 5. I just got out of food service and the 4-5 hour shift was especially common. Their reasoning is they're getting your best hours, so they cycle a lot of people working short shifts.
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#9This message is very well known and understood. The interesting question is 'why do foolish managers continue to treat their employers in poor ways that are known to decrease productivity?' In terms of productivity, it's a total lose-lose situation. I'm 37, and I'm pretty sure that I have worked out the answer. Most corporations are run by people (the managerial class) who are more interested in power than results. T…
There's a less cynical answer: it's that managers are subject to the same principle, of insufficient R&R resulting in tunnel vision, and so they're exhausted and hence tend to think short-term (beat this unrealistic deadline now!) instead of long-term (we'll cut the least important features or slip the deadline so we can get it done). The only way to break the cycle is to realize that a good portion of what you do doesn't need to be done, and ruthlessly cull out nonessential tasks so that nobody does them.
Re: Relax. You'll be more productive
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think societal pressures would prevent a 4 hour workday even if it was more productive for many classes of worker. A great many jobs are not fundamentally about productivity, for example a store checkout worker, a hotel receptionist and some IT operations work. In such cases the work is more about being available to cover certain hours and respond to various situations. For such jobs it would become a hassle to swa…
A huge amount of those service jobs you listed, especially minimum wage, rely on specifically the 4 hour work day, or between 4 and 5. I just got out of food service and the 4-5 hour shift was especially common. Their reasoning is they're getting your best hours, so they cycle a lot of people working short shifts.
I used to get put on a lot of 3:30 shifts because if you worked 4:00 you were entitled to a paid 15min break (worked retail part-time in the UK)