Building personal capacity: Work like it’s the day before vacation

I recall a day a few years back when I was in my office, trying desperately to get some work done.  A guy I worked with at the time strolled in.  He seemed to have no sense of urgency about, well, anything.  He proceeded to explain to me – for over ten minutes – how incredibly busy he was, and how he expected to be at work until the wee hours finishing up something that was tremendously behind schedule.  Instead of being frustrated by the interruption, I found myself mesmerized by the contradiction before me, wondering how much earlier he’d see his kids that night (or I’d see my kid) if he’d just get back to work.

Presenteeism: The new corporate disease

The new word for this is “presenteeism” – showing up for work without really showing up. Presenteeism is often associated with people working while sick, leading to low productivity.  But presenteeism goes far beyond people just being sick at work.  It’s a growing problem in organizations, afflicting people who are overwhelmed by their workload.  Ever find yourself just pointlessly doing email when you’ve got bigger fish to fry?  That’s a form of presenteeism. Or wandering the halls like my hapless colleague above?  Presenteeism again.  You’ve reached the saturation point with work, and nothing productive is going to happen.

In a great little book from a few years ago called Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency, Tom DeMarco makes the point that people who plan on working long hours during the day are far less productive than people who tightly time-box their day.  The reason?  With no definitive, hard stop for their day, people unconsciously pace themselves, spreading roughly the same amount of work across more hours.  In fact, their most productive time during those extended work days is when everyone else goes home and they realize they have to get something done or they won’t get any sleep. 

Of course, all of us have to put in long hours at times to deal with a peak load, but the chronic pattern of long work hours tends to result in very low productivity. And at great cost to your personal life.

The problem: Energy management

Now, we could get into a big discussion about employee engagement and all the things organizations do wrong that create a detached workforce, and it would all be valid.  But if we take ownership for it at the grass roots level, something else is at work.  This is a classic energy management problem for individuals.  Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz exposed the issues around energy management in The Power of Full Engagement.  In their book, they compare their peak performance training for their clients who are elite athletes with their work with corporate executives. 

The biggest difference between the two, they state, is that elite athletes understand they have to cycle between training hard and allowing time to recover, while corporate professionals don’t allow for any recovery time.  Conditioning to take on more, they say, is based on pushing hard but then resting. So for us corporate athletes, we should push hard for a sprint, but then take some time to recharge.  Not only will your productivity increase, but so will your overall capacity – you condition yourself to do more and handle larger stressors, like elite athletes pursuing higher levels of performance in their sport.  No recovery time, on the other hand, leads to slow-burning mediocrity, which is all you can muster when you’ve used up your energy. 

Maximizing your energy at work

So, if you find yourself wandering the halls, looking for a friendly ear to hear about how overworked you feel, here are two tips. 

• Build recovery time into your daily schedule.  Personally, I can push hard for about two hours, and then I need 15-30 minutes to get some air.  The time window is different for everyone – some can push for 3 hours, some 90 minutes.  But then there needs to be time to recover.  I’m an extrovert who recharges by being around people, so I plan 1:1’s with people I call “coffee walks” – where people can get 20 minutes of my time, some fresh air and a cup of coffee.  No slides, no office, just talking and walking.  Then I’m back to work at 100%.  For introverts who recharge their batteries by being alone, it’s probably something very different.  Whatever it is, put it on your calendar and do it.  You’ll get more done and be more focused afterwards.
• Work every day like it’s the last day before vacation.  You know that day – where you’ve got to tie up all your loose ends at work by a set time so you can get home and pack for vacation?  That’s often the most productive day people have.  And the sense of completion and closure is just amazing.  If your workday is out of control, try this.  First, define what time you must leave work that day.  Carpool with someone, set a personal appointment, take mass transit – whatever you need to force you out of the office by a set time.  Second, set specific goals for what you’ll get done prior to your planned departure. This simple discipline of defining and time-boxing the work creates urgency and focus during your work day.  And when you get home, you’ll be home.

Yes, it may seem counter-intuitive, but the way to get more done is through rest.  Your muscles don’t grow during exercise; they rebuild themselves during the rest period that follows.  Consider your capacity at work to be much the same – through rest, you grow stronger and more capable.  When your day becomes a series of shorter, time-boxed work periods, you’ll get much more done, and get home on time much more often.  So the family will get to enjoy more of you.

And the guy down the hall you keep dropping in on – he’ll get to enjoy less of you.