Why we should work less ?
Mastering an 'active break' is much harder than it looks, but there's a good reason why we should keep working.
When I moved to Rome from Washington, DC, one scene struck me over an ancient column or a large basilica: people did not do anything.
I often see elderly women leaning against their windows, watching people pass by below, or families on their evening streets, stopping often to greet friends. Even office life proved to be different. Forget the sandwiches next to the table in a hurry. During lunch, the restaurant is filled with professionals who dive into decent food.
Of course, since the Grand Tourists began to write their observations in the seventeenth century, outsiders have copied the idea of Italian 'arrogance'. And that's not the whole story. The same friends who return home with their scooters for a casual lunch often return to the office to work until 8 pm.
By law, every EU country has at least four weeks paid holiday, and in Italy there are 10 additional holidays.
However, a clear belief in balancing hard work with il dolce far niente, the sweetness of not doing anything, always fascinates me. After all, not doing anything seems to be the opposite of being productive. And productivity, whether creative, intellectual or industrial, is the last use of our time.
- As we fill our days with more 'doing', many of us find that going non-stop is not a productivity apotheosis. It is his enemy
But as we fill our days with more 'doing', many of us find that non-stop activity is not a productivity apotheosis. It is his enemy.
Researchers are learning that it not only means that the work we produce at the end of the 14-hour day is of a worse quality than when we are fresh. This work pattern also undermines our creativity and cognition. Over time, it can make us physically sick - and even, ironically, as if we have no purpose.
When Sweden recently experimented with six hours of workweek, it found that employees had better health and productivity.
Think of a mental job like doing push-ups, says Josh Davis, author of Two Awesome Hours. Let's say you want to do 10,000. The most 'efficient' way is to do it all at once without rest. We know instinctively, that it is impossible. Conversely, if we only do a few moments, between other activities and stretches for weeks, hitting 10,000 would be much more feasible.
"The brain is very muscular in this," Davis wrote. "Set the wrong conditions through constant work and we can achieve a little. Prepare the right conditions and maybe not much we can not do. "
Do or die
Many of us, though, tend to think of our brains as not muscles, but as computers: machines that work constantly. Not only is it untrue, but pushing yourself to work for hours without a break can be dangerous, some experts say.
- People who work more than 11 hours a day are almost 2.5 times more likely to experience major depressive episodes than those who work seven to eight
"The idea that you can indefinitely stretch your focus and time of deep productivity to these arbitrary boundaries is completely wrong. It beats itself, "said research scientist Andrew Smart, author of Autopilot. "If you are constantly putting yourself into this cognitive debt, where your physiology says 'I need rest' but you keep pushing yourself, you get a chronic low-level stress response - and, over time, very dangerous . "
A study found that entrepreneurs who took fewer days off in middle age were more likely to die earlier and have worse health in old age.
One meta-analysis found that long working hours increased the risk of coronary heart disease by up to 40% - almost the same as smoking (50%). Others find that people who work long hours have a significantly higher risk of stroke, while people who work more than 11 hours a day are almost 2.5 times more likely to experience major depressive episodes than those who work seven to eight.
In Japan, this has led to disturbing karoshi trends, or death from overwork.
If you're wondering if this means that you might want to consider taking a long delayed vacation, the answer might be yes. One study of employers in Helsinki found that over 26 years, executives and entrepreneurs who took fewer holidays in middle age predicted both previous deaths and worse health in old age.
So widespread is the problem of death from overwork in Japan that the victim's family receives government compensation of about $ 20,000 per year.
Vacation can also really pay off. One study of more than 5,000 full-time American workers found that people who took less than 10 of their paid days a year had little more than one-in-three opportunity to earn a three-year salary or bonus increase. People who take more than 10 days? Two out of three occasions.
Productivity is proven
It's easy to think that efficiency and productivity are an entirely new obsession. But the philosopher Bertrand Russell would not agree.
"It will be said that while a bit of fun is fun, men will not know how to fill their days if they only have four hours of work of 24," Russell wrote in 1932, adding, "that would not be true in any previous period. there is a capacity for light heartedness and play that has to some extent been inhibited by the cult of efficiency.Modern man thinks that everything must be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake. "
- It will be said that while a bit of fun is fun, men will not know how to fill their days if they only have four hours of work from 24 - Bertrand Russell
That said, some of the most creative and productive people in the world realize the importance of doing less. They have a strong work ethic - but remain dedicated to rest and play.
"Do one thing at a time until it's done," writes artist and writer Henry Miller in his 11 commands in writing. "Stop at the appointed time! ... guard man! Look at people, go places, drink if you like him."
In fact, the founding father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, a diligent model, devoted much of his time not to work. Every day he has a two-hour lunch break, free nights and a full night's sleep. Instead of working endlessly in his career as a printer, who pays bills, he spends "a lot of time" for hobbies and socializing. "In fact, the interest that took him out of his profession brings so many wonderful things he knows, such as creating a Franklin stove and lightning rod," Davis wrote.
The philosopher, Bertrand Russell writes: "Americans need rest, but not know it."
Even on a global level, there is no clear correlation between a country's productivity and average working hours. With a working week of 38.6 hours, for example, the average US worker worked 4.6 hours a week longer than Norway. But based on GDP, Norwegian workers contribute the equivalent of $ 78.70 per hour - compared to US $ 69.60.
- The interest that took him out of his profession caused so many wonderful things he knew - Josh Davis
As for Italy, home il ilce far niente? With an average working time of 35.5 hours, it generates almost 40% more per hour than Turkey, where people work an average of 47.9 hours per week. Even the end of England, where people work 36.5 hours.
All those coffee breaks, apparently, may not be so bad.
Brain waves
The reason we have an eight-hour workday altogether is because the company finds that cutting employees' working hours has the opposite effect they expect: increasing their productivity.
During the Industrial Revolution, 10 to 16 hours a day is normal. Ford was the first company to experiment with eight hours per day - and found its workers more productive not only hourly but overall. Within two years, their profit margins doubled.
- A survey of nearly 2,000 full-time office workers in the UK found that people were only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes from an eight-hour day
If eight hours a day is better than the 10 hours, even shorter work hours could be better? Maybe. For people over 40, the study found that 25 working hours a week could be optimal for cognition, whereas when Sweden recently experimented with six hours of work, it found that employees had better health and productivity.
Inventor and scientist Benjamin Franklin conducts experiments to uncover unknown facts about the nature of lightning and electricity
This seems to be borne by how people behave during the work day. One survey of nearly 2,000 full-time office workers in the UK found that people were only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes of eight hours a day. Remaining time spent checking social media, reading news, chatting unrelated to work with colleagues, eating - and even finding new jobs.
- When we push ourselves to the edge of our abilities, we need more rest than we think. Most people can only handle one hour of intentional exercise without rest
We can focus for a shorter period of time when we push ourselves to the edge of our ability. Researchers like Stockholm University psychologist K Anders Ericsson have found that when engaged in the kind of 'deliberate practice' required to really master any skill, we need more rest than we think. Most people can only handle one hour without rest. And many at the top, such as elite musicians, writers and athletes, never dedicate more than five hours a day consistently to their craft.
Other practices they share? "Their increasing trend for recuperative naps," Ericsson wrote - one way, of course, to rest the brain and body.
Other studies have also found that taking a short break from the task helps participants maintain their focus and continue to perform at a high level. Not taking breaks makes their performance worse.
Virginia Woolf writes: "He does not want to move or talk, he wants to rest, to lean, to dream, he is very tired"
Rest active
But 'rest', as some researchers show, is not always the best word for what we do when we think we are not doing anything.
As we've written before, the part of the brain that is active when you do 'nothing', known as the default-mode network (DMN), plays an important role in consolidating memory and envisioning the future. It's also an area of the brain that is active when people pay attention to others, think about themselves, make moral judgments or process the emotions of others.
In other words, if this network is shut down, we may have to struggle to remember, forecast the consequences, to understand social interactions, to understand ourselves, to act ethically or to empathize with others - all the things that make us not only work in the workplace, but at life.
"It helps you recognize the importance of deeper situations. It helps you make sense of things. When you do not make sense of things, you just react and act right now, and you are subject to various types of cognitive and emotional maladaptive behaviors and beliefs, "said Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a neurologist and researcher at the Institute of Brain and Creativity University of Southern California.
- If, like Archimedes, you get your last great idea while taking a bath or a walk, you have to thank your biology
Nor will we be able to find any new ideas or connections. The birthplace of creativity, DMN lights up when you make associations between subjects that seem unrelated or appear with original ideas. This is also the place where your 'ah-ha' moment is lurking - which means if, like Archimedes, you get your last good idea while taking a bath or a walk, you have to thank her biology.
Perhaps most important of all, if we do not take the time to distract ourselves, we lose an important element of happiness.
"We just do things without making meaning of it a lot of the time," Immordino-Yang said. "When you do not have the ability to inculcate your actions in a wider direction, they feel aimlessly over time, and are empty, and not connected to your broader sense of self. And we know that having no purpose over time is connected with not having optimal psychological and physiological health. "
Even knitting can help your brain recover from non-stop activity
Monkey thought
But since anyone who has tried meditation knows, doing anything turns out to be very difficult. How many of us, after 30 seconds of downtime, grab our phones?
In fact, it makes us so uncomfortable that we prefer to hurt ourselves. Literally. In 11 different studies, the researchers found that participants preferred to do anything - even setting their own electric shocks - nothing. And it's not as if they were asked to sit quietly long: between six and 15 minutes.
The good news is that you do not have to do anything to get the benefit. It is true that rest is important. But so is active reflection, chewing on issues you have or thinking about an idea.
In fact, anything that requires visualizing hypothetical outcomes or imagined scenarios - such as discussing problems with friends, or getting lost in a good book - also helps, says Immordino-Yang. If you have a goal, you can even involve your DMN if you see social media.
"If you only see beautiful photos, it is not enabled. But if you stop and let yourself nag at the broader story of why the person in the picture feels that way, making a narrative around it, then you might greatly activate those networks, "he said.
- Even just by walking once, preferably on the outside, has been shown to increase creativity significantly
It also does not take much time to undo the detrimental effects of constant activity. When adults and children are sent out, without their devices, for four days, their performance on tasks that measure creativity and problem solving increases by 50%. Even just by walking once, preferably on the outside, has been shown to increase creativity significantly.
Another very effective method to repair the damage is meditation: as little as one week of practice for subjects who have never meditated before, or one session for experienced practitioners, can enhance creativity, mood, memory and focus.
Other tasks that do not require 100% concentration can also help, such as knitting or doodling. As Virginia Woolf writes in One's Own's Room: "Drawing pictures is a useless way to complete an unfavorable morning job. But in our laziness, in our dreams, that submerged truth sometimes reaches the top. "
Time has run out
Whether it's walking away from your desk for 15 minutes or getting out of your inbox for the night, part of our struggle is control - the fear that if we loosen the grip for a moment, everything will collapse.
That's all wrong, says poet, businessman and life coach Janne Robinson. "The metaphor I use is fire. We start a business, and then after a year, like, when can we take a week off, or hire someone to sign in? Most of us do not trust someone to come to us. We are like, 'Fire will go out', "he said.
"What if we just believe that the embers are so hot, can we go, someone can throw a log and it will burn?"
It's not easy for those of us who feel like we should continue to 'do'. But to do more, it seems, we may have to be comfortable with doing less.