A client recently wanted to problem-solve for working four days a week, but when she started explaining the problem, it wasnโt about the load of her days or how many days a week she worked. Deep down it was about work intensity, or how stressful it was for her to be working โat 100% efficiencyโ for 5-6 hours a day.
I pointed out that a really common pattern and a byproduct of efficiency crankers are theyโre exhausted no matter how much actual work is on their plate. Even if/when we remove 25% of the work from their plate, the typical move among these folks is to then cut the amount of time they give themselves to do the work by 25%.
This has the net result of them being just as stressed about the work, no matter how much work is removed from their plate.
An additional part about this clientโs scenario is that, partially because of the work weโve done together, everything is great for her right now. Her business is working well, sheโs getting the right clients, and she loves the work that she does. She has a new perfect-for-her romantic partner. Her health is great and far improved than when we started. Sheโs happy and doesnโt want much, which itself has become a challenge for her. (Weโre working through the way her upper limit responses have gone guerrilla.)
So, in her circumstances, cutting an additional day of work wouldnโt make her better off and would create a lot of stress to get there. Sheโd work four days, just as intensely, and end up just as worn out.
Instead of cutting work, I asked her โwhat would you do if I asked you to be 15% slower?โ We brainstormed a few โslow practices,โ she might do in 5-10 minutes, like:
Sheโs still exploring whether itโll be best for her personally to set a timer to initiate her slow practices and self-care or to sense when sheโs needing to do one of these practices between tasks. The latter is better for most people after they have been practicing slow productivity for a while, but when folks are addicted to checking off tasks, itโs typically better to start with timers.
On the subject of timers, I happen to know she uses timers for her work. I chose to remind her that if she could use her timers to work, she could use timers to not work.ย
The obvious difference is that, in the latter case, sheโd have to give herself permission to stop working, and that, weirdly, is going to take more discipline for her to do (to use her slow practices) than to work. (Iโve had A LOT of practice coaching folks on this topic, as it turns out, not the least because Angela struggles with this, too.)
This is one of those cases where the normal go-tos of subtraction do not work well. Adding some recovery practices to her day will create more vitality, joy, creativity, and richness in her work and life. Working an hour or day less at the same pace would not get her there.
We see many organizations who fumble this, too. Their response to burnt-out, overloaded workers is to switch to 4 days a week, but for many workers, that amounts to having to do the same amount of work in less time โ it increases intensity without really addressing the workways and team habits creating more work than people can do in their compensated time. What really needs to be solved for is the load of work, not just the amount of days people work.
A 4-day work week boiled down to 10 hours of work a day can in some cases be a good solution for companies. For example, if someone commutes for an hour or ninety minutes per day, the additional day off makes a real difference.
These same companies would likely see a better result if they encouraged workers to do admin or remote work from home on Friday, or, better yet, to let teams decide when they need to work remotely and when they need to be co-located. No one wants to commute to do the same things they can do from home, and many people wouldnโt mind the commute as much if the work they were driving to do really got done better face-to-face or co-located.
What we really need to consider, though, is the mindset that causes people to work so intensely in the first place. Sometimes itโs what it takes to get the job done but other times there are more insidious things at play. The following are two more common reasons for the intensity, though:
Hereโs the takeaway: if no matter how much work you do throughout the day, you feel like youโre panting and rushed, perhaps itโs not the amount of work youโre doing, but the pace youโre working at.
Consider ways in which, rather than just subtracting or decreasing the amount of hours or days youโre working, you can slow yourself down in order to be more intentional and calm about the ways youโre moving forward on your workload. Chances are with less anxiety produced by the high work intensity and overload, you might be more productive anyway.
Team Habitsย is coming this August and now available for pre-order at your favorite bookseller. And if youโre curious about identifying your teamโs strength areas, growth areas, and challenge areas, take ourย Team Habits Quiz, a free, customized report to help you understand how your team works best together and how together your team does its best work.ย
The post What to Do When Work Intensity Is the Problem appeared first on Productive Flourishing.