Busy ain’t necessarily productive (duh, Mary).
Yes, more world-shattering “old news” Productivity Means Working Smarter, Not Longer, by Stever Robbins (a Harvard MBA and published author with a heapin’ helping of common sense perspective.) But, if this is “old news” and we all know it then why do so many of us dash around like the poor rabbit in Wonderland (and feel overwhelmed by the same type of surreal events?)
Me - I love to be “too busy” and make tons of action lists. However, I’ve learned the hard way that it’s far better to accomplish a daily three item “to do” list than exhaust my energy and brainpower on a three page list that will never get done (and I’ll get depressed just looking at).
Two (pretty quick) sanity checkpoints (for entrepreneurs and anybody else thinking, “I’m late! I’m late!”):
1. Are you meeting for the sake of meetings? Of course, quality personal relationships are key to success in business. However, it’s easy to fall down the hole into endless networking that doesn’t result in good business. This is particularly dangerous for micro and small businesses; you can spend your day (and budget) in networking events and come away with little to no results. (”But, gosh, they sound so good!” Yes, that’s because the networking groups are marketing to you, dear reader!)
And, within companies, meetings are often a fall back for when people don’t know what else to do. In my corporate career, I was sometimes asked to go to meetings to plan other meetings. Of course, we needed goals and an agenda for the “big” meeting - but we really didn’t need to get 35 people in a room to push their own agendas for an hour or more.
Sure, face time is important. But - before signing up for yet another rubber chicken lunch or scheduling an “all-hands” meeting - stop and think: Is it quality face time?
2. Are you trying to go down every rabbit hole? I once worked with a senior executive that told me, “If you’re consistently working more than 40 hours a week, you’re doing something wrong.” At the time, I thought he was an “old guy who doesn’t get it” (I was all of 22.) But, over the years, both my experience and others’ research back him up.
In fact, over 100 years ago, Dr. Ernst Abbe studied working time at Seiss Optical Works in Germany and found that reducing hours by more than 10% actually increased output.
Here’s a “high-tech” data point. SAS Institute lets its developers only work 35 hours a week. They claim this is the reason they don’t have to follow the Microsoft model of having three testers to every programmer. Also, they have an incredibly low 3% churn (save millions on employee recruitment and newbie’s learning curves.) Contrast this to games developer Electronic Arts, which regularly required 85 hour work weeks - but had to replace nearly 50% of its engineers every year, according to Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People
So - Nope. “Busy” isn’t the same as “productive.”
With thanks to Worthwhile magazine for Margaret Heffernan’s essay The Hours (July 2005) from which I got the above statistics. Although I can’t give the link to the hard copy edition of the article, there are a lot more stats just a Google search away (and Ms. Hefferenan also covers the topic well in the Fast Company link I provide with her name.) Thus you’ll be well prepared for the next time a workoholic proudly proclaims they worked all weekend or haven’t seen their family in three weeks. You can reply, “Geez! Are you clinically insane?”
View the Blog Roll
January 31st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
[…]
The jury’s in. I’m nuts.
Yup. It’s official. I’m clinically insane!. Well, not really […]
February 1st, 2006 at 7:10 am
I have known plenty of people who couldn’t stand sitting around doing nothing, even if there was nothing to do.
I have seen loads of people making personal calls after 7pm discussing for hours how busy they were with a series of friends who were all impressed that they were still in the office! One HR executive I knew used to stay late every night. He knew very well that by staying in the office past 8pm he was entitled to a free meal and a car home. He was very smooth when people asked him what he’d been up to. He had a lot of respect - I think it was because he was just smart enough to get away with it!
I have also seen plenty of people perfectly satisfied with having other people do their work.
We have three kinds of people here:
1. Loves to be busy
2. Loves to be lazy while looking busy
3. Loves to be lazy and doesn’t care who knows it.
In my experience most people in large companies fall into the second category and waste everyone’s time.
February 1st, 2006 at 10:02 am
I hear you! Back in my Corporate America days, I knew that I had to set the stage in any new job or position. So, for the first 90 days or so, I’d arrive very early (a real challenge for me) and leave after everyone else. Of course, I was also working like a fiend, but did I have to be there all those hours? No. But, I had to build the reputation and perception.
And to be fair (I slam “Corporate America” frequently) - there were and are a lot of good people in many companies.
February 1st, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Yes, you are right, most people are decent, but capable of behaving in a way that is unnatural to them in order to hold onto their jobs. How often are people called in on the weekends when there is no deadline or emergency and don’t dare refuse? Or work seventy hour weeks so that no one gets the jump on them? How often do people feel they have to tow the line - or else. Some of this is just the perception of being trapped, but the sad fact is if corporate employees do not play the perception game they find themselves out on their ear regardless of their abilities. So people learn to compromise and play politics for the sake of keeping their jobs. They become jaded and look to get whatever benefits they can because they have no confidence that their job will be there tomorrow. What I called laziness in my second person category could also be indifferent and uncaring. I work hard and have never been indifferent, but can’t fault people for having a more mercenary outlook.
There always have been political players in big companies, people who got ahead based on their wits rather than their abilities, but they are now more the rule than the exception. I would agree though that their outlook is a product of surviving in a hostile environment rather than their inner character. Even still you do find solid company people. I used to work with a woman who had a very strong work ethic and she was also good at politics. One of those rare and beautiful exceptions that are able to turn the tables on the system.
What I find really funny is that if you try to describe life in a large company to people who have not had the experience of working in one, they can’t understand it. I try to explain - it is not that there is an evil corporate czar looking over his empire crackinking his whip and sacrificing beautiful maidens, but somehow there is this culture in big businesses which most everyone subscribes to and even those who do not accept it as a part of life that cannot be altered.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[…] I’m off to get my “To Do” list today down to just three things – and then do them. Related Posts: Busy ain’t necessarily productive (duh Mary!) Old-Fashioned Technology – It Works! […]