Work smarter, not harder

Illustration: TBS

In the book 'Make Time', authors John Zeratsky and Jake Knapp discuss the two ideas which constantly push the new generation of employees to compete against one another in the hyper-efficient workplaces of the twenty-first century. 

The first one is the idea of being on a 'Busy Bandwagon', i.e. the culture of consistently being occupied with work; where life is often characterised by overflowing inboxes, endless meetings, and deadlines after deadlines are met.  

In today's world, everybody wants to feel productive at every moment, thanks to self-help books and the so-called motivational gurus. Nobody wants to slow down and when they do, they feel as though they are doing something wrong. It's as though everyone was insecure and desperate to meet the standards of modern society so that they don't fall behind. 

The other force is called 'Infinity Pools', i.e. apps and social media with never-ending content becoming an endless source of distraction.

Modern Technology takes advantage of our brains, which evolved to be distractible. Humans evolved to be easily distracted because it kept us safe from dangers. We love mysteries and stories since they helped our ancestors learn and communicate. 

People love to gossip and flaunt their social status since it helped form tight-knit protective tribes in ancient society. We love to react to these distractions because possible rewards of it facilitated the living of our predecessors. 

People also have a fear of missing out – FOMO. Everybody wants to be updated with the latest series, tweets or even the features of the latest iPhone; such information is the fuel of human interaction now.

According to the authors, because of these forces, we are often not even aware of where and how our time is being spent. As they say, most of our time is spent in a morbid default.

It is worth exploring the science behind working smarter rather than putting in unnecessary effort on simple tasks. Here's how one can go into the deep work mode more conveniently and make time for family, hobbies and other social needs.

Set an insane deadline! 

Two of the most important prerequisites to having more time left in the day are the ability to allocate the appropriate time for our tasks, and being able to make it to the predefined deadline with no unfavourable impact on performance. 

In the year 1955, 'The Economist' published a humorous essay by Cyril Northcote Parkinson where the term 'Parkinson's Law' was first coined. 

According to the law, work expands to fill the time we allocate to it for its completion. In simple terms, an intense deadline compels the human brain to finish the work or at least make the highest possible progress within the deadline. 

Deadlines make our brain focus. An intense deadline not only just puts us into focus mode but can also make us work better. According to 'Yerkes-Dodson Law', setting an ambitious deadline creates a decent amount of emotional arousal and helps you achieve peak performance. 

Behavioural cues can help as well

James Clear, the author of 'Atomic Habits', acknowledges the power of using environmental cues to achieve desirable behaviours. 

For example, lighting a specific candle when you start working can put you in the right mindset to be more productive. Over the period, our brain associates these cues with deep work and gives us an easier entrance to a focused state.  

However, there is a limit to such deep work. Anders Ericsson, the author of 'Peak', explains, most novices can do only an hour of intense concentration per day. Those who got extensive practice can expand this up to four hours. 

Let yourself get bored

"And yet it would be a relief in a way not to be bothered with it anymore….Sometimes I have felt it was like an eye looking at me….I found I couldn't rest without it in my pocket."

Bilbo baggins

Nowadays, people reflexively pull out their devices when facing even a slight amount of boredom. Cal Newport – author of 'Deep Work' – explains, by filling these low-stimuli moments with high-stimuli activity, we diminish our brain's ability to tolerate boredom. 

Unless we train our focus muscles for boredom, we won't be able to concentrate on our tasks, as they are low-stimulus activities that require sincere attention. Comedian Bo Burnham depicts the same thing in his song 'Welcome to the Internet', where he talks about our world where "Boredom is a crime."   

Boredom gives our minds a chance to wander and this may lead to something interesting, and creative. Two separate research at Penn State and the University of Central Lancashire found that bored people were better at creative problem-solving than non-bored. So, next time when you are bored, let your mind fly a bit.