What’s the secret to workplace happiness?
For years, spending long hours at work has been a medal of honor. Times are changing and many now question, could we instead get more things done in less time? How to achieve a productive week?
In a recent Inc. post Jessica Stillman poses the questions:
A great workout often combines high intensity with a sustainable time commitment. Is the ideal professional situation similar?
As anyone who has ever gone to the gym can tell you there are two components to a workout’s difficulty: intensity (how heavy is the weight) and duration (are you lifting it five times or 20).
Might the same be true of work? Can you find the sweet spot of professional happiness by reducing duration but amping up intensity?
Many entrepreneurs have cut down from 80-hour weeks to 40-hours ones and found out that they actually achieve more. The reason is that many really important problems are tough to solve and take shorter high-intensity periods to be done well. Being well rested, happy from your free time activities and with enough family time energizes you to perform better during the 40-hour weeks. It takes focus and better planning, but the results could be better than doing really long, 80 or even 120 hour weeks.
Plan your week well. Choose big impact tasks to solve. Simplify. Have fun.