The Perfect Amount of Time to Work Each Day
The 8-hour
workday is an outdated and ineffective approach to work. Let go of this relic
and try a new, more productive approach.
The eight-hour
workday was created during the industrial revolution in an effort to cut down
on the number of hours of manual labor that workers were forced to endure on
the factory floor. This breakthrough was a more humane approach to work
200 years ago, yet it possesses little relevance for us today.
Like our ancestors, we're expected to put in
eight-hour days, working in long, continuous blocks of time, with few or no
breaks. Heck, most people even work right through their lunch hour!
This antiquated approach to work isn't
helping us; it's holding us back.
The Best Way to Structure Your Day
A study recently conducted by the Draugiem
Group used a computer application to track employees' work habits.
Specifically, the application measured how much time people spent on various
tasks and compared this with their productivity levels.
In the process
of measuring people's activity, they stumbled upon a fascinating finding: The
length of the workday didn't matter much; what mattered was how people
structured their day. In particular, people who were religious about taking
short breaks were far more productive than those who worked longer hours.
The ideal work-to-break ratio was 52 minutes
of work, followed by 17 minutes of rest. People who maintained this schedule
had a unique level of focus in their work. For roughly an hour at a time, they
were 100 percent dedicated to the task they needed to accomplish. They didn't
check Facebook "real quick" or get distracted by emails. When they
felt fatigue (again, after about an hour), they took short breaks, during which
they completely separated themselves from their work. This helped them to dive
back in refreshed for another productive hour of work.
Your Brain Wants an Hour On, 15
Minutes Off
People who have discovered this magic
productivity ratio crush their competition, because they tap into a fundamental
need of the human mind: The brain naturally functions in spurts of high energy
(roughly an hour) followed by spurts of low energy (15 to 20 minutes).
For most of us, this natural ebb and flow of
energy leaves us wavering between focused periods of high energy followed by
far less productive periods, when we tire and succumb to distractions.
The best way to beat exhaustion and
frustrating distractions is to get intentional about your workday. Instead of
working for an hour or more, and then trying to battle through distractions and
fatigue when your productivity begins to dip, take this as a sign that it's
time for a break.
Real breaks
are easier to take when you know they're going to make your day more
productive. We often let fatigue win, because we continue working through it
(long after we've lost energy and focus), and the breaks we take aren't real breaks
(checking your email and watching YouTube doesn't recharge you the same way as
taking a walk does).
Take Charge of Your Workday
The eight-hour workday can work for you if
you break your time into strategic intervals. Once you align your natural
energy with your effort, things begin to run much more smoothly. Here are four
tips that will get you into that perfect rhythm.
Break your day into hourly intervals.
We naturally
plan what we need to accomplish by the end of the day, the week, or the month,
but we're far more effective when we focus on what we can accomplish right now.
Beyond getting you into the right rhythm, planning your day around hourlong
intervals simplifies daunting tasks by breaking them into manageable pieces. If
you want to be a literalist, you can plan your day around 52-minute intervals
if you like, but an hour works just as well.
Respect your hour.
The interval
strategy only works because we use our peak energy levels to reach an extremely
high level of focus for a relatively short amount of time. When you disrespect
your hour by texting, checking emails, or doing a quick Facebook check, you
defeat the entire purpose of the approach.
Take real rest.
In the study
at Draugiem, they found that employees who took more frequent rests than the
hourly optimum were more productive than those who didn't rest at all.
Likewise, those who took deliberately relaxing breaks were better off than
those who, when "resting," had trouble separating themselves from
their work. Getting away from your computer, your phone, and your to-do list is
essential to boosting your productivity. Breaks such as walking, reading, and
chatting are the most effective forms of recharging, because they take you away
from your work. On a busy day, it might be tempting to think of dealing with
emails or making phone calls as breaks, but they aren't, so don't give in to
this line of thought.
Don't wait until your body tells you to take
a break.
If you wait
until you feel tired to take a break, it's too late--you've already missed the
window of peak productivity. Keeping to your schedule ensures that you work
when you're the most productive and that you rest during times that would
otherwise be unproductive. Remember, it's far more productive to rest for short
periods than it is to keep on working when you're tired and distracted.
Bringing It All Together
Breaking your day down into chunks of work
and rest that match your natural energy levels feels good, makes your workday
go faster, and boosts your productivity.
BY TRAVIS BRADBERRY
http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/the-perfect-amount-of-time-to-work-each-day.html?cid=em01020week33a
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