A 2015 survey by a British firm asked 1,989 employees how many hours they spent “productively working” each day. Average: a paltry two hours and 53 minutes. The other eight working days were to sit back and check social media, read the news, or chat with friends.
On the one hand, this seems completely wrong. We have to work 24/7 and until we die, a pension for the weak (according to the government).
But perhaps these employees subconsciously understand something about the nature of the work. Science finds more and more that there is tremendous value in working less and resting more. It may even be the secret to true performance.
Think about the lives of some of the most experienced people in history. When Alex Pang, author of Rest: Why You Do More When You Work Less, looked at these people's daily schedules, he was surprised to find that they were technically working for about … four hours a day. Darwin, for example, would work for three or four hours in the morning, then take a long walk, write a few letters, and then take a nap. He worked another 90 minutes before dinner and then finished his day. However, he created The Origin of Species, a creative breakthrough that changed science. What the heck?
“It turned out that all these people had a lot of rest and hobbies, and their daily life was much calmer than ours,” says Pang. A 1951 study by scientists and technologists found that the most productive worked 10 to 20 hours a week in the office, although they also worked from home.
This pace can be amazing, because rest allows us to replenish our resources. Those long walks and hours, hobbies, engenders deep thought and creativity. What about daytime sleep? It's cognitive gold, as Sara Mednick, a sleep researcher at UC Irvine, discovered. “Sleep improves alertness, helps consolidate information you’ve learned earlier, and helps in emotional regulation,” she says.
Being a moderate procrastinator may simply be your mind's way of demanding more space and time - or focusing on the things that really matter, and it may not be the # 1 task that catches your eye because of your to-do list. (The philosopher John Perry calls this "structured procrastination").
One cautionary note: leisure science does not permit endless idleness like watching TV series. Because, hey, all those super-productive people who worked four hours a day didn't just park their brains during off-hours. No, they were skiing, playing instruments, painting and chatting with friends in pubs. They were involved in what Pang calls "outdoor activities." It may have been easier for a while before the internet and social media. Their leisure time was regenerative because it was woven by deliberate activity that stimulated the mind and spirit.
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However, this is good news about leisure time, right? If only we could follow this method! But this is not easy; alas, the culture of the workplace is rebelling against it, governed in the same way as in the Puritan work ethic. (“There will be plenty of sleep in the grave,” as Benjamin Franklin liked to say.) This challenging work style is difficult to match the demands of the workplace. And even for white collars, the standard is to spend eight hours a day in a chair.
Until we crack this nut, we will spend our leisure hours in the same meager and unproductive way as now, in our offices.