What does it take to be sustainably productive?
A lot of my clients are high achievers who are driven to be productive and have impact. They are ambitious and competitive, and often refuse to stop working until all the work is done. These are great traits…until they reach a point in their career when there is more to do than is physically possible.
I reached that point in 2011, where I was working 100 hour weeks for most of the year, and eventually my body just collapsed, and it took me a couple weeks to recover. While I may have delivered 10-20% more by working those hours for months, it was not sustainable productivity; I decided it was better to work less so that I could deliver high impact work more consistently.
As part of that, I learned to put in place a solid foundation to stay productive. Self-care like sleep and healthy food and social connection and exercise may feel indulgent when there’s an urgent crisis to address, but for many leaders, there will always be an urgent crisis to address. We can’t wait for the crises to stop, because they never stop in this chaotic world.
Plus we have ample evidence now that people don’t make good decisions when they are tired and hungry; I am reminded of the study where they found that an appeals court was much more likely to grant probation at the start of the day and after lunch, but when they got tired and hungry, they went with the default of denying probation.
The foundation of self-care is also critical to keeping your energy up. Executives often have to deal with draining situations like performance management or difficult tradeoffs which disappoint many people. If they only do that each day, they will eventually burnout. So sometimes they need to spend time on less important or productive activities to recharge their energy, so they can handle the draining situations and difficult decisions.
So rather than think “how do I get another hour or two of work done today?”, ask yourself “how much work can I do sustainably week-in and week-out?” and “what do I need to consistently maintain that productivity?” Then prioritize and focus on the most impactful work with that time. Sounds simple, but is hard to put in practice, because it means saying no and potentially disappointing people.
What works for you to help you stay energized and productive?
#productivity #leadership #coaching