Creative Reaction

At Fast Company, an excellent article with a somewhat misleading title discusses the futility of overworking, especially within a creative environment.

In order to use your time and energy effectively (not efficiently) your brain needs some “breathing room”. This means a healthy lifestyle (exercise, rest, healthy eating habits), healthy relationships, as well as time to brainstorm, and have fun at work. (Click on the effectiveness tag below for related articles.) Without these activities, you are all but eliminating opportunities to “see patterns, make connections, and read what (your clients) want”.

Still unconvinced? Ask yourself, “how often do I have a great idea at work or at my desk?” If you come up with your best ideas in the shower or at home in bed, then there’s something wrong with your workplace.

Ah, nothing like a good paradox, to make you stop and ponder. And I have two.

To Get More Done, Slow Down

If You Need to Work Better, Work Less

The first article is a bit of a cheat; I’ve linked to it before, though I described it cryptically with only two words. It’s an excellent anecdotal article explaining the importance of taking time off to work more effectively.

The other – OK, I cheated a bit here too because I edited the title, which was wimpy. Any advice with the word “try” in it lacks conviction and offers a way out. “I tried, but I couldn’t.” (The hair on the back of my neck is standing straight up. Deep breath. OK.) I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, though there’s a quote from Yoda that has always resonated with me. ”Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’” And to make things worse, the title originally said “maybe try”. Aarrgghh! (Another deep breath. OK. I won’t let little things distract me from good advice.) Check out the article and scroll down about an inch to hide the title.

The second article also has to do with taking time off, even if you have to force yourself to do it. This one is backed by both anecdotes and research. Pure gold.

There are three important lessons to be learned here:

1. Our bodies and minds need rest.
2. Family and friends are vital to life, and thereby work.
3. Having fewer hours to work, forces us to work more effectively.

You need to spend more time with family and friends. If you find it hard to not work, and believe me, I’ve been there, you have to make some important choices. Start small, even if it’s just one evening a week. Shut off your cell phone and your computer, and spend some time with people you care about. Do this for a month. The guilt about not working will gradually dissipate. Eventually, you’ll be able to take a full day off, and someday you’ll discover weekends.

Slow down, focus, and be more creative. (Shortest post EVER.)

I came across this excellent post via an acquaintance of mine whom I follow on Twitter (@apsinkus) and since yesterday was Father’s Day, it is both timely and apt.

After seeing his daughter graduate from High School, Serial Entrepreneur Steve Blank took a look back and wrote Epitaph for an Entrepreneur.

At the core of his post is a list of “Family Rules” and I’m stunned to say I am in complete agreement.

No one says on his deathbed, “I wish I worked more”. In fact, many say, “I wish I spent more time with my family.” If you value your marriage and your children, read Steve’s post now.

In this MediaShift post, Mark Glaser explains his methods and motivations for deliberately going off-line for 24 hours once each week. 

More often than not, external forces are at play when we are away from the technologies we are (overly) dependent upon; the theft of a CrackBerry, a power outage, or a natural disaster. As one of the subjects of the post puts it, “the truth is that we don’t want to be disconnected, though we desperately need the break”.

The article profiles both those who purposely disconnect, and those who feel they are unable to do so. Very thought-provoking.

Technology is neither inherently good nor bad; we simply need reminders to keep it’s usage in perspective. There are times where connectivity enhances relationships, and times where connectivity distracts us from focusing on friends and family in our midst. Connectivity allows us to work from home, though it can also bring work into any environment at any hour, leading to workweek creep. 

As business owners and managers the example we set for our co-workers and employees sends a powerful message. We need to show that we have clear boundaries between work life and personal life, while enabling and encouraging our employees to have the same. It’ll do us all some good. (See here and here.)

As information aggregator Kosmix grew to thirty employees, its team started suffering from e-mail overload and workweek creep; it was time to rethink its communications. Stop Email Overload and Break Silos Using Wikis, Blogs, and IM details their efforts.

It seems Kosmix was relying primarily on e-mail, even for things which e-mail is not well-suited for. (For a primer, look here.) This is sort of thing is often the case with startup companies, where, in my experience, off-the-shelf Macs, procedures and free services “work” without design or strategy, then suddenly buckle under the load as the company grows.

Now at Kosmix, Blogs and RSS feeds are being used for status updates (making many meetings unnecessary!), Wikis are being used for “persistent information”, and IM is being used for live communications from diverse locations.

My second favorite thing is that employees are allowed to set their IM “status” to “Do Not Disturb” when interruptions are especially unwelcome. My favorite thing is that technology being used smartly and is aligned with business needs.

(My only concern as an IT professional is that they are using Yahoo for IM, which is likely not the most secure choice, and there’s no mention of using a VPN to connect to the office.)

I like that there’s a healthy realization that “Kosmix is certainly not the first company to use internal blogs, wikis, and IM for corporate communication” and that “as Kosmix grows further, even this model will break down at some point and (they) will have to look for new communication models.”

The results “have been immediate and very visible. They include a lot less email and almost none on weekends; better communication among people; and 360 degree visibility for every member of the Kosmix team. After we instituted these changes, everyone on the team feels more productive, more knowledgeable about the company, has more spare time to spend on things outside of work.”

Now who wouldn’t want that?!

A few days ago in Workweek Creep, I made the statement that “having evenings and weekends to spend time with our friends and loved ones, and to take care of our responsibilities is what’s best for all and what’s best for our businesses” and HR World, substantiates that statement for me. “Studies have shown that too much work can lead to a variety of stress-related illnesses that sap workers’ vitality, making them more prone to errors on the job, absenteeism, burnout and turnover.” 16 Ways to Encourage Work/Life Balance in Employees offers advice to help us keep our employees happy, healthy and productive.

While all of the tips are worthwhile, I’m sure they listed this one first for a reason: “Management support for work/life balance is critical, and it must come from the top. Too often, the perception that hard work is the only way to rise in a company keeps employees at the grindstone, working themselves into illness. Top executives can set examples of good work/life balances”.

Read the rest for yourselves, and see if there’s something you could implement to better the lives of your employees.

A drawback of technology is constant connectivity and constant workplace interruptions – to the point that many of us have lost our weekends. I came across Take 48! today in which entrepreneur John Battelle details this very struggle; “The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking”. The result? “In an odd and most likely not very healthy way, the weekends have become two more workdays.”

Battelle, along with two other senior leaders at his company, have made a step in the right direction; they have agreed to not send e-mail (which they rely upon heavily) from 6 P.M. Friday until 6 P.M. Sunday.

The result? “by golly, it really worked… it felt as if (the company), as an institution, was taking time to breathe, to contemplate, to relax and feed itself.”

Reading between the lines, this company really needs to take further steps, though they should be given credit for recognizing a problem and taking action to solve it.

Let’s all aim to limit the workweek to its M-F boundaries, enabling ourselves and our staffs time to think and work within those boundaries. Having evenings and weekends to spend time with our friends and loved ones, and to take care of our responsibilities is what’s best for all and what’s best for our businesses.