Staying productive by taking time to recuperate
Take a little time for yourself, especially when things get busy. Personal well being translates into more productivity, not less!
I’ve written about slowing down and taking time for planning but today I wanted to talk about taking time for personal well being.
My wife and I have both travelled a lot — in my case, both for work and pleasure, but more the former. I’ve lived in North and South America, South Asia, and visited enough countries and cities that I stopped counting a long time ago. Throughout it all neither of us have had a chance to live in Europe, although we’ve visited many countries. For the past five or six years, our goal became living in Europe.
It took a while to make it happen but it did — we’re returning to Barcelona, Spain, the city where we had our honeymoon. We loved Barcelona then, thinking that of all the cities we visited, Barcelona would be a lovely place to live. Earlier this month, we finished our move and are now living in a cute Spanish apartment, just off Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, right in the heart of downtown.
But it’s been a hectic few weeks, and we aren’t done yet! International moves can be challenging when it comes to finding permanent housing, setting up new accounts, transferring money from home, and dealing with all the little things — like buying new appliances, getting your cat a “cat passport,” and (re)learning the language. It’s been years since I was fluent in Spanish and I’m terribly disappointed at how little I’ve retained!
Layer on top of this work and it can be exhausting. My wife had zero downtime — we landed in Spain on Friday, and she was off to Switzerland on Monday for a business trip. Thankfully my own workload has been easier to manage but even so, it can be a lot. Which is one reason why I decided to push the latest chapter of the Discovery Playbook out a few days. But after thinking about it, I wanted to share a bit more of my reasoning.
Working too hard, no matter what the situation, leads to burnout. Over the years I’ve seen it happen — and I’ve experienced it myself. The pressure to “stay on top” of your workload, to hit your milestones and deliver, to outperform — it’s pervasive. Especially if you work in the United States, Japan or a few Northern European countries that embrace a “strong work ethic.” Unfortunately, that strong work ethic often deprioritizes personal well-being to the point of burnout.
I remember one of my earliest senior roles — as a lead architect and project director back in the early 90’s. We were pushing hard to get a product out the door for a substantial government contract. We had a demo coming up and, since it was on the NeXT Computer platform, Steve Jobs was going to be there. There was a lot of pressure to get it right. Everyone on the team was pulling long hours. I recall a couple of pernicious little bugs that kept the team in the office until the ‘wee hours of the morning — neglecting our own health. Everyone was in a pretty bad shape, and one of our team, Georges, felt a huge responsibility to get everything working. So much pressure, in fact, that he skipped meals and intermittently forgot daily medication for a serious health condition.
This was my first team leadership job, and I was young, in my early twenties. I didn’t recognize the signs of burnout — mistaking those signs as normal stress the team was undergoing. But it wasn’t normal. In this case, it led to a complete breakdown (in part because of the stress, but compounded by off-track nutrition and missed medications). Georges ended up in the hospital.
Thankfully, he recovered — as did the rest of the team — but it took time. It was a lesson for all of us about the importance of taking care of ourselves.
And in the end — that overwork didn’t really matter much. We still had a demo. We still had a few bugs. But it was good enough. After the “big demo” we still had work to do, and we still had a product to ship. In the long run, nobody actually remembered how hard we worked, or the specific bugs we had during the demo, or how stressful it was… except for the team, except for Georges.
What everyone else remembers? A pretty good demo, a solid product, and (eventually) a launch that made our customer happy.
So — coming at this both as that young project lead, and as a CTO and Director with decades of experience — I’ll say this: The work will always be there. By that I mean, no matter how much you pour yourself into your job, there is always more. Don’t do it. Draw some boundaries.
Take time for yourself. Take time to step away from work and recharge. Take care of your own physiology and mental well being — because if you abuse them, those are the things that won’t always be there.
And that’s the balance I’ve been trying to strike this past few weeks.
Yes, there’s a lot of pressure to get work done. Develop new business contacts here in Europe. Attend meetings at all kinds of strange hours, like the sprint planning session yesterday from 2000 to 2200 hours (that’s 8pm to 10pm my time now that I’m in Spain). Get the latest Delivery Playbook chapter out! Not to mention, handle the ongoing personal details of our move.
Work will always be there. I’ve been taking some time to wander Barcelona, enjoy the wonderful food, and get out on my bike. The riding trails here are incredible! It’s no wonder Lance Armstrong made Barcelona his training ground.
Prioritize your own well being. It will fuel your creativity and your passion for work. It will help keep you healthy. It will lead to greater productivity in the office.
If you’re into biking, get out there and bike. Or sail. Or hike. Or read a good book (something fun, not work related). Do what you enjoy. And if you find you haven’t been doing any of those things you enjoy — step away from the keyboard, dust off your “bucket list,” and pick one. Go do it.
And don’t forget to take time for a nice, home-cooked meal now and then.
Good stuff!
Great article. I can relate, and I agree. It's a long-term game. No matter how much we can bear temporarily, and some bear a lot, you will break at some point.
When you realize that it's often late already.
Ps: nice gravel bike!