WEBVTT - Why Don't We Have a 15-hour Work Week? 0:00:15.476 --> 0:00:24.396 Pushkin. The stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine and 0:00:24.436 --> 0:00:27.276 the great depression that followed quite reasonably scared a lot 0:00:27.276 --> 0:00:31.556 of people. Fortunes were lost, savings disappeared, factories closed, and 0:00:31.676 --> 0:00:35.276 jobs evaporated. The only places doing a roaring trade were 0:00:35.356 --> 0:00:38.916 soup kitchens and breadlines. Things looked bad, with no end 0:00:38.956 --> 0:00:41.356 in sight. But one man wasn't that worried. 0:00:41.916 --> 0:00:45.836 We are suffering just now from a bad attack of 0:00:46.116 --> 0:00:48.596 economic pessimism, so. 0:00:48.676 --> 0:00:51.196 Said famed British economist John Maynard Keynes. 0:00:51.716 --> 0:00:54.996 It is common to hear people say that a decline 0:00:55.036 --> 0:00:58.516 in prosperity is more likely than an improvement in a 0:00:58.556 --> 0:01:01.556 decade which lies ahead of us. I believe that this 0:01:01.836 --> 0:01:06.956 is a wildly mistaken interpretation of what is happening to us. 0:01:07.356 --> 0:01:09.796 People were having trouble keeping a roof over their heads 0:01:09.836 --> 0:01:12.396 and food on the table, but Keynes wanted them to 0:01:12.436 --> 0:01:13.676 look to the far horizon. 0:01:14.236 --> 0:01:18.836 My purpose is to take wings into the future. What 0:01:18.996 --> 0:01:22.236 can we reasonably expect the level of our economic life 0:01:22.316 --> 0:01:26.116 to be one hundred years? Hence, what are the economic 0:01:26.196 --> 0:01:28.876 possibilities for our grandchildren? 0:01:29.756 --> 0:01:33.116 You might recognize the voice reading Keyes's words. It's my colleague, 0:01:33.196 --> 0:01:36.996 the economist Tim Harford from the Cautionary Tales podcast. Tim's 0:01:37.076 --> 0:01:40.236 very familiar with Keanes's rosy predictions about what life would 0:01:40.236 --> 0:01:41.756 look like in the year twenty thirty. 0:01:42.116 --> 0:01:45.116 Kaines thought that the Great Depression was just an economic blip, 0:01:45.156 --> 0:01:48.076 albeit quite a painful one. He predicted that, thanks to 0:01:48.156 --> 0:01:52.076 industrial and scientific developments, the economy would boom, and that 0:01:52.076 --> 0:01:56.516 the standard of living enjoyed by people would improve dramatically. Indeed, 0:01:56.716 --> 0:01:59.556 he suggested that most people would be so rich their 0:01:59.636 --> 0:02:02.516 struggles to make ends meet would be consigned to history. 0:02:02.876 --> 0:02:05.556 At last, they'd earn more than enough money to pay 0:02:05.596 --> 0:02:07.796 their bills in just a few hours each week, with 0:02:07.916 --> 0:02:11.476 the rest of their time freedom up to enjoy life. 0:02:11.516 --> 0:02:14.156 To people in nineteen thirty, these predictions must have been 0:02:14.196 --> 0:02:18.036 mind blowing. Kines believed his grandchildren would enjoy a fifteen 0:02:18.076 --> 0:02:20.876 hour work week, with ample time left not just to 0:02:20.916 --> 0:02:23.236 relax in leisure, but to engage in a host of 0:02:23.276 --> 0:02:28.116 purposeful activities like increased kindness and civic participation. And Caines 0:02:28.116 --> 0:02:31.036 thought our whole attitude towards work would change radically as 0:02:31.076 --> 0:02:31.956 a result. 0:02:32.156 --> 0:02:35.676 When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high 0:02:35.796 --> 0:02:39.596 social importance, There would be great changes in the code 0:02:39.636 --> 0:02:42.796 of morals. For love of money as a possession, will 0:02:42.796 --> 0:02:47.836 we recognize for what it is a somewhat disgusting morbidity. 0:02:48.116 --> 0:02:51.556 Well, dear happiness lab listener, congratulations, because you are currently 0:02:51.556 --> 0:02:54.796 living in that utopian time that Caine's envisioned. How are 0:02:54.796 --> 0:02:59.916 you enjoying your fifteen hour work week? To Kanses's credit, 0:02:59.996 --> 0:03:02.076 we do have a much higher standard of living than 0:03:02.116 --> 0:03:06.636 our grand parents. We also have smart TVs, dishwashers, microwaves, iPhones, 0:03:06.636 --> 0:03:09.436 and the internet, fun and time saving gadgets the people 0:03:09.476 --> 0:03:12.516 of nineteen thirty could only dream of. But although Kaines 0:03:12.596 --> 0:03:15.316 was right about our increased incomes, he was wrong about 0:03:15.316 --> 0:03:18.076 what would happen to our sense of busyness. Rather than 0:03:18.116 --> 0:03:21.076 living relaxed lives of leisure, people in twenty twenty four 0:03:21.156 --> 0:03:24.796 are working harder than ever. Americans today worked ten percent 0:03:24.916 --> 0:03:28.236 more hours than they did in the nineteen seventies. Economists 0:03:28.276 --> 0:03:30.636 have also observed a shift in the last few decades 0:03:30.916 --> 0:03:33.796 and the usual relationship between a person's wages and the 0:03:33.876 --> 0:03:37.236 number of hours they work. Historically, people who earn less 0:03:37.276 --> 0:03:40.676 money tended to work more hours, but that relationship has 0:03:40.716 --> 0:03:44.036 now reversed. These days, it's higher paid individuals who are 0:03:44.076 --> 0:03:47.396 spending more time at work. They also report significantly more 0:03:47.436 --> 0:03:50.596 time stress than they did in the previous decades. If 0:03:50.676 --> 0:03:52.956 Kans had lived to see what workaholics we've all become, 0:03:53.436 --> 0:03:56.916 he'd be very sad. Instead of a utopian work life balance, 0:03:57.196 --> 0:04:00.356 our generation got side hustles and career cushioning and time 0:04:00.436 --> 0:04:05.796 hacks and over employment and burnout culture. I've been thinking 0:04:05.796 --> 0:04:08.996 about Kynes's predictions a lot these days, because lately I've 0:04:09.276 --> 0:04:12.116 feeling busier than ever. I'm privileged to have a great 0:04:12.156 --> 0:04:14.476 standard of living and a job I love, but my 0:04:14.596 --> 0:04:17.356 to do list feels endless. I spend a lot of 0:04:17.356 --> 0:04:21.076 time feeling frantic, fantasizing that any day now I'll finally 0:04:21.116 --> 0:04:22.676 be able to get through all the stuff on my 0:04:22.756 --> 0:04:25.636 plate so I can take a breather. But that fantasy 0:04:25.716 --> 0:04:28.356 day of rest never seems to come. And what's my 0:04:28.436 --> 0:04:31.876 solution to feeling so so overworked all the time. It's 0:04:31.956 --> 0:04:34.876 usually to double down on my business. I try to 0:04:34.876 --> 0:04:36.676 get through my to do list as quickly as I 0:04:36.716 --> 0:04:40.876 possibly can, so I work long hours and multitask whenever possible. 0:04:41.436 --> 0:04:44.996 But this endless quest to optimize my overloaded schedule usually 0:04:45.036 --> 0:04:48.316 winds up increasing my sense of overwhelmed rather than decreasing it. 0:04:48.716 --> 0:04:51.556 I end up feeling like everything is urgent, and not 0:04:51.676 --> 0:04:54.716 just when I'm at work. Somehow, this obsession with using 0:04:54.756 --> 0:04:57.756 time well leaks into my leisure time too. In the 0:04:57.836 --> 0:05:00.396 rare moments I do get a break, I feel anxious 0:05:00.396 --> 0:05:03.396 that I'm not getting enough productive stuff done, and as 0:05:03.476 --> 0:05:06.036 is probably obvious, none of this overwhelm is all that 0:05:06.076 --> 0:05:10.116 good for my quest to feel happier. This episode about 0:05:10.116 --> 0:05:12.796 the happiness challenges that I struggle with, I'm going to 0:05:12.836 --> 0:05:15.676 explore how I and so many others got this messed 0:05:15.716 --> 0:05:18.516 up when it comes to busyness and productivity. Are we 0:05:18.636 --> 0:05:22.036 doomed to our relentlessly overloaded schedules, or can we claim 0:05:22.036 --> 0:05:25.316 the leisure time that Caine's envisioned as our generation's birthright. 0:05:29.596 --> 0:05:31.516 Our minds are constantly telling us what to do to 0:05:31.556 --> 0:05:34.116 be happy. But what if our minds are wrong? What 0:05:34.156 --> 0:05:36.636 if our minds are lying to us, leading us away 0:05:36.636 --> 0:05:39.356 from what really make us happy. The good news is 0:05:39.356 --> 0:05:41.516 that understanding the science of the mind can point us 0:05:41.556 --> 0:05:44.196 all back in the right direction. You're listening to the 0:05:44.196 --> 0:05:45.996 Happiness Lab with doctor Laurie. 0:05:45.756 --> 0:05:59.316 Santos Okay, Wednesday May twenty nine, six am podcast interview 0:05:59.476 --> 0:06:00.836 with person in the UK. 0:06:01.436 --> 0:06:05.116 Nine am meeting with my lab manager, ten am brainstorm 0:06:05.156 --> 0:06:09.076 meeting for my new course. Eleven am Zoom podcast recording. 0:06:09.516 --> 0:06:11.996 Looking through my schedule on an average day, I'm pretty 0:06:12.076 --> 0:06:14.716 much doing ten plus hours of work. Oh and I 0:06:14.716 --> 0:06:17.636 have to make my husband's birthday cach. What happened to 0:06:17.636 --> 0:06:20.076 the fifteen hour work week that Keenes promised us? 0:06:20.636 --> 0:06:23.076 If you do well in a career a professional era, 0:06:23.236 --> 0:06:26.556 you can actually expect to get busier and busier and busier. 0:06:26.996 --> 0:06:30.436 Writer Oliver Berkman has shared my sense of overwhelm for decades. 0:06:30.756 --> 0:06:33.076 He always had too much on his plate, and like me, 0:06:33.276 --> 0:06:35.956 he tried many a hack to team his overloaded schedule. 0:06:36.436 --> 0:06:39.636 He even reviewed time management techniques and productivity tools for 0:06:39.676 --> 0:06:43.116 The Guardian newspaper in a weekly article called This column 0:06:43.156 --> 0:06:47.196 Will Change Your Life. Oliver desperately tried anything in everything 0:06:47.276 --> 0:06:49.316 to get his packed schedule under control. 0:06:49.676 --> 0:06:54.756 Fancy notebooks to organize your time in year, planners, pens 0:06:54.756 --> 0:06:56.596 that cost too much money, you know, all part of 0:06:56.596 --> 0:06:59.596 an attempt to try to reach this sort of position 0:06:59.796 --> 0:07:02.956 of feeling completely in control of time. 0:07:03.356 --> 0:07:05.796 Things finally came to a head one day about ten 0:07:05.876 --> 0:07:08.756 years ago. Oliver was sitting alone on a park bench, 0:07:09.116 --> 0:07:12.316 sxiously ruminating about all his undone tasks, when a scary 0:07:12.356 --> 0:07:15.716 thought occurred to him, None of this productivity stuff is 0:07:15.796 --> 0:07:18.556 ever going to work. In an instant, he realized that 0:07:18.596 --> 0:07:21.076 no matter how much work and self discipline and time 0:07:21.116 --> 0:07:24.236 management gear he marshaled, he simply was never going to 0:07:24.236 --> 0:07:26.716 feel on top of all he had to do. That 0:07:26.876 --> 0:07:29.276 dream of getting everything he needed to get done done. 0:07:29.636 --> 0:07:31.716 It was always going to remain out of reach. 0:07:32.276 --> 0:07:35.076 The reward for good time management is more work. 0:07:35.436 --> 0:07:38.716 Oliver christent this painful realization the efficiency trap. 0:07:38.996 --> 0:07:42.356 Anything you do to try to use time more effectively 0:07:42.396 --> 0:07:45.476 by becoming more efficient, seems to be a fairly general 0:07:45.596 --> 0:07:47.876 law that what will actually end up happening is that 0:07:47.956 --> 0:07:51.076 you get a lot more busy and a lot more stressed. 0:07:51.396 --> 0:07:53.676 The sort of abstract way of talking about it is 0:07:53.716 --> 0:07:56.956 that if you make a system capable of processing more inputs, 0:07:57.236 --> 0:07:59.276 then it will just attract a lot more inputs. A 0:07:59.316 --> 0:08:01.996 concrete example gives email. Right, if you get really good 0:08:02.036 --> 0:08:04.716 at answering email at a really fast tempo. You end 0:08:04.796 --> 0:08:07.636 up with loads more email because you're getting replies to 0:08:07.676 --> 0:08:09.516 your replies and you have to reply to that, and 0:08:09.556 --> 0:08:12.836 you get a reputation for being responsive. And it doesn't 0:08:12.876 --> 0:08:14.996 just apply to email. If you're in a workplace setting 0:08:15.036 --> 0:08:17.316 where there's some particular kind of project that needs to 0:08:17.316 --> 0:08:19.756 be done and you get a reputation for being really 0:08:19.836 --> 0:08:22.556 fast at completing that kind of project, you're going to 0:08:22.636 --> 0:08:25.756 get loads more of those projects to complete. So that's 0:08:25.796 --> 0:08:27.996 the trap of efficiency. It's an attempt to try to 0:08:28.036 --> 0:08:30.356 get everything done, to get to the end of everything, 0:08:30.476 --> 0:08:33.476 but because the supply is infinite, it's not actually a 0:08:33.476 --> 0:08:36.236 good way to build a more productive or fulfilling life. 0:08:36.276 --> 0:08:38.116 It's just a way to sort of get busier. 0:08:38.556 --> 0:08:41.036 Oliver argues that this sense of overwhelmed has begun to 0:08:41.076 --> 0:08:43.276 take over our entire modern existence. 0:08:43.516 --> 0:08:46.076 But we not only overwhelmed by work tasks, by email, 0:08:46.316 --> 0:08:49.036 by things that we have to do. We're overwhelmed by 0:08:49.236 --> 0:08:53.076 potential experiences. We could have bucket list places we could go, 0:08:53.356 --> 0:08:55.596 things we could be doing on any given evening, people 0:08:55.636 --> 0:08:58.036 to date, depending on your context, you know. So there's 0:08:58.036 --> 0:09:00.476 all these kind of different ways in which there's just 0:09:00.636 --> 0:09:04.036 more experience to be had in the world. So I 0:09:04.036 --> 0:09:07.876 think that leads to sort of permanent state of feeling overwhelmed, A. 0:09:07.876 --> 0:09:11.236 Permanent state of feeling of whelmed. Yep, that pretty much 0:09:11.316 --> 0:09:14.076 describes my life these days, and all of our's tough 0:09:14.076 --> 0:09:16.636 message is that if you're feeling that way too, it 0:09:16.756 --> 0:09:18.916 is at least in some ways, your own fault. 0:09:19.356 --> 0:09:22.276 I never want to underplay the sort of broader societal 0:09:22.276 --> 0:09:24.756 and economic reasons for this, but in some sense we 0:09:24.756 --> 0:09:26.876 do bring it on ourselves, or we at least collaborate 0:09:26.956 --> 0:09:29.796 with the situation, because we're presented with this sort of 0:09:29.956 --> 0:09:32.796 infinity of things to do, and the very first thing 0:09:32.876 --> 0:09:35.516 we say to ourselves is like, Okay, let's find a 0:09:35.516 --> 0:09:37.356 way to do an infinite amount of things. 0:09:37.716 --> 0:09:40.236 One reason is that being busy all the time makes 0:09:40.316 --> 0:09:41.796 us feel kind of important. 0:09:42.436 --> 0:09:45.996 If you are somebody who has your self worth wrapped 0:09:46.076 --> 0:09:48.556 up in your productivity, right, you think that you've got 0:09:48.556 --> 0:09:50.796 to do a certain amount or reach some kind of 0:09:50.796 --> 0:09:54.636 standard to sort of be okay, then being busy is 0:09:54.836 --> 0:09:58.236 proof to yourself that you're in demand, that the spigot 0:09:58.316 --> 0:10:00.836 of opportunities has not dried up, that it's all very 0:10:00.916 --> 0:10:04.436 much part of feeling that you are doing all you 0:10:04.476 --> 0:10:06.356 need to be doing to feel good about yourself. 0:10:06.916 --> 0:10:10.076 I definitely felt called out by this comment. How often 0:10:10.076 --> 0:10:12.516 have people asked me, Hey, how's it going, only to 0:10:12.516 --> 0:10:15.716 get my standard response of Oh, I'm just so busy. 0:10:16.476 --> 0:10:19.716 The frazzled feelings behind that reply aren't fun. But if 0:10:19.756 --> 0:10:22.956 I'm being honest, I do feel weirdly proud of myself. 0:10:23.476 --> 0:10:26.756 We've created this situation that makes busyness into a status symbol. 0:10:26.956 --> 0:10:29.876 So then obviously, by definition, you want to make sure 0:10:29.916 --> 0:10:31.596 that you've got some of that business. 0:10:31.836 --> 0:10:33.996 But there's a cost to seeking out busyness for the 0:10:34.036 --> 0:10:36.756 sake of busyness. We wind up stuck in a painful 0:10:36.756 --> 0:10:40.076 psychological state that the journalist Marilyn Robinson has called a 0:10:40.116 --> 0:10:41.636 sense of joyless urgency. 0:10:42.156 --> 0:10:44.036 I mean, I think that is just a very very 0:10:44.076 --> 0:10:47.116 widespread feeling, the sense that you've really got to get somewhere, 0:10:47.156 --> 0:10:49.076 but it's not really the place you'd necessarily want to 0:10:49.116 --> 0:10:51.236 be going, and certainly the process of getting there is 0:10:51.276 --> 0:10:52.476 not what you wanted to be doing. 0:10:52.636 --> 0:10:55.076 How did we all get so hooked into this joyless 0:10:55.076 --> 0:10:58.636 relationship with our busy schedules. Oliver suspects that at least 0:10:58.676 --> 0:11:00.996 some of the problem stems from how humans have learned 0:11:00.996 --> 0:11:01.836 to think about time. 0:11:02.316 --> 0:11:06.036 Going from introduction and widespread adoption of mechanical clocks and 0:11:06.036 --> 0:11:09.116 then into the industrial revolution, we'll get this very long, 0:11:09.356 --> 0:11:13.396 slow process that is characterized by people starting to think 0:11:13.436 --> 0:11:17.076 of time as a resource. And once you have this 0:11:17.156 --> 0:11:20.036 idea that like, there's you and then there's time, and 0:11:20.076 --> 0:11:21.956 you're living your life sort of lined up against the 0:11:21.996 --> 0:11:24.036 sort of a yardstick or a measure of some kind, 0:11:24.076 --> 0:11:26.436 you have to keep up. If you use a bit 0:11:26.476 --> 0:11:28.956 of time wrongly, you're wasting it. You can try to 0:11:28.956 --> 0:11:32.076 squeeze more things into that time, and all of this 0:11:32.116 --> 0:11:34.596 is kind of a spatial metaphor, right, It's all to 0:11:34.636 --> 0:11:37.876 do with time as containers and little boxes. When you 0:11:37.956 --> 0:11:40.756 really get right back down to the experience of being 0:11:40.796 --> 0:11:43.756 in time, it isn't like that at all. We just 0:11:43.916 --> 0:11:46.156 get this one moment and then the next moment and 0:11:46.196 --> 0:11:48.076 then the next moment. I think we really need this 0:11:48.156 --> 0:11:49.796 idea of being able to think about time as a 0:11:49.956 --> 0:11:52.036 resource for all sorts of things. But it's a little 0:11:52.036 --> 0:11:54.716 bit crazy, really when we try constantly to interact with 0:11:54.796 --> 0:11:57.436 time as something that it isn't, which is something we 0:11:57.476 --> 0:12:00.516 can sort of hord or endlessly fit more things into it. 0:12:00.636 --> 0:12:01.956 None of it quite makes sense. 0:12:02.356 --> 0:12:05.116 But there's another way that our thinking about productivity doesn't 0:12:05.196 --> 0:12:08.116 quite make sense, one that relates to the changing phase 0:12:08.156 --> 0:12:11.156 of modern work. These days, a lot of our jobs 0:12:11.596 --> 0:12:14.996 are a bit weird. The happiness lab. We're a turn 0:12:14.996 --> 0:12:15.476 in a moment. 0:12:22.036 --> 0:12:25.636 Up until about the mid twentieth century, we had really clear, 0:12:26.076 --> 0:12:27.876 well defined definitions of productivity. 0:12:28.076 --> 0:12:31.116 Best Selling author and computer scientist Cal Newport has spent 0:12:31.156 --> 0:12:33.436 a lot of time thinking about why modern work is 0:12:33.476 --> 0:12:34.316 so overwhelming. 0:12:34.596 --> 0:12:37.356 So if you're in agriculture, it was bushels per acre 0:12:37.516 --> 0:12:40.316 of land under cultivation, you could measure it. It was 0:12:40.356 --> 0:12:42.636 a number you could change how you planted your crops, 0:12:42.636 --> 0:12:44.276 that you could see if that number went up and down. 0:12:44.436 --> 0:12:48.396 When we got to industrial manufacturing mills followed by factories, 0:12:48.636 --> 0:12:49.756 we could do something similar. 0:12:50.396 --> 0:12:53.076 A factory manager on an assembly line can easily measure, 0:12:53.156 --> 0:12:55.836 say the number of Widgets or Model T Fords produced 0:12:55.876 --> 0:12:59.036 per labor hour. People could just tell if everyone was 0:12:59.156 --> 0:13:03.116 using their time efficiently and contributing to the company's bottom line. 0:13:03.156 --> 0:13:05.196 All that fell out the window with knowledge work, which 0:13:05.236 --> 0:13:08.156 really emerged as a major sector in the nineteen fifties. 0:13:08.716 --> 0:13:12.236 Knowledge workers create useful goods and services not through physical, 0:13:12.276 --> 0:13:15.836 assembly line style labor, but through their thoughts. The modern 0:13:15.876 --> 0:13:21.076 economy is full of such professionals scientists, doctors, writers, professors, attorneys, 0:13:21.276 --> 0:13:24.876 even podcast hosts. But professionals like these don't end the 0:13:24.956 --> 0:13:27.356 day with a bunch of widgets piled up on their workbench, 0:13:27.756 --> 0:13:30.916 and that means it's harder to assess their productivity. Take 0:13:30.956 --> 0:13:33.636 for example, what it would mean to define productivity in 0:13:33.716 --> 0:13:37.356 my own form of knowledge work, making a podcast. How 0:13:37.396 --> 0:13:40.236 could I make the happiness lab as productive as possible? 0:13:41.076 --> 0:13:43.516 I could try to take a mathematical approach and define 0:13:43.516 --> 0:13:46.956 productivity as the number of episodes we make. But should 0:13:46.956 --> 0:13:50.156 I go with the sheer number of episodes? Maybe longer 0:13:50.156 --> 0:13:52.956 episodes are better than shorter ones. Or maybe I should 0:13:52.956 --> 0:13:56.676 count AD revenue per episode or listener downloads. Each of 0:13:56.676 --> 0:14:00.196 these could be a reasonable metric for podcast productivity, So 0:14:00.476 --> 0:14:04.516 what should I choose? Similar kinds of questions pervade pretty 0:14:04.596 --> 0:14:05.636 much all knowledge work. 0:14:06.236 --> 0:14:08.516 We do not get a lot of direct feedback in 0:14:08.596 --> 0:14:11.836 terms of how well is what you're doing right now 0:14:11.916 --> 0:14:15.116 impacting what we care about. It's free floating. 0:14:14.996 --> 0:14:17.516 And things get even more complicated when you ask how 0:14:17.556 --> 0:14:20.516 you should be allocating your time to achieve whatever free 0:14:20.516 --> 0:14:22.796 floating definition and productivity you came up with. 0:14:23.236 --> 0:14:26.316 The typical knowledge worker has many different things they're working on, 0:14:26.716 --> 0:14:28.636 and what they're working on might be different than the 0:14:28.636 --> 0:14:32.396 person right next to them. It can shift. It's more informal. Also, 0:14:32.636 --> 0:14:34.836 how we do our work is very personal, which is 0:14:34.836 --> 0:14:36.836 a real innovation to knowledge work we don't see in 0:14:36.876 --> 0:14:37.516 other places. 0:14:37.916 --> 0:14:41.236 Supervising factory workers on an assembly line is easy. You 0:14:41.276 --> 0:14:43.156 figure out how to best build your widget, and you 0:14:43.236 --> 0:14:46.116 tell your employees, hey, make the widget like this. But 0:14:46.196 --> 0:14:48.636 none of that holds for a job like podcasting or 0:14:48.676 --> 0:14:50.076 teaching or programming. 0:14:50.396 --> 0:14:54.636 Knowledge work is too complicated. It's creative, it's skilled. The 0:14:54.756 --> 0:14:57.596 individual knowledge workers know more about what they're doing than 0:14:57.636 --> 0:15:00.276 the people supervising them. So we got to allow the 0:15:00.396 --> 0:15:04.796 individual workers autonomy. Allow them to have autonomy in figuring 0:15:04.796 --> 0:15:06.796 out how they're going to do their own work. 0:15:07.036 --> 0:15:09.396 But managers did want some way to determine and whether 0:15:09.516 --> 0:15:12.516 or not knowledge workers were putting in useful effort, so 0:15:12.556 --> 0:15:14.636 they came up with what cal thinks is a very 0:15:14.636 --> 0:15:17.476 problematic alternative pseudo productivity. 0:15:17.916 --> 0:15:21.796 So suitor productivity is a crude heuristic that says, visible 0:15:21.916 --> 0:15:25.196 activity that's going to be my proxy for figuring out 0:15:25.196 --> 0:15:27.316 whether or not you're doing useful effort. So the more 0:15:27.516 --> 0:15:30.876 I see you doing things, the more productive. In scare quotes, 0:15:31.276 --> 0:15:33.636 I'm going to assume you're being. This is the dominant 0:15:33.636 --> 0:15:36.316 way I think we measure effective work. 0:15:36.716 --> 0:15:39.756 This need to monitor visible effort led to other changes 0:15:39.756 --> 0:15:43.156 in the knowledge work sector, ones that had nasty implications 0:15:43.156 --> 0:15:45.556 for a worker's sense of autonomy and happiness. 0:15:46.076 --> 0:15:48.076 When the knowledge sector grew as a big sector and 0:15:48.156 --> 0:15:50.596 we said, how are we going to literally organize this work, 0:15:50.796 --> 0:15:52.436 we said, well, let's just do what the factories do. 0:15:53.116 --> 0:15:55.156 You will come to a building, we'll all gather in 0:15:55.196 --> 0:15:57.756 the same place. We'll be there for a long shift, 0:15:58.156 --> 0:16:00.076 so that we can just see that everyone is working. 0:16:00.236 --> 0:16:01.596 That's why I know you're working, because you have to 0:16:01.596 --> 0:16:04.076 come to this building and I can physically surveil you. 0:16:04.716 --> 0:16:08.876 That's suitor productivity. There's nothing about cognitive work that says 0:16:08.916 --> 0:16:10.956 the best way to do this is as many hours 0:16:10.996 --> 0:16:13.396 as possible, or to do it in one contiguous shift. 0:16:13.676 --> 0:16:16.396 But if our main metric for productivity is visible activity, 0:16:16.396 --> 0:16:19.516 then it made life a lot easier for the managers, But. 0:16:19.516 --> 0:16:22.396 Of course such surveillance didn't make life easier for the 0:16:22.476 --> 0:16:23.236 knowledge workers. 0:16:23.596 --> 0:16:26.876 Suit of productivity makes us miserable, and has been making 0:16:26.956 --> 0:16:30.156 us more miserable. It barely worked until about the two thousands. 0:16:30.356 --> 0:16:33.076 Then digital technology enter the scene, and it spiraled out 0:16:33.116 --> 0:16:35.716 of control. Because now I can leave a trace of 0:16:35.716 --> 0:16:38.796 me working or not working by doing emails, et cetera anywhere. 0:16:39.036 --> 0:16:41.876 Now there's an unlimited supply of work. Because one of 0:16:41.876 --> 0:16:44.556 the things the digital age brought to us was zero 0:16:44.636 --> 0:16:46.996 friction work assignment. I can just hey, can you handle 0:16:46.996 --> 0:16:48.396 this sin boom? It's off my plate. 0:16:48.876 --> 0:16:51.836 This emergence of email and slack channels and team meetings 0:16:51.916 --> 0:16:55.596 and group texts meant that workers had way more opportunities 0:16:55.636 --> 0:16:59.956 to show off their visible activity, and managers quickly took notice, Hey, 0:17:00.076 --> 0:17:00.596 I haven't. 0:17:00.396 --> 0:17:02.316 Really been seeing you in the email chains recently. You 0:17:02.316 --> 0:17:05.436 weren't at these zoom meetings. You are slow to respond 0:17:05.516 --> 0:17:09.796 to the slack chack. What's going on? Maybe you're not productive. 0:17:10.076 --> 0:17:12.916 But managers weren't the only ones to embrace pseudo productivity. 0:17:13.236 --> 0:17:17.436 Knowledge workers soon began to internalize this notion. Practices like 0:17:17.476 --> 0:17:20.556 clearing your emails. To achieve inbox zero and being on 0:17:20.636 --> 0:17:24.076 slack after hours became almost as important to workers as 0:17:24.076 --> 0:17:27.676 the projects that made up their true job descriptions, especially 0:17:27.756 --> 0:17:30.636 since incremental progress on the big projects will always be 0:17:30.676 --> 0:17:31.556 harder to show off. 0:17:31.796 --> 0:17:33.556 You don't know if I'm at home or I'm in 0:17:33.556 --> 0:17:35.236 my office, you're not in nearby. You don't know that 0:17:35.276 --> 0:17:37.516 I'm working deeply on an article that leaves no trace, 0:17:37.836 --> 0:17:40.196 but if I'm jumping onto email threads, that does leave 0:17:40.236 --> 0:17:43.556 a trace, And so it biased us towards what's going 0:17:43.596 --> 0:17:48.236 to leave the best trace through the environment of pseudo productivity, evaluation. 0:17:48.356 --> 0:17:50.596 And this desire to leave some tangible evidence of your 0:17:50.636 --> 0:17:53.516 efforts has a terrible effect on the actual output of 0:17:53.556 --> 0:17:54.236 knowledge work. 0:17:54.476 --> 0:17:57.276 So one of the consequences of pseudo productivity is that 0:17:57.356 --> 0:18:00.316 it gets in the way of the ability to give 0:18:00.516 --> 0:18:03.956 the most important things you do unbroken attention. How do 0:18:04.036 --> 0:18:07.036 we get our brain to actually produce value. It's the 0:18:07.076 --> 0:18:10.036 ability to focus intensely on some If you want to 0:18:10.036 --> 0:18:12.556 produce the best things you're capable of using your brain, 0:18:12.876 --> 0:18:15.036 you don't want to be distracted. I want to focus 0:18:15.036 --> 0:18:17.596 on this hard thing I'm doing until it's done. Pseudo 0:18:17.636 --> 0:18:18.836 productivity punishes that. 0:18:19.596 --> 0:18:23.396 I've totally been punished by my internalized pseudo productivity. I'll 0:18:23.396 --> 0:18:25.316 be in the middle of writing a podcast script or 0:18:25.356 --> 0:18:27.916 an academic paper when I'll hear a ding from a text, 0:18:28.316 --> 0:18:30.836 so I peek at my phone, get distracted, and take 0:18:30.916 --> 0:18:33.236 longer to finish the task I'm really supposed to be 0:18:33.276 --> 0:18:36.196 focused on. And that sense of distraction doesn't just bubble 0:18:36.276 --> 0:18:39.556 up during actual interruptions. Whenever I find myself deep in 0:18:39.556 --> 0:18:42.476 a writing project, I'll inevitably think, you know, I haven't 0:18:42.556 --> 0:18:44.676 checked my email in a while. I wonder if there's 0:18:44.676 --> 0:18:48.076 something important next thing. I know, I'm deep in my inbox. 0:18:48.636 --> 0:18:51.836 I've internalized the importance of visible activity so much that 0:18:51.876 --> 0:18:54.676 I start feeling anxious whenever I'm not engaged in it, 0:18:55.156 --> 0:18:57.836 and that anxiety gets worse when my bigger projects fail 0:18:57.916 --> 0:19:00.996 to produce an obvious output. For a while, it feels 0:19:00.996 --> 0:19:03.836 almost easier to spend my time on dumb, pseudo productive 0:19:03.836 --> 0:19:05.396 stuff like clearing my inbox. 0:19:05.716 --> 0:19:08.436 And now we have whole departments, we have whole teams 0:19:08.436 --> 0:19:12.596 and organizations producing a lot less valuable work because we 0:19:12.676 --> 0:19:16.716 are servicing this crude proxy that doesn't actually get to 0:19:16.796 --> 0:19:19.276 the core of what it means to be productive. It's 0:19:19.316 --> 0:19:20.756 completely cross purposes. 0:19:20.956 --> 0:19:24.996 But pseudo productivity doesn't just impair actual work productivity. It 0:19:25.036 --> 0:19:28.476 also increases our stress levels and decreases our happiness. 0:19:28.636 --> 0:19:31.956 There's an unavoidable consequence of pseudo productivity that you're going 0:19:32.036 --> 0:19:35.556 to get overloaded and you're going to stay overloaded. Saying 0:19:35.796 --> 0:19:39.076 yes to someone asking you to do something is very important, 0:19:39.436 --> 0:19:42.676 right because that's a very clear signal of activity. We 0:19:42.716 --> 0:19:44.956 have to get rid of pseudo productivity. We need much 0:19:45.036 --> 0:19:50.956 more humanistic, psychologically aware, and evidence based approaches for saying 0:19:51.436 --> 0:19:55.716 this is what we mean by productivity in the knowledge sector. 0:19:56.276 --> 0:19:58.876 Thankfully, Cal has come up with just such an approach, 0:19:59.156 --> 0:20:02.556 one that he outlines in his fabulous book Slow Productivity, 0:20:02.836 --> 0:20:07.236 The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout. Accomplishment without feeling 0:20:07.316 --> 0:20:11.836 burned out, Sign me up. Cal's idea for slow productivity 0:20:11.996 --> 0:20:14.956 was inspired by the slow food movement, a campaign in 0:20:14.996 --> 0:20:18.476 the late eighties pushing back against fast food culture arguing 0:20:18.516 --> 0:20:20.716 that people should take the time to grow and cook 0:20:20.756 --> 0:20:21.676 their own healthy food. 0:20:21.956 --> 0:20:25.156 Slow food actually gives us a couple really good ideas 0:20:25.156 --> 0:20:27.516 for how to form a reform movement. One it says, 0:20:27.716 --> 0:20:32.516 when dealing with a cultural situation that's displeasing, don't just 0:20:32.596 --> 0:20:35.956