Escaping the efficiency trap means acknowledging that you can’t be everything for anyone
The strange times that we’re living in has taught us that our physical and mental health are equally important. The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have forced many of us to deal with a plethora of issues. In fact, we have become more attuned to our exact feelings, and constantly attempt to name them, much like Adam and Eve in their proverbial garden (although ours is less of a paradise considering all things). From “languishing” to “revenge bedtime procrastination“, we are now being introduced to “the efficiency trap, which is the desire to accomplish infinite activities in our finite time.
Work begets work
Psychologist Oliver Burkeman describes the drive for efficiency and productivity as a kind of “trap,” since you never truly escape the feeling that you should be doing more. Whether in context of work or life in general, we have this notion of time as a container that needs to be filled up to the brim.
An example would be finishing a task early, so you find yourself looking for or being given more things to do, because it looks like you have more time. This can lead to disregarding your limits as a human being. For Burkeman, the fact that work often begets work means that many efficient employees are soon stretched beyond capacity.
Recipe for stress
There should be nothing wrong in wanting to achieve more; however, it’s not for everybody, and certainly not all the time. Everything that is too much becomes harmful at some point. This habit is a recipe for stress, anxiety, burnout, and disappointment when goals are not met.
According to Burkeman, “It’s alluring to try to spend your time improving your routines and rituals—but that’s simply helping you to avoid confronting the truth about how finite you are,” he says. For him, it’s really a recipe for stress—the idea that you can do something superhuman with your time.
“Have done” list
Burkeman proposes and advocates the “have done list”—a parallel of “to do list” which starts empty each morning, but fills up with each task that you have completed. According to him those tasks may be simple ones that are not necessarily part of your “to do,” but nevertheless are important to achieve. This practice helps you to feel a greater sense of accomplishment with your tasks than simply stressing about all the things that you are yet to finish.
Paul Watts, a business coach, worded this perfectly, “You can’t be effective without being efficient, but, you can be efficient without being effective.” The purpose of understanding what the efficiency trap is and talking about it, is to ease the burden that we already carry on a daily basis. Accomplishing many things may seem to give a sense of growth in this seemingly stagnant time period, but it’s also just as important to simply survive. Now, when you finally can, live effectively. At the end of the day, when you are filled with basic needs like rest and time for yourself, then you have a lot more to give.
Related
What Is Anticipatory Anxiety And How To Rise Above It
What Is Languishing? How To Overcome The Dominant Emotion Of 2021
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: What Is It and How Do We Deal With It?
