Time to Stop (?)

I often hear, ‘I just don’t have enough time…  I just wish there were more hours in the day.’  The truth is, even if we had more time we would fill it and here-in lies the problem.
 
One of the discoveries I made early on in leadership was that there would never be enough time in the day/week or year to complete all the tasks on my seemingly endless to do list.  I know I’m not alone here. Think about it: Have you ever told anyone, “I’m loving my work, but I also have time to play and relax?”

I recognise I used to wear ‘busy-ness’ as a status symbol.  At a conference a few years ago I was sat at a table with six other school leaders.  The conversation was depressing.
‘I worked all day Sunday completing the SIP’
‘I was up till 11.30 last night answering my emails’
‘I got up at 5 am to prepare for a Governors meeting’

I now know that we were all doing something fundamentally wrong.  It isn't a competition of who is working the hardest.  It should be about who has a great  life  and still gets the work done. Through conversations with my coach and in coaching conversations I have with school leaders we are understanding how to take a fresh look at how we make best use of our time .

In a recent conversation with Senior Deputy Headteacher, Kristian Still, he noted that the best use of his time is  the hour or two he choses to take out from ‘work’ to reflect on his week.  Kristian knows that this use of his time creates a space in which he makes his best decisions. 

So instead of working longer and harder, should we be working fewer hours more carefully?

Here are a couple of scientifically proven facts about our use of time:

Firstly working fewer hours actually increases our productivity

A top public health doctor, Professor John Ashton, explained that long working hours was a significant  cause of mental ill health, and a study published in the Lancet in 2015 directly linked long working hours with an increased risk of stroke and heart disease.

What is interesting is that productivity (output per working hour) improves when working fewer hours. Across the world’s richest countries,  data shows that higher productivity correlates with lower working hours. Ford’s original workers were found less productive working more than 40 hours a week, a situation likely to be even more the case for people who work with knowledge and mental capacity. Whoever had their best idea when they were mentally exhausted?
 
Increased working hours have also been connected to absenteeism and higher employee turnover. We all know the frightening figures on teacher retention and turnover. There is also a newer issue with staff increasingly reluctant to take time-off for illness, creating ‘presenteeism’ (turning up for work when unwell) which may also be affecting our productivity. A recent Work Foundation report has found that presenteeism, could account for as much if not more of a loss in productivity than sickness absence. Even if we are present we may not be at our well enough to perform our jobs well. When is the last time you felt that you had experienced an unproductive day because you were below par?

And then there are all the mistakes we make. Tired and exhausted people struggle to make good decisions, which is a fundamental part of our day to day work in schools.

So with all the research out there pointing in one clear direction, the real question is, why are we still putting in 63+ hour weeks if there's never been any evidence to suggest that it makes us better teachers and leaders? The Harvard Business journalist, Green Carmichael suggests:

"Maybe most people just don’t know how bad overwork is, objectively speaking ... Maybe they’ve seen the research, but just don’t choose to act on it. Or it could be something stronger. Maybe when you combine economic incentives, authority figures, and deep-seated psychological needs, you produce a cocktail that is simply too intoxicating to overcome."

This is where we as leaders need to to plan our work routines around science-backed evidence, rather than letting ourselves work so many hours.  It is important for our levels of productivity as well as our health and well-being that we are self-disciplined enough to value stopping work, as much as we value the time we put into work.

Secondly, taking time out is better for our brains

There is significant research that says we have limited amounts of cognitive resources. It is strange that most of us wouldn’t think twice about resting after an hour- long workout at the gym, but we do not consider mental fatigue in the same way. Our brain is just like a muscle we can strengthen it or wear it out.  If we can let our brains recharge we will feel and function better.

One of our greatest challenges is our 24/7 access to work which reduces our cognitive ability to switch off.  You may be thinking you do switch off, but if you’re like the average person in the UK you check your phone 28 times a day during waking hours, which is a sure fire way to trigger cognitive burnout.

We need to ensure that recovery opportunities are planned in. From taking breaks during the workday through to ensuring we have hobbies that act as diversions and shut off our work minds when we get home as well as the importance of having good holidays and sleep.

A specific study by the University of Toronto found that people who engaged in respite activities during the workday demonstrated increased positivity after the breaks, showing improved focus and higher levels of resilience compared with those who chose to complete tasks and errands in their breaks.

Leaving work at work is one of the most important recovery strategies and possibly the hardest. If you're still obsessing about work when you're not at work, no recovery can take place. 

It is clear we need to give ourselves permission to lounge, relax, switch-off, tune-out and engage in other non-work related activities. Taking a stroll in the school grounds, practicing yoga or leaving work early sometimes is essential. We need to ensure we place value on our time ‘out’ as much as we prioritise for our time ‘in’ work.

The next time you’re tempted to fill your time with 'the next thing on the list', just  pause and remember: Stopping might well be the most productive thing you can do.
 

'The bad news is time flies. The good news is you are the pilot'

-Michael Altshuler

If you need a space to pause and reflect book a coaching session by contacting us here and we can work with you to gain new insights into your productivity and the best use of your time.