Lifehacker: How you allocate and use your time every day is as important to productivity as the work you actually do. You have to be smart and strategic about when you work, what you work on, and how long you do it—otherwise, some of your time may be wasted. Illich’s Law, or the Law of Diminishing Returns, says that after working for a while, your productivity decreases—then becomes negative.
6 comments:
Although I have never heard the term “illich's Law” The idea of teaching a point of diminishing returns is definitely something i have considered in my personal workflow. Something this article made me consider however is how Illich's Law applies to scheduling for theatrical tasks. With theater often working people to the point of burnout considering where and when breaks should be scheduled is a crucial part of a stage and production manager's job. Although not a method that can be used on site a method that follows Illich's law and I use for the work I complete at my desk is the pomodoro study method which is 25 minutes of intense work followed by a 5 minute break although not perfect I find that this method decreases my burnout during long study sessions. In the future I hope that more artisans and managers take this concept into effect as we create theater.
This is a really interesting read. Although I've struggled for as long as I can remember with motivation to start work, I guess it never really occurred to me to do something like the data gathering mentioned here in order to figure out the working patterns that would work best for me. I think that the issue with me is that my working patterns can vary greatly from day to day, and neither of them feel more “wrong” than the other. In that case, I wonder if I'm supposed to take the average, or just continue to observe my patterns until a different pattern emerges. This idea does have a lot of value to me, so I do think that in the near future I will try to keep note of the things mentioned in this article to see if a pattern does emerge. In theatre, we have such a hectic job that has so many moving parts and so many different tasks for us to complete that it can become quite grueling very easily. Trying out new methods like this I think are really important in order to figure out what makes you not go crazy the best.
I believed in what this article describes as Illich’s Law when applied to productivity, I just didn’t know there was a name that could be attached to the phenomenon. I think I experienced this a lot with load-ins on Saturdays that last the whole day. Everyone of course starts off strong in the morning and continues that through the first crew call. And at the start of the second crew call things are still going alright, but then towards the last end of the second crew call, productivity slows down drastically and more mistakes are made. I also think when working on assignments this is very common for me as well since I tend to do big assignments in one large sitting, not because I prefer it but because of time constraints. I think to use this idea to it's full potential you need the luxury of time and patience to stop yourself from working knowing a better outcome is the result of waiting a few hours or a day to pick it back up.
This article was very interesting to read, especially since I usually feel very conflicted when it comes to taking a break. At least for me, I would many times rather just plow through break and keep working to make sure that I'm staying focused on my tasks and not slowing down. I of course think breaks are needed during the day, but for some reason in our industry breaks seem to always come right when you're in the middle of doing a task that needs undivided attention. This means that when you come back from break, you need a few minutes to get back in the headspace of the task, meaning it would take longer to do it that if there were no break called at that moment. I have never heard of the Yerkes-Dodson law before, but it makes complete sense based on my experiences in working. The right amount of stress is perfect for keeping your head completely in the task you are in and keeping that stress between tasks means you can continue working at peak performance.
I often find that “organizational advice articles” don’t always help me, and they can be interesting but don’t often work with my schedule or personal system. This one however was interesting in it’s thought about taking more breaks. I do find that sometimes when I’m “working all day” I end up procrastinating more and can feel less productive than if I went to lunch with a friend in between projects, or took a short break. That being said, having a break to focus, or a discussion with someone interrupt the music blasting in my ears to keep me focused, will sometimes also lead to more procrastination for me. Also the enjoyment I get from the project will affect things as well, if it’s something I’m really excited by I could work on it for hours and stay focused, versus a more monotonous task I may not. Their idea of “the perfect amount of stress” makes sense, though how do you really know what’s the perfect amount? I guess like most projects, “it depends.” Maybe now I’ll think about taking more regular productive breaks.
This article makes me think about my work habits and how I should move forward. It is super interesting to think about the psychology of work as well as bad work. I am someone who struggles to find a linear work pattern, mine seems to be exponential or even quadratic. When I sit down to make some art, I don’t think about time, I can sit down and work for hours until I am satisfied. Sometimes this drives me crazy and I need to take a step away and look at it with some perspective. When I sit down to do academic work, I count the seconds passing as I stare at my computer screen for hours. I have to find a balance. Illich's law might just be right for me, reminding myself I can step away and come back to it. It seems logical to me. However, sometimes when doing something creative you need to forget time and just create.
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