In the professional world, the academic world, and even the sports world, you hear a lot of praise lavished on hard work. Hard work is nearly a sacred virtue in our society, and is hailed as the ultimate key to success. This has always struck us as a bit strange. Why is working hard, in and of itself, considered a virtue? What about working smart? Isn’t it better to get a job done in half the time, assuming you can do so without sacrificing quality? We’re not saying you shouldn’t work hard. But before you focus on working hard, make sure you’re working smart. Whether it’s in sports, school, or the professional world, learning how to work with your body and brain will allow you to accomplish a lot more in a lot less time. And as you learn to work more efficiently, we bet you start getting better results as well, since you’ll end up having more time and energy to devote to your projects.

The first step to working smart is to understand your brain and body so that you can get the most out of both. The basics of how the brain works are covered in Understanding Your Brain, and a solid approach to maximizing physical health is outlined in The Pillars of Health. Our Work Less, Accomplish More principles and aqction steps provide more specific advice to help you work at your productive, efficient best.


Work Less, Accomplish More Principles

1. Don’t Burn Yourself Out

Have you ever had the experience of trying to concentrate, only to find that you’re pouring over the same material time and time again without making any real progress or even understanding what you’re looking at? When you reach this point, one of three things is probably going on. Either you are physically exhausted from too much work and too little rest, or you’ve depleted your reserves of critical brain chemicals like dopamine and epinephrine, leaving you mentally exhausted, or your blood sugar is crashing, starving your brain for energy. This is burnout, and trying to work in this condition is pointless. Stop working, take a break to let your body and brain recover, and eat some brain food (see Fueling Your Brain for more)

Once you reach the point of physical or mental burnout, it takes a while for your body and brain to recover. When we really burn ourselves out, it takes hours, or even days, to recover to the point where we can start working productively again. It is far more efficient to stop working before you burn out and give yoruself a chance to recharge before diving back in than it is to work as long and as hard as you can, and then crash.

Understanding what causes burn out can help us nip it in the bud. Burn out isn’t complicated. It results from working too long without a break and failing to adequately nourish your body and brain. When the heat is on and we really need to crank out an assignment, we tend not to pay attention to taking breaks and eating well. In so doing, we end up shooting ourselves in the foot. By taking a 5 to 10 minute break every hour and a 45 minute break to eat and relax every 3-4 hours, you’ll avoid burning yourself out, and you’ll be able to keep working at maximum efficiency throughout the day. You may end up spending less time working, but you’ll get more done, and the quality of your work will improve. If you need to work solidly over the course of weeks or months, you'll need to plan a full day off every week and a full long weekend off every few months to avoid burn out and a drop off in efficiency.