Your Personal Energy & Productivity - Part 2

June 8, 2010

Interview with Tony Schwartz, author of the book The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

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Mike Carruthers:
To be effective, productive, and to maintain your energy level there appears to be some wisdom in the idea that you should pace yourself.

Tony Schwartz:
What the research really tells us about the ideal way to work is to alternate periods of high focus with periods of renewal.

Tony Schwartz, author of the book The Way We're Working Isn't Working...

 In other words, instead of working long continuous hours (where you can’t possibly give it your all, all the way through) what you do is you find periods of the day where you fully focus for short times – meaning 60 to 90 minutes. Because in that you will get more done in less time at a higher level of quality and then you rest.

And to rest and renew means to take a break from everything.

So in other words renewal is not doing your emails. Renewal is disengaging from work and refueling the system.

When you just go, go, go all day long life gets chaotic and you become less effective. And part of it is…

We don’t know how to say no. And the reason people don’t know how to say no is because so much is coming at you, what you tend to default to is just doing whatever is most urgent that’s in front of you. So, we really need to build back, taking the time to say, “What is it I should do? And what do I need to say no to?”

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here