# Ep. 257 — Refusing Overwork  URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/8b0d57dc-d8c8-4199-b91a-9ef6f603126b Author:: Deep Questions with Cal Newport ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Fixed Schedule Productivity System > Key takeaways: > - The speaker discusses a method called 'fixed schedule productivity' for balancing an ambitious workload with a spark schedule. > - The first step of this method is to choose a work schedule that balances effort and relaxation. > - The second step is to prioritize avoiding any violations of this chosen schedule. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > Do I balance an ambitious workload with an ambitious spark schedule? It's a simple idea. I call fixed schedule productivity. The system works as follows. One, choose a schedule of work hours that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation. Two, do whatever it takes to avoid violating this schedule. ([Time 0:05:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0d8365cc-cb9c-4050-b05d-e1b4146612f4)) > The Benefits of Workload Management in Modern Knowledge Work > Key takeaways: > - Individual workloads need to be managed effectively > - The 20% rule is a common coping mechanism for workload overload > - Workload oscillates between too much and too little > - Fix your productivity is a workload management strategy > - Using fixed hours as a metric for workload control is more reasonable than stress and anxiety > - Fix your productivity promotes a sustainable and balanced approach to work > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > One of the big issues is that we don't have clear ways to actually manage individual workloads. We allow workloads to be distributed in an ad hoc fashion. People send you emails, grab you on Slack or in the hallway. Hey, what about this? Can you help me with this? Can you join this? It is up to you to figure out how much to bring on your plate. It's up to you to figure out when to push back. This is a very difficult burden to place onto an individual knowledge worker. So what do we tend to do? We fall back on what I talk about all the time on the show as the 20% rule. We wait until we have about 20% too much work on our plate. At that point, we are so stressed out and anxious about our work that our psychological distress gives us emotional cover to say no. We're feeling so bad that we finally feel justified to start limiting new stuff on our schedule. And what this really looks like in practice is oscillation. Things get way out of control from a place of anxiety and burnout. We begin pushing back on new work. Eventually we crest the other direction. Now we have too little on our plate. We've been saying no for a while. We finished the things that were stressing us out. Now we have too little on our plate. So we start saying yes again, then we go right up to the peak again before we fall back down to the valley. Fix your productivity, though I did not know it at the time when I introduced it, is a workload management strategy. By saying my work has to fit into these hours, you have a better metric to use to control your workload than stress and anxiety. Your metric is I'm not going to be able to easily fit this within nine to five. So now I have too much on my plate. I have to say no or improve how I'm working on what's already there. That is a much more reasonable metric than waiting until you're 20% more stressed, trying to fit your work into nine to five. That's actually a reasonable amount of work. So what you're implicitly doing with fixated productivity is saying here is a reasonable workload. I can do a lot of good work with this workload, but it is sustainable and it can fit into a broader, deeper life that has other concerns than just work. And I'm going to work backwards now and make sure what do I need to do to keep my workload to fit within those limits. So it's replacing the 20% rule with something much more humane and sustainable. ([Time 0:12:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1f3b84c1-defe-4573-bcf8-53b44a3b6fa4)) > The Desire for Less Work, More Flexibility > Transcript: > Speaker 2 > I have one follow-up question. Do you ever wish you had more time, like in a given day, to work? > Speaker 3 > No. > Speaker 1 > I often wish I had less to do. I think that's much more common because I want to fit my time into my work hours. I don't like when that's always very crowded. I mean, it's okay for me if there are certain points, certain days where my nine to five is very crowded. But what I always pine for is having less to do more flexibility in those hours, not more time so I can do more things. I still have a fundamental aversion to overload. I still have a fundamental aversion to having too much on my plate. I don't like it. My dream remains, you know, the guy who lives on the farm and writes one book a year, six months out of the year, and it kind of takes a break in between. ([Time 0:22:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c8e4f10d-7971-4499-bdb5-967e5f88d075)) Note: causes of [[Burnout]]: overwork or overload > The Benefits of Tracking Available Time for Better Decision Making > Key takeaways: > - Quotas provide a specific workload management system > - Pre-planning non-trivial work on the calendar helps manage available time > - Blocking off time on the calendar before accepting a project provides a concrete understanding of available time > - Struggling to find time for a project can be useful feedback > - Tracking time allows for informed decision-making > - Concrete feedback on available time is better than abstract thinking > - Consider workload before taking on new projects > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > So quotas give, they're very useful because it has a very specific workload management system that you can cite, hard to argue with. The other thing you can try is pre-planning non-trivial work on your calendar. This is, again, something I get in the more detail in my new book coming out of March, Slow Productivity, I get into this idea of thinking more about it. But when a project comes in, you say, I'm actually going to find time on my calendar for when I'm going to do this project. And you know, maybe it's five different long sessions I'm going to have to find. And you go and you have to find it and block off that time before you accept it. Now, the reason why this is a really useful strategy is that it actually gives you a concrete understanding of how much available time you have outside of just the immediate future. So if you struggle to find time, okay, I need five two hour sessions to write this report, I can't find five two hour sessions I can fit on the schedule for another three months. That is really useful feedback. That then allows you to say to the person, basically, I don't, I'm looking for this time. I track my time very carefully. I don't really have time. I'm assuming this will be about 10 hours. I can't see myself really doing that until March. And then I say, well, okay, you know, whatever, that's too late. I'll ask someone else to do it or they'll say, yeah, great, do it then. But what you're getting here is a concrete feedback signal about how much time you actually have. This is much better than just saying in the moment, could I imagine myself in the abstract writing this report? Yeah, I've written these before. I don't want to disappoint this guy. Yeah, I'll do it. And ([Time 0:37:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/56fadf13-a6ae-4620-a3b0-31991a4091ed))