Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Overworked Creative

Time is finite, but we act as if it were otherwise, assuming that longer hours always lead to increased productivity. But in reality our bodies are designed to pulse and pause – to expend energy and then renew it. In this revelatory talk, energy expert Tony Schwartz debunks common productivity myths and shows us how to regain control over our energy so we can produce great work.

Watch it over at the99percent.com

7 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Bertrand Russell on leisure back in 1932, from the treatise “In Praise of Idleness”. He takes it beyond the personal and raises it to an activity of society-altering importance:

    “In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day, every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it..…. The taste for war will die out…Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.”

    Funny, this sort of contradicts the “stay hungry stay foolish poster”

  2. I can tell you why… because when you look around most offices people don’t actually work. They talk a lot yes, but very few actually work a full 8 hours. I am actually work not talk.

  3. Thank you very much indeed for this very pertinent post as always, I have worked as a creative most of my life and it is especially true in Tokyo Japan, where I used to reside. I had a stroke mostly due to overwork and now I know that the secret to happiness is slowness.
    Efficiency is a different problem as discussed in the video. Thank you.

  4. i don´t the most people´s in the office doesn´t word. he play with the computer and surfing in the internet. ;)

  5. this is so eye-opening, thank you for sharing it!

  6. It’s so true. Years ago we worked four, 10-hour days in the office and we all commented that we got less done, not more. Simple put, after so many hours, we were mentally spent and the rest of the time was unproductive.

  7. i work with koreans. no amount of time management can help. even if i came into work once a week, for 1 hour, those kimchi koreans would still drive me nuts.