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Devil's Advocate: Work is overrated
Stress does not equal productivity

By Martin Brampton

Published: Tuesday 06 December 2005

A chronic work avoider, Martin Brampton examines the practises that actually lead us to accomplish the most - and they don't include chaining yourself to your desk.

I'm going to make a public admission this week. The reason for making it is that I'm puzzled by the obsessive behaviour of very many people these days. So here we are - whenever I get the chance, I'm inclined to avoid work, and always have.

Now I haven't always succeeded and have often been quite hard-working. But it seems to me that it is the attitude that counts. A lot of people don't even seem to be trying to avoid work these days. It has become an addiction, to the extent that new terms such as 'Crackberrys' are being coined for people who cannot switch off.

Even while sleeping, people are worrying about their work problems. This is hugely counter-productive. It tends to cause wakefulness in the early hours of the morning. In that situation, not only do you lose sleep, you are quite incapable of solving the problems that are causing the worry. In fact, trying to work all the time is both bad for you and ineffective.

Oscar Wilde astutely observed that "work is the curse of the drinking classes". Certainly, I can recall major systems development projects in the City of London a few decades ago when so much was drunk at lunch time that there can have been little productive work afterwards. My experiences were not exceptional; it was the way the City operated at that time.

Despite current obsessions, it is not too difficult to defend such a work pattern. Nearly everybody is at the peak of their problem-solving capacity first thing in the morning. Nowadays, I very deliberately organise my work so that difficult tasks are always allocated to a morning slot. Back in my City days, even the hardest drinkers arrived at work ready to apply thought to the software problems of the day.

It is also well known that intellectual tasks such as designing and writing software can only be effectively pursued for a few hours a day. The same is true of learning, and students who attempt to spend many hours on their books are wasting their time as well as wearing themselves out. So, if you concentrate hard for a few hours, it is usually possible to make significant progress. After that, you are liable to make poor judgements or just go round in circles.

Another long established principle is that difficult problems are often solved when you are not thinking about them. If you are stuck with something, the best tactic is to forget about it and do something entirely different. Just when you have completely forgotten about your problem, the answer will spring to mind, entirely without effort. Not only does the problem get solved, you can enjoy yourself more.

Travelling has always seemed to me an opportunity to avoid work, one which many people are no longer taking. Perhaps driving counts as work but it used to be an excellent way to avoid the telephone and to empty your mind of anything too substantial. Radio programmes can be fascinating and informative, and totally unrelated topics often provide fresh insights into our own issues.

But public transport offers the best opportunities for avoiding work, often with options to eat and drink, to read books and to listen to music. I'm appalled that so many travellers miss out on these benefits and spend journeys dealing with emails or telephone calls. The conversations forced on other travellers are invariably of such triviality that it is obvious that their contribution to serious work is negligible.

Work problems can certainly be interesting. But surely they are most interesting when they are only part of a life that has other objectives too. Do we truly want to be defined as human beings simply by what we do at work?