Wasting time is good for you

The title is a bit of an oversimplification. What it really means is that what we think of as “wasted time” may not actually be a waste after all. We need to overhaul our definitions of “productivity” and “time wasting.”

The current definitions

I used to wait tables. My shifts would last 4-6 hours without breaks. I’d work up a sweat and burn quite a few calories from all the physical labor I put into it. Being trained to think of “time wasting” and “productivity” in twentieth century assembly line thinking, I look back and tend to think I was 100% productive during those shifts, because they were my shifts, and I showed up and I worked them.

Not so. There were a few shifts where I started out at a rush and kept up a frenetic pace the whole time, and what followed was immense physical and mental exhaustion, and also “server dreams” – every server I’ve ever met is familiar with these recurring dreams where you’re waiting tables but you just keep falling further and further behind while everyone yells at you. This is not normal or healthy; it is, however, a good example of what happens when you’re literally 100% productive for even six hours straight.

But the vast majority of shifts started out slow. I’d look for something to clean while I waited to get tables. If everything was clean and no managers had anything for me to do, I’d talk to another bored server. Or have a cola (they were free). And even after it got busy, we would often cover each other for little 2-3 minute breaks. If I looked too overwhelmed and there was nothing disastrous going on, a manager would often tell me to go take a few minutes – even though technically I wasn’t entitled to breaks.

In a job like waiting tables, you can really see what the human body and mind are capable of – and what they’re not. Everyone knew people simply can’t be productive for hours on end. We’re designed to work in energetic bursts, then take a break to recover. Then another boost, then another break. In physical labor, “bursts” can last a couple of hours, and breaks can be as short as a couple of minutes. Modern laws – and, I hope, most modern employers – understand that people are more productive if you set up a structure where they can pace themselves.

In mental labor, it’s a whole other story: bursts can be as short as ten minutes, while breaks can require hours. But – and here’s the catch – your brain doesn’t stop working during breaks the way your body does. So those hours of surfing the net may be more productive than you think. Just as those minutes of loafing or taking a cola break during my serving shifts were what kept me sane so I could continue to be productive.

Product, not productivity

When you have a job where you’re paid to do paperwork – or where you freelance or work for yourself – it’s easier to count the minutes that you spent “not working” than to count up how much you actually produced. Spend a couple of weeks tracking both, and you might be surprised. I have days where I spend hours looking up stuff online and only “work” for about ninety minutes, yet when I tally up my product – what I actually got done – I find it’s more than I get done on those days when I work pretty steadily. This is because while one part of my brain surfed the net, another part was working on an article I wanted to write, and when I actually got inspired enough to write out the article, my brain had completed the first few drafts and the final one flowed like water.

When we talk about measuring “productivity” we usually mean measuring the time we spend on work. It’s when you measure your “product” – the number of items you got done today – that you get a real sense of how productive you are. Most of us are at the mercy of bosses who follow the old definitions, but there are new theories in the workplace such as ROWE, or “Results Only Work Environment.” The idea behind Rowe is that employees shouldn’t be judged by the face time they put in, but by what they accomplish. Best Buy has found it increased productivity dramatically by telling its employees they could come and go as they pleased, so long as the work got done. The increased productivity is due to several factors:

The flexibility gives people more time for their families and other reinvigorating activities, so they come to work fresher and more inspired.
If they don’t appreciate the flexibility and reciprocate by working harder when they do work, it’ll show up as a lack of results, and the company will know who to let go.
The workers who were just “looking busy” all this time are finally exposed and can be replaced with productive people.

How does this apply if you’re not lucky enough to be a Best Buy worker? It may not help you much at work if your boss isn’t open to testing flexible options. But in the rest of your busy personal life, you can start cutting yourself some slack. Notice when your energy peaks and troughs happen. Do you find it more grueling to do laundry after work or on a day off? What about before work? Do you have a creative burst in the mornings that would make it worth getting up earlier to do something for yourself before you go into the office? Do you perform better with a nap after dinner?

It’s important to realize you don’t need to be “getting stuff done” every minute you’re awake. Schedule some downtime and don’t feel guilty about it. At the end of the day, the worst possible waste of time is to miss out on your life.

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