Hey,<\/p>\n
In this email I’m going to explain why “balance” can actually make
\nyou more stressed out and less productive.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Don’t Try to “Balance” Your Workload<\/p>\n
Life balance is a common topic thrown around these days. As a whole,
\nit’s a worthwhile discussion–particularly in academics where it’s
\neasy to see the learning experience in extremes.<\/p>\n
While life balance as a whole is probably good, a mistake many make
\nis believing that means your workload should be balanced.<\/p>\n
I’ll give you a simple example.<\/p>\n
Let’s say you have 5 days you want to work next week and you have
\n5 chapters you need to read. Most people would say this is a simple
\nmath problem: 5 \/ 5 = 1, therefore you should do one assignment each
\nday.<\/p>\n
Wrong.<\/p>\n
This method rarely works, for two reasons:<\/p>\n
The first is that nothing in planning goes perfectly in execution.
\nSo you complete the first three chapters no problem, but forget that
\nThursday you have a friends birthday to attend, so you skip that.
\nSuddenly you’re overwhelmed on Friday, racing to the deadline.<\/p>\n
Another way of putting it, is that procrastination will always
\nhappen to some extent, so planning for perfection means planning to
\nfail.<\/p>\n
The second reason is a bit deeper, psychologically.<\/p>\n
This is that people don’t have a “work 50%” mental switch in their
\nhead. Either you work 100% or you relax. Trying to do both usually
\nresults in doing neither very well.<\/p>\n
As a result, by setting an easy, “balanced” schedule your work
\nswitch never flicks on completely, so you never get into that
\nproductive mental flow that actually accomplishes a lot of work.<\/p>\n
A better system is to make your workload unbalanced. Place too much
\nat the beginning so that you’ll have a brief period of intensity
\nfollowed by a longer period of relative relaxation.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
The Power of Top-Heaviness<\/p>\n
This imbalance I call top-heaviness. By making your time top-heavy,
\nyou get the productive surge early on, account for possible mishaps
\nand procrastination, and get a chance to relax after your work is
\ndone.<\/p>\n
In the Weekly\/Daily Goals framework, there are two ways you can make
\nyour time top-heavy:<\/p>\n
1. Accomplish most your tasks early in the day.
\n2. Accomplish most your tasks early in the week.<\/p>\n
For myself, I usually try to have 60% of my weekly goals done by
\nWednesday. I also strive to get done at least 60% of my daily goals
\nby noon.<\/p>\n
Top-heaviness is more about general principle than specifics, so
\ndon’t hold yourself to a specific quota, just strive to make your
\nMonday, Tuesday and Wednesday lists more intense than your ones
\nlater in the week, and try to schedule your day similarly.<\/p>\n
This may need modifications for your particular schedule, but the
\nkey is to stop the balanced “smoothing” method of distributing your
\nwork and try a “piling” approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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