Should You Really Be Playing?

Scenario: "Dude, we can't play. We gotta work. Yay!" Say you have a client project due next month. <h3>What's the best way then to "Wow!" your client?</h3> <ul> <li>A) Schedule play everyday.</li> <li>B) Schedule work everyday.</li> </ul> Conventional wisdom would tell you: "It's B! It's B!" But, conventional wisdom -- as seemingly always -- sucks. Locking yourself up into your office will get you shabby results, where you keep yourself busy without producing much -- according to Berkeley Psychologist Neil Fiore. Scheduling play everyday instead stimulates your soul to work much more productively, while keeping your morale higher than a freakish eagle. <h2>How Play Speeds Productivity</h2> Remember a big 10-page term paper in college that you had due in about a week, but hadn't yet started? Did something interrupt you between those days (e.g. a ball game, a concert, a night club, an evening run, a yadda)? Let's decipher two scenarios that could happen: <h3>Option #1: "Nope! I wasn't interrupted."</h3> If you didn't let anybody interrupt you, you probably still completed your work -- albeit, you felt pretty dull during most of the process. Instead of driving your entire heart, body, and soul into every minute of your working hours, you instead went through a similar route: <ul> <li>1st day: Go over notes.</li> <li>2nd day: Go over notes.</li> <li>3rd day: Go over notes.</li> <li>4th day: Write 1st page.</li> <li>5th day: Edit 1st page.</li> <li>6th day: Write 2nd page.</li> <li>7th day: Write 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th pages. Proofread, cite, review, design cover letter, print, yadda.</li> </ul> You scheduled 7 days to work -- but, you really completed the majority of your work within a fraction of the alloted time. According to Fiore's study: <blockquote>The anticipation of extended isolation from friends and recreation is likely to promote procrastination.</blockquote> <h3>Option #2: "Yes! I was interrupted."</h3> Now, if you scheduled play: You not only (1) had a frickin' good sexy time, but (2) your productivity most likely soared. Why? Your badass subconsciously told yourself: "Since I have limited time to work on my paper, I will have to work more efficiently. Therefore, I will have to smartly plan my working schedule." <ul> <li>1st day: "Crap! I only have four days to write ten pages. I'll go over notes and write the first 3 pages today, so I don't feel guilty about going to the concert tomorrow."</li> <li>2nd day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend concert.</li> <li>3rd day: "The concert energized me. Let's write the next 3 pages."</li> <li>4th day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend ballgame.</li> <li>5th day: "My morale's rockin'. Again, let's write the next 3 pages."</li> <li>6th day: Fun-sexy-time! Run the College Invitational.</li> <li>7th day: Write final page. Deal with logistics. Finish!</li> </ul> Cheesy language aside, scheduling play ironically drives you to be much more productive according to Fiore: <blockquote>We are more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success rather than isolation and anxiety.</blockquote> <h2>How to Schedule Play</h2> You'd think to schedule play, you'd have to: <ol> <li> Schedule work first.</li> <li> Schedule play second.</li> </ol> But when you see your work schedule filled with work, scheduling play becomes super difficult. Instead, do what performance psychologists recommend: <ol> <li> Schedule play first.</li> <li> Schedule work second.</li> </ol> You'll start seeing yourself churning the shizzle out of every working hour. We promise. <h2>Play first, playa.</h2>   2007-03-13T21:11:50-07:00 true 500 should-you-really-be-playing

2009-11-06T21:45:45-08:00