Should You Really Be Playing?
Scenario: "Dude, we can't play. We gotta work. Yay!" Say you have a client project due next month.
What's the best way then to "Wow!" your client?
- A) Schedule play everyday.
- B) Schedule work everyday.
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.
How Play Speeds Productivity
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:
Option #1: "Nope! I wasn't interrupted."
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:
- 1st day: Go over notes.
- 2nd day: Go over notes.
- 3rd day: Go over notes.
- 4th day: Write 1st page.
- 5th day: Edit 1st page.
- 6th day: Write 2nd page.
- 7th day: Write 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th pages. Proofread, cite, review, design cover letter, print, yadda.
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:
The anticipation of extended isolation from friends and recreation is likely to promote procrastination.
Option #2: "Yes! I was interrupted."
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."
- 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."
- 2nd day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend concert.
- 3rd day: "The concert energized me. Let's write the next 3 pages."
- 4th day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend ballgame.
- 5th day: "My morale's rockin'. Again, let's write the next 3 pages."
- 6th day: Fun-sexy-time! Run the College Invitational.
- 7th day: Write final page. Deal with logistics. Finish!
Cheesy language aside, scheduling play ironically drives you to be much more productive according to Fiore:
We are more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success rather than isolation and anxiety.
How to Schedule Play
You'd think to schedule play, you'd have to:
- Schedule work first.
- Schedule play second.
But when you see your work schedule filled with work, scheduling play becomes super difficult. Instead, do what performance psychologists recommend:
- Schedule play first.
- Schedule work second.
You'll start seeing yourself churning the shizzle out of every working hour. We promise.
Play first, playa.
Read More Business Tips From Trizle »
20 Comments
on Should You Really Be Playing?
ndtwc
2007-03-14 06:34:38 UTC
Oh schedule play first, and work next! I think this can only work for those who can follow their schedules perfectly. And honestly I can't LOL. And I really don't like being interrupted while I'm concentrating on something. And play? Yeah I do play, but I try to put all plays after I have finished all of my works.
This is my mum told me when I was a very little kid: Wanna play? finish your homework first! Or do you want to play while still having to worry about your unfinished homework? You can play freely only if you don't have any burden! Blahblahblah...
But um... it looks like thinking in that way is just concentrating on the quality of play, but not work huh? I get the work finished faster (yeah just get it done, forget about the quality!), so I can play earlier! Whatever... but at least I can still have the job done! And sure I m not this kind of person: I have to finish something first, "so I don’t feel guilty about" going to play something next. I have never think in this way, really.
Ana
2007-03-14 20:36:50 UTC
I *try* my very best to schedule play first but it doesn't always happen. Just this Tuesday, I was stressing over 3 different things that needed to be done and I hadn't started none. It was scenario One for me. I'm not perfect, I know ;)
Great article. I need to work on this.
Best,
Ana
Schedule Play Before Work - lifehack.org
2007-03-15 05:26:03 UTC
[...] Should You Really Be Playing? - [Trizle] digg_url = 'http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/schedule-play-before-work.html'; digg_bgcolor = "#"; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin=='string'?digg_skin:''; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds=='compact') { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url=='string'?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL=='string'?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(""); } )() Author: Craig Childs Posted: Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 7:28 am Tags: schedule, scheduling, time+management Bookmark/Share This! Leave a Reply [...]
WTL
2007-03-15 09:02:56 UTC
I agree with this - I arrange "play breaks" in my day so that I can play video games for an hour (or so) to help give myself a mental break.
...And plan my work *around* my social engagements.
For the last seven yeas, it has worked pretty well for me.
SpiKe
2007-03-15 10:59:34 UTC
Well written, good read. I've been ranting on about the virtues of scheduling in rewards to stave off procrastination for the last few weeks but scheduling in play-time like this is interesting.
rish
2007-03-15 22:26:54 UTC
You know, I just got done reading The Now Habit by Neil Fiore, and he makes a similar point by saying - schedule play first, and only record stuff that you have completed.
andhapp
2007-03-16 08:37:34 UTC
I usually followed the following strategy:
1 - Plan my approach to tackle the problem
2 - Do research
3,4 - Make a rough draft report (80%)
5 - Then take it easy..
6 - Do a bit more ...may be 10%
7 - Finish the rest of 10% + give the finishing touches and hand it in....
But I put my stress to rest by just planning what I needed to write and by conducting the research...which meant when I sat down to write I had all the material with me.
Work Hard, Play Hard » aaron panasbodi dot com
2007-03-16 21:22:32 UTC
[...] Read more here: Should You Really Be Playing? [...]
The Trizle Team
2007-03-17 15:49:40 UTC
Great comments, all. Thanks for the comments!
You all rock.
-Andrew
Alexander Kjerulf
2007-03-23 02:57:08 UTC
Great, great point. I could not agree more, and it nixes the whole mindset that success comes only from long, unpleasant work hours.
How to Use Your Computer
2007-03-26 04:01:24 UTC
[...] If you’re not scheduling carefree fun-time on your computer, you’re actually draining your productivity even more. So, start incorporating those computer-sexy-fun-times into your schedule. [...]
Happy links roundup
2007-03-30 04:47:25 UTC
[...] Also: Happy at work in South Korea - The science of lasting happiness - Why happiness at work is like marriage - Schedule play at work - A 10-second experiment in negative thinking. [...]
Andy Polaine
2007-04-03 02:49:36 UTC
Great post and very true. A culture of play is really something that you have to work at, ironically.
Bootstrapper » The Happy Entrepreneur: 57 Tips and Resources to Make Solo Work FUN!
2007-10-09 06:24:16 UTC
[...] Schedule playtime first: Build your schedule around what you really want to do, and you’ll always have time for the fun stuff. [...]
mike
2007-10-24 17:46:32 UTC
Awesome, I used to do things this way with great results, but have started slipping on it a bit. I am going back to the old sexyfuntime way!
Ferdinants
2008-06-22 03:12:04 UTC
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