One morning, I arrived at my office at 3:45 am to continue working on a project that has been a thorn in my side for a long time. For 14 hours, I labored on the project. Several times during the day, I found myself struggling to stay awake.
It’s a bad habit I’ve had for a long time: going way too far above and beyond to “do my job.” The funny thing is, that project isn’t even my job. It belongs to someone else in the company but because it was ignored for so long, their lack of preparation became an emergency on my part. Nice guy. Hero complex.
Some days, my interrupted interruptions get interrupted. My professional life resembles whack-a-mole most days where I dart from one thing to the next, trying to put out as many “fires” as I can.
Many days, I go home after working for too many hours, wondering what it is that I’ve accomplished that day.
Maybe getting to the office at 3:45 am is somewhat unique to people with my kind of hero complex, but the story isn’t just mine. My story is just an example of a pervasive culture that rewards visible activity over meaningful outcomes. How many of us wear busyness like a badge of honor, even when it leads to burnout?
Gloria Mark from the University of California, Irvine, who specialized in digital distractions, claims it takes 23 minutes to regain focus after an interruption.
As one whose professional life has been governed by chaos, I can’t get behind Gloria’s number. It seems inflated to the point of being sensational. However, I won’t argue that interruptions break focus and make it harder to get things done, especially when those things require deep thinking.
The daily frenzy that many of us experience often extends outside of work either because we always take work with us or because other areas of our lives are as hectic as our work ones.
How did we get here?
The idea of always being on isn’t necessarily new. The Industrial Revolution birthed this idea that “time equals money,” where productivity was measured in tangible outputs. While it may have started in a more “blue collar” environment, over time it permeated just about every work sector. In short, success became tied to visible effort, creating a culture where overworking was and is seen as a virtue.
Competitive capitalism, particularly in “hustle culture” — where working nonstop is framed as the path to success — has been promoted, even glamorized, especially in entrepreneurial and corporate environments.
Related to the idea of hustle culture, there’s been a general shift toward individualism where personal achievement is a defining characteristic — perhaps the defining characteristic — which is often connected to self-worth. It create pressure to constantly prove your value. I’ve personally used the phrase, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” which has been far too common a motto that creates an almost heroic view of exhaustion as a badge of honor.
Of course, no dialog about how we ended up in our current predicament would be complete without discussing technology’s role in all of this. Before people walked around with computers in their pockets all the time, a home phone was the only way to be reached outside of work hours, and a sense of propriety (mostly) kept that from being a problem. Now, we can be bothered at any time during the day with text messages, Teams Messages, and Slack chats which we’ve been conditioned to respond to as fast as we can. Get that dopamine hit!
How do we get out?
So, we’re here. Now what? How can we undo what has been quietly creeping into our lives for the last 25+ years?
It’s not an option for most people to quit their job and live a monastic lifestyle. For most people, taking two weeks off during the year is a tall order.
To get out of where we are, small steps will have to be taken by large numbers of people for society to shift back the other direction.
- Redefine success. It’s time to shift our focus from being busy to achieving meaningful outcomes. Asking a question like “What really matters, and how can I contribute to it?” might help set the stage.
- Set boundaries. If you have a demanding employer, you know this one’s not easy. We’ve forgotten that we trade some of our time for money and it’s okay to say no sometimes.
- Push for systematic change. This is where the small steps taken by large numbers of people will have the greatest impact. We can individually and collectively advocate for policies that value team accountability over individual heroics.
- Use technology wisely. It’s hard to beat the dopamine hit that comes from clearing that notification, and checking another thing of the digital to do list. We have to set boundaries around technology to help us remember that it’s a tool to help us not enslave us.
- Normalize rest. Research abounds supporting the idea that downtime is a critical part of productivity. Real rest fuels creativity, decision-making, and overall well-being.
We didn’t end up where we are overnight, and it won’t change that quickly either. But every small step we take creates a ripple effect. The more we do individually and collectively, the faster change can happen.
Imagine what life could look like if we stopped confusing frenzy with efficiency. Meaningful progress sounds a lot better than whack-a-mole workdays and burned out nights.
Just like accomplishing anything, it starts with a decision: to question the habits that keep me in chaos or to adopt a calmer, more intentional way of working.
Which way will you go?
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