Saturday, March 24, 2018

The Power of Full Engagement

A FB friend linked to this interesting article the explains How to Work Less and Accomplish More. My comment to him though was.
Excellent piece except for this silliness..."Top performers work 60 hours a week, on average. That’s a lot of hours, but it’s not 65 hours, either." In my opinion if some is working over 45 hours per week in a normal job, they are taking those hours from "their life" side of the balance. I may spend 55 to 60 hours in the office, but 10 to 15 of it is spent building relationships, blogging and/or taking breaks every couple of hours during the day. 
I am a believer in this book. The Power of Full Engagement
 What are your thoughts regarding being deemed successful at work and at life?

Another excellent tool is the Balance Wheel.  I have done this occasionally to figure out how am doing at all the different roles I have as an individual, son, husband, father, co-worker, philanthropist, blogger, etc. So much to do...  So little time...  😅

4 comments:

jerrye92002 said...

I worked with an old guy, going nowhere career-wise, who had this philosophy. "I refuse to work 50 hours a week just to get a job where I work 60 hours a week." And a younger fellow next to him who said, "nobody ever, on his deathbed, wishes he had spent more time at work."

John said...

That is what puzzled me about this survey...

"To find out what really drives performance at work, he surveyed 5,000 managers and employees. What he found: top performers do a few smart things that let them work less and achieve more. “My mission is to help people work better,” Hansen told me.

Here’s my interview with Hansen, including more about his findings and his advice for workers in their 50s and 60s to help them work better and have a life."

I mean if working less is 60 hours per week... I think the participants in his survey are not very well balanced in the first place... Therefore the survey results may be suspect.

John said...

During different periods of my life I have really worked 60 hours per week to hit deadlines... And I have never commuted more than ~15 minutes to work. And I can tell you that my personal life and health was very much sacrificed during those periods.

Actually that probably contributed to the severe panic attack and onset of anxiety issues.

Maybe the author can follow up with a piece on how many of the "successful people" are divorced, seeing a shrink and/or are in some way medicated. :-)

jerrye92002 said...

Yep. My driver was always to make it easier for others, and occasionally I would pull an all-nighter to make it happen. Happy I did, and I think I worked effectively and relatively stress-free, but still wish I had spent more time with the kids-- the more difficult job.