Modern life is a perpetually running treadmill. The off-switch is broken. Humans have no control; the machine controls our actions and our direction.
Humans are overloaded - physically, mentally, sensorily, and spiritually.
Leisure, pleasure, love, and harmonious living are alien to the grown-ups of the present generation. To sit idle is to be unproductive. Resting is akin to slacking. Our parents and forefathers: Their lives were more challenging, the work was sometimes menial, and life was uncertain. Yet, they would switch off, rest and relax with their loved ones, if briefly. They would spend time with family. Also, there was a clear boundary between work life and personal life. For modern workers, that boundary has been breached.
Any time we get out of our routines, we spend it on the numerous screens that are now our accomplices. Technology was meant to aid us, but it now controls our existence.
Resting and relaxation are missing from our lives.
Have we misjudged ‘productivity’?
Throughout human history, people, societies, organisations, and nations have strived to become the best and most elevated versions of themselves. Towards that end, they have aimed to be more productive at each level - human, organisational, societal, and national.
The nature of work has changed with the advent of the knowledge age. However, humans, organisations, and societies continue to measure modern work as they did earlier, regarding hours worked or effort rather than output or results.
Productivity = # hours worked during a period (e.g. day/week/month).Our definition of productivity has not kept pace with the times. Nor have society’s perceptions and expectations of being productive.
This conceptual framework prioritises effort over results, hours over output, and quantity over quality. As individuals or groups, We reward the outward show of work rather than real outcomes.
We shape and chase overwork, effort, and ‘stuff’ to fill our calendars.
We use productivity to fill our time rather than free it. This is our problem.
We are connected, always
During my commute, people are engrossed in their screens and devices: watching a movie, reading something, or caught up in another type of external stimuli. They are constantly loading their minds with information or entertainment.
I commute to work 1.5 hours away from home. I use a metro train to travel.
It is like living in a computer simulation where the participants are always connected, immersed, and constantly moving - like ants.
We are in the ‘attention’ age, where human attention is the most scarce resource. We use our devices and apps to work, entertain, inform, and meditate. We are always hooked.
There is talk of humanoids replacing humans for numerous tasks. During my walks and morning runs, I wonder if that has already happened as I collide with people peeping into their mobile screens.
If my grandmother were to come back from the dead, she would wonder if all humans of our generation are getting instructions from an overlord hiding in our devices. It is as if all humans are participants in ‘Big Brother’ or a similar survival-based reality show.
With overdependence on devices, human intelligence may already be ‘artificial’. The machines are catching up.
No chill
Our misjudged sense of productivity, stressful and toxic work environments, and constant engagement with one or another type of sensory or cognitive input ensure that we do not allow our bodies, minds, senses, and spirits to get any rest. We fatigue ourselves and become lesser versions of ourselves.
In a recent incident that happened in Pune, a 26-year-old worker with EY succumbed to a cardiac arrest allegedly due to extreme work pressure, bias, and odd working hours.
People need to rest their bodies, minds, souls, and spirits regularly.
Fixing the off switch
Rest is a state of physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual relaxation that allows our bodies and minds to recover from the stress of daily life.
Studies list 7 types of rest - physical, mental, emotional, sensory, creative, social, and spiritual. Physical rest includes passive (sleeping or napping) or active (e.g., yoga, stretching, or massages) to recover from the physical exertions of our lives. Mental rest includes activities like meditation, sleep, or hobbies that avoid cognitive overload. Emotional resting provides an outlet for our feelings through activities like journaling and spending time with friends or alone. Sensory rest uses meditation, time in nature and away from devices to isolate the self from screens, distractions, and devices. Social rest means including positive influences and precluding the negative ones to ensure we are not drained. Spiritual rest is finding, clarifying, and reinforcing one’s purpose by meditating, praying, volunteering, or journaling. Creative rest rejuvenates one’s creative side to foster innovation, inspiration, motivation, and new ideas.
Without rest, humans are like unthinking machines running according to a timetable.
I list some actionable steps that can help include rest in our lives.
Be proactive and take control: We are not able to rest because we cede control of our lives to external actors - our jobs, devices, or families. To rest, we need to become proactive, plan our lives, and seize control of our lives. A good start is to disrupt one activity from one area of your life - e.g. take control of your fitness by sleeping an hour early & waking up early. Plan your habits, including rest: Just as you decide, plan, and calendarize work activities, you need to start planning your self-care activities, including passive ones like sleep. Make self-care actionable by planning (including with an accountability buddy).
Learn prioritisation: Prioritisation as a skill is the lighthouse that sets the direction for the ship that is your life. People are deluged with work, but not all of it is important. You need to decide the priorities, communicate, align, and find the time to rest. Prioritisation can also include how far you live from your workplace, or whether you take that high-paying job that comes with working weekends.
Setting boundaries: Separate your work life from your social and personal life. Set expectations with colleagues, plan better, and learn to say no respectfully. Choose your friends and keep them.
Communication: Almost all problems are related to communication and stakeholder management. Have you ever rued about that worker who seems to have it easy? - there is a good chance that they can communicate their work better. We work and live in social spaces, and managing the other participants in them is vital. Set up that 1-1 cadence with your important peers, managers, and reporters. Learn the art of taking quick, dirty notes and polishing them later. Unless you form your message and land it well, you may continue to struggle to manage your life.
Disconnect: That device does not always mean to be ON, and that mobile screen does not always mean to be flashing. Turn it off and disconnect it.
Do not do it alone: Seek help from existing friends, or find other seekers to form good habits of rest. Share updates, share your feelings, and find accountability. By bringing diverse perspectives, collective knowledge, and increased motivation, groups can improve outcomes in your life (as they do in your work).
I have a guess that this problem is systemic and there is more that meets the eye when it comes to people dying from overwork. People point fingers at CEOs and labor laws, but I think there is are more subtle pieces like life scripts and cultural norms at work.
It's ingrained in us to work harder as a means of survival and it's difficult to rest when your manager expects you to kill yourself over the work as an act of loyalty