Want to be more productive? Start by doing less

Perfectionism for me has always been a

kind of central part of what I'm

struggling with. That sense that I'm

kind of on the back foot, that I need to

put in just a little bit more, maybe a

lot more effort and selfd disccipline.

>> We are a species that constantly wants

to improve [music] ourselves. So there

can be this constant push to do more,

more, more. And I think a lot of us

assume that that's the path to

flourishing. That's the path to feeling

better. But the research shows that

sometimes we can feel happier by doing

less.

You know, we often

work to the point of exhaustion,

depleting ourselves, resources, taking

up time that people don't have in the

quest for this elusive perfect. The

reality is that in most instances, good

enough is good enough. [music] Research

shows us that people who are satisfiers

tend to be happier and just as effective

[music] as people who are maximizers.

It's not really difficult to get on top

of all your [music] to-dos. It's

actually completely impossible. And in

that transition from really difficult to

completely impossible, there's a sense

of a weight being lifted from one's

shoulders. And then you can just walk

forwards with a spring in your step and

actually try to do a few things that

matter and make life more rich.

>> Burnout is not just a sense of stress or

overwork. Burnout is a very special

[music] kind of clinical syndrome that

has a couple very particular symptoms.

One of the symptoms [music]

is a sense of emotional exhaustion.

Emotional exhaustion isn't just about

being tired. It's really about feeling

like you cannot emotionally handle

another thing on your plate. The second

symptom, [music] which I think is even

more profound, is a sense of what's

often called depersonalization or

cynicism. You're just kind of on a short

fuse with the people around you. The

third symptom is [music] a sense of

personal ineffectiveness. You just feel

like even if you were doing your job

perfectly, it wouldn't [music] matter.

And one of the main ways to fix burnout

is to really take good care of yourself.

It's really trying to engage all the

values and the things you care about

outside of work so you can start to

develop an identity in that and not just

[music] in what you're doing for your

job.

>> There will always be too much to do.

You're never going to [music] feel

completely ready. So if you set out on

some big project of scheduling your time

very very very strictly, not only will

you probably fail and get very stressed,

but even if you succeed, you'll fail

[music] in a way because there will be

some lack of spontaneity to [music] that

life to that sense of just having to

carry out these instructions that you've

given yourself that is somehow at

[music] odds with what we really value

from being alive.