Want to Succeed? Stop Trying So Hard
Wall Street Journal's Editor's Pick: Peter Bregman
Sep 26, 2011
Wall Street Journal
By Peter Bregman
Sept 23, 2011
"What's eight times eight?" I asked Isabelle, my 9-year-old daughter who was practicing her times tables. Her eyes glazed over.
We were on a plane and had about two hours to kill. I figured running through the twos to the twelves would take about 20 minutes.
But we were 40 minutes into the task and still at it.
The first 10 minutes had gone smoothly; with quick, accurate replies she was well on her way to finishing in our allotted time.
But as we continued, each question took longer to answer. It wasn't that the questions were getting harder -- I had mixed up the tables, interspersing easy questions with harder ones -- so what was it?
"What are you thinking about?" I asked her.
"Fairy dust," she said bashfully.
It was only once we completed the tables -- an hour after we started -- that I realized my mistake: I had pushed her past her point of task fatigue.
This is not just a 9-year-old issue.
We all reach task fatigue. It's that point of diminishing returns when the effort we're putting into staying on task seems greater than the effort we're putting into moving forward in the task. It's that point when our productivity plummets, when our eyes glaze over and our mind wanders. Not that it's always bad to let the mind wander, it's just bad if you're trying to focus.
Read more
Sep 26, 2011
Wall Street Journal
By Peter Bregman
Sept 23, 2011
"What's eight times eight?" I asked Isabelle, my 9-year-old daughter who was practicing her times tables. Her eyes glazed over.
We were on a plane and had about two hours to kill. I figured running through the twos to the twelves would take about 20 minutes.
But we were 40 minutes into the task and still at it.
The first 10 minutes had gone smoothly; with quick, accurate replies she was well on her way to finishing in our allotted time.
But as we continued, each question took longer to answer. It wasn't that the questions were getting harder -- I had mixed up the tables, interspersing easy questions with harder ones -- so what was it?
"What are you thinking about?" I asked her.
"Fairy dust," she said bashfully.
It was only once we completed the tables -- an hour after we started -- that I realized my mistake: I had pushed her past her point of task fatigue.
This is not just a 9-year-old issue.
We all reach task fatigue. It's that point of diminishing returns when the effort we're putting into staying on task seems greater than the effort we're putting into moving forward in the task. It's that point when our productivity plummets, when our eyes glaze over and our mind wanders. Not that it's always bad to let the mind wander, it's just bad if you're trying to focus.
Read more