by Cody Hodge

Created on: April 20, 2009

There are severals reasons why too much work can lead to inefficient results. The human mind can only process so much information at one time, and to think that we can override that is ludicrous. While it might seem tempting to take on that extra project, or try to get two extra miles, the end result is that you can actually get less done. Too much work can lead to overloading your mind, and most likely burnout at the end of the night.

A good case in point was when I tried to force myself to write a lot of articles on Saturday. I had the day off, and it was my last day off until next weekend, so I figured this was my last shot to have uninterrupted time to write. I told myself to try and do four articles and hour, and just to see how many hours I could do it for. Instead of taking it one hour at a time, I just calculated how many articles I thought I should have done, and came up with 32.

Instead of writing anywhere close to 32 articles for the day, I wound up writing two, and that wasn't until 9pm that night. Before you look at me like I am crazy, and that I shouldn't have put that kind of burden on myself, I have actually written north of 20 articles in a day before. I have also written between 4-6 articles many times. It wasn't the amount that was burdening me, it was the fact that I wanted to get so much done so fast.

Why was that not only counter-productive, but inefficient? Well, instead of just focusing on my writing, I got distracted by other things that I forgot to do. Instead of writing, I spent time cleaning, getting gas, and other little things that I was afraid of not having time to do if I didn't do them first. I figured if I was going to spend all day writing, I should take care of my errands and such first. However, instead of writing, I just kept doing more errands, and spent the day doing errands.

Not only that, but I got really stressed while trying to write. Instead of just trying to get one article done at a time, I tried to get all four for the hour done as fast as possible. That is tiring, and it makes you not want to do what you are doing when you feel like your best effort isn't enough. It isn't good to try and cram too much into your day, or stress yourself over all the things you want to do, and then try to get them all done too fast.

The point is that the human body can react well to deadlines, but very poorly to pressure, or undue stress. The key to being productive is to be organized, and relaxed. Just put your best efforts in, and most of the goals you set for yourself for the day will be fulfilled. The best way to accomplish your goals is to do what you can, and not worry about the rest. All you can do is all you can do, and anything more is just too much.

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