> A topic that comes up every so often on silk [1]. I've fought (and, for > now, won) my own battle with burnout, and I know several others on silk > have grappled with it too. Share, please? Thoughts? Tips or tricks? > Cautionary tales?
For what it's worth, in terms of theory: 1. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/slack.html Change and reinvention require a commodity that is absent in our time as it never has been before. That commodity - the catalytic ingredient of all change - is slack. Slack is the time when reinvention happens. It is time when you are not 100 percent busy doing the operational business of your firm. Slack is the time when you are 0 percent busy. Slack at all levels is necessary to make an organization work effectively and to grow. It is the lubricant of change. Good companies excel in the creative use of slack. And bad ones can only obsess about removing it. - Tom DeMarco 2. Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management http://www.pragprog.com/titles/rdbcd/behind-closed-doors *Sustainable Pace* You’ve seen them: managers and technical staff who drag themselves into work every day. They stare blankly at their computer screens, yawning over an extra tall cuppa java. They’re on a short fuse, and they make stupid mistakes. Sometimes their decisions are not just suspect, they appear downright wrong. These aren’t stupid people; they aren’t bad people either. They’re /burnt-out/ people. Whatever the manifestation, burnout occurs when there is too much to do, not enough time to do it, and the person (technical contributor or manager) attempts to do all the work anyway. Burnout, especially on the part of a manager, can take down an entire team. The way to avoid burnout is to work on one thing at a time - eliminate multitasking - and to work at a sustainable pace. Most people can work about 40-45 hours per week as a /sustainable/ pace. Yes, it’s possible to work more than 40 hours per week /for a week or two/. But any longer than that and you court burnout, mistakes, and lower productivity. [10] This isn’t news. As far back as 1909, researchers noticed that people who worked more than 40 hours a week had lower productivity.[2] Working at a sustainable pace of 40 hours a week isn’t molly-coddling. It’s a smart business decision, and it’s your job to make it happen. [2] Sidney J. Chapman. "Hours of Labour." Economic Journal, pages 363-65, September 1909. Footnote 1. [10] XP Universe. Brokering With eXtreme Programming, 2001. http://www.agileuniverse.com/2001/pdfs/EP201.pdf / http://www.agilealliance.com/show/983 - Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby 3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php *Effectiveness Defined* The Seven Habits ... are also habits of effectiveness because they are based on a paradigm of effectiveness that is in harmony with a natural law, a principle I call the "P/PC Balance," which many people break themselves against. This principle can be easily understood by remembering Aesop's fable of the goose and the golden egg. ... To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness. It balances short term with long term. It balances going for the grade and paying the price to get an education. It balances the desire to have a room clean and the building of a relationship in which the child is internally committed to do it -- cheerfully, willingly, without external supervision. It's a principle you can see validated in your own life when you burn the candle at both ends to get more golden eggs and wind up sick or exhausted, unable to produce any at all; or when you get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to produce throughout the day... The P/PC Balance is the very essence of effectiveness. It's validated in every arena of life. We can work with it or against it, but it's there. It's a lighthouse. It's the definition and paradigm of effectiveness upon which the Seven Habits in this boom are based. - Stephen Covey In terms of practice, Mark Horstman's recommendations at Manager Tools might qualify: http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/11/the-basics-of-calendar-management Raul
