How do you manage to be constantly burnt out while accomplishing very little? It’s not easy. It takes years of concerted effort. You have to build up habits, to the point where the line between work and time-wasting is blurred. It also takes a total lack of self-awareness to burn yourself out.
Multitask constantly
Switching tasks as frequently as possible wastes time, which is essential if you want to get less done
- Design systems that pull you away from focus
- Notifications are perfect for this – turn them on for as many applications and services as possible so that you can’t focus on one task for long without some other application demanding your attention
Do not exercise
Exercise isn’t work, and it also makes you feel tired, so you’d think that it would be a perfect activity for getting nothing done but still feeling exhausted. It isn’t.
- A Leeds Metropolitan University study suggests that working out during the day improves both productivity and satisfaction, which are the exact two things we’re trying to avoid.
Never review what you accomplish
Do not make a list of what you’ve accomplished or talk to a co-worker about what you did
- Rest in your general sense of exhaustion and worthlessness
- Don’t take any time to reflect on your day
- You might realize that, in fact, you have gotten quite a bit done and that you’re holding yourself to an impossibly high standard
Never make a plan
The vaguer you can feel about what you’re supposed to be accomplishing, the better.
- Try to have a general sense of all the things you should be doing, but don’t write them down
- Do not, under any circumstances, write down what you are supposed to do or schedule a time for doing it.
Don’t take real breaks
You might think that taking a break is doing nothing, and that the ideal way to get nothing done is to do nothing but take breaks.
- However, whatever you’re doing instead of getting work done, you should not stop doing it.
