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 self-discipline. We are a species that constantly wants to improve 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

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

Research shows us that people who are satisfiers tend to be happier and just as effective as people who are maximizers

It's not really difficult to get on top of all your 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 kind of clinical syndrome that has a couple very particular symptoms One of the symptoms

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, 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 a sense of personal ineffectiveness. You just feel like even if

you were doing your job perfectly, it wouldn't 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

in what you're doing for your job. There will always be too much to do

You're never going to 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 in a way because there will be some lack of spontaneity to that life

to that sense of just having to carry out these instructions that you've given yourself

that is somehow at odds with what we really value from being alive