Conversations with a Career Survivalist: Rest IS Productive

Christopher M. Anderson, MHRM, SSLP

If you’ve worked full-time for more than a year or two, you probably have realized, work never really slows down. At least not the way we would like them to. It doesn’t matter if you’re an employee for a large, multinational corporation or if you’re a self-employed entrepreneur, there’s a constant demand to be more efficient, effective, and to maximize your productivity to succeed.

As a Career Survivalist, I always look at the different business models being used across the country and around the world. I found it puzzling that elsewhere in the developed world, that companies are just as productive as American workers (sometimes even more productive) and they’re doing it in countries that don’t allow employees to work overtime, where there are 37-hour work weeks, or longer break times than we typically allow American workers.

As a tried and true American, I found it odd and a little insulting to consider, “there are people doing what I do, just as effectively as I do it, and they’re not working 50 or 60 hours each week like I am? Why haven’t I moved yet?” The answer I found is both simple, counterintuitive to the culture of the American workforce, and it doesn’t require moving your whole life overseas. Simply, Relax! We’ve lived so long with the idea that a good employee is the one that’s always available and always working that we don’t realize our work habits are crippling us!

Many studies about productivity are showing the best way to maximize productivity is to have a healthy balance of work and relaxation. Taking breaks of at least 30 minutes away from your workspace, limiting your work at home/after hours, and having a hobby to take your mind off work for the weekend are proven tactics that actually make you more productive at work!

Some of you might be thinking, I don’t have the kind of job that I can leave and forget about at the end of the day. Others are saying, I’m a business owner and if I don’t do the work, it doesn’t get done. To both of you, I ask, what more important to you, completing today’s checklist or long-term, defined success? Like everything in life, rest takes discipline. The first step to utilizing rest to be productive is realizing that its more than ‘necessary,’ its absolutely critical to your success. The second step is to be intentional about it. The same way you organize your day, create lists of daily tasks, and schedule appointments to stay on focused, its time you started scheduling your downtime.



No matter your business, you’re your first client. If you want to succeed, you must learn to stop canceling on yourself! Manage your own time with the diligence you manage your work and find ways to prioritize your business’ single greatest resource, you!