After a long day at work, you come home and sink into the couch. You’re tired, but you have that incredible feeling that you’ve made an effort and done your homework. So you decide you deserve a reward; maybe you opt for a drink, a special dinner, or a relaxing night with a movie and a blanket. However, this presumption, this pride that emerges, could be misguided.
I’m sorry, but at the risk of shattering that sense of accomplishment, the truth is that it’s not just the effort put in that counts, but also the results. In fact, those who work in the creative sector are fully aware of the risk of wasting time and energy on something that doesn’t ultimately bear fruit. In psychology, this phenomenon has a name: Work Illusion.
Workplace Illusion: When effort matters more than efficiency
When judging the work of others, we consciously affirm that we care about that person achieving good results quickly, that we prioritize efficiency, but in reality we want to see the effort behind the results.
Economist and behavioral analyst Dan Ariely explains this phenomenon with the story of a locksmith who, as he gained experience and improved his job, began receiving fewer tips and more complaints about his prices, which his customers considered high. What happened was that each job took so little time or effort that customers felt cheated, even though, obviously, being super fast is an advantage, not a disadvantage.
Interestingly, psychologists at Harvard Business School found that most of us share this mistaken belief. They found that users of a flight search website preferred to wait longer for search results (60 seconds instead of receiving the data immediately), as long as they could see detailed progress. That’s why many of these websites have a bar or some other symbol indicating the work being done. That symbol makes us believe that hard work is being done to provide us with better service. And we prioritize that over efficiency.
However, what could be a simple consumer whim takes on a new perspective when we apply that same reasoning to ourselves. In that case, we fall into what is known as the “Effort Trap.”
Effort Trap: Believing that working hard is everything
We’ve all fallen into the trap of equating 10 hours spent dealing with emails, phone calls, and unplanned tasks that add no value with two hours of full concentration on an important project that will help us advance our goals. The problem is that we think effort, exhaustion, and productivity are synonymous. Obviously, that’s not the case.
In fact, significant results are often achieved not through extreme exhaustion but through intelligently distributed hours of mindfulness, which can even be energizing. However, if we judge our productivity by our level of fatigue, we could be deceiving ourselves and falling victim to the “Exertion Trap.”
Of course, it’s difficult to avoid this trap in a culture that constantly preaches that “it’s the effort that counts.” In fact, many parents pass this message on to their children, believing they are giving them a great gift for life.
The problem is that there has been a fundamental misunderstanding. We’ve confused “effort and hard work” with “giving our best.”
When we say that effort is important, it doesn’t mean we should push ourselves to the limit, even if we’re not productive or focused. It means we should bring out the best in ourselves and pour it into that activity. And we can only achieve that when we’re 100% focused, when we’re fully present and in the right frame of mind. Anything less will make us fall victim to a trap we set for ourselves, leading to emotional exhaustion and mental fatigue.
Unfortunately, too many workplaces still embrace this outdated mentality, prioritizing long hours in the office over productivity. In fact, a series of studies conducted by the OECD for at least a decade reveal that the most prosperous and productive countries are those that spend the least amount of time working.
In 2016, Germany led the European Union’s productivity list, but its workers worked an average of 1,363 hours, while Spanish workers worked 1,695 hours per year but their productivity was much lower.
The moral?
We need to change our mindset. Effort is just as important as the results achieved and efficiency throughout the process. This means we must learn to manage our time and energy much more efficiently. We don’t need to wear ourselves out mentally if we’re capable of giving our best while working.
Reference:
Buell, RW & Norton, MI (2011) The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value. Management Science ; 57(9): 1564–1579.
Leave a Reply