In a factory, your output is directly proportional to your input.
More time = more widgets.
This is not true for knowledge work:
More time awake does not always equal more productivity — in fact, it can lead to the opposite.
More effort does not always equal more results — again, it can lead to quite the opposite.
Jerry Lee posted a poll on LinkedIn today asking people how many hours they slept. An alarming number of individuals, in the name of productivity, made comments that glorified the idea of getting little to no sleep.
Never mind the overwhelming body of research that suggests we should probably be getting more rest if we want to be effective.
It’s been almost 200 years since the industrial revolution.
The way we work has fundamentally changed and we’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge about how we work.
We’d be wise to update our thinking, too.