The Productivity Trap: Why More Hours Won’t Get You Ahead
Your 80-hour weeks aren’t impressing anyone. Especially not your brain.
This is
- your weekly guide and shortcut to mastering emotional intelligence through the power of empathy. I recently wrote about Empathy isn't Kindness, it’s your Apotheosis
It’s midnight. You’ve logged off your laptop for the third night in a row, or should say morning at this time.
You are hustling.
You keep telling yourself to push through.
Your mind is so foggy by 10, but you keep telling yourself it’s temporary.
The reality is, it’s not. You’ve been doing this for months.
The days are a blur. Sometimes you have to go back and re-read something three times. You get reminded at least once a week of something you missed because someone comes asking. Your partner is distant.
You are snappy. Your emotional intelligence feels non-existent. You are in a dream state, yet you remain unaware of your true self.
Your “productivity” is not getting you ahead.
It’s not about impressing your boss or your brain.
So, how do you escape the trap?
Overwork Dulls Your Edge (and Your Empathy)
You cannot be an empathy catalyst if you are on edge yourself.
Working to the point of exhaustion dulls your brain. Yes, really, it’s proven! A recent study found that working even just over 52 hours a week changes the areas of the brain that impact executive function and emotions.
If your brain is fried, and in fight or flight, how do you expect to be strategic?
Being strategic involves thinking deeply about actions, their impact, and empathizing with those affected to implement the change management aspect more effectively.
Your brain, your IQ, and your full EQ engaged is your edge.
Would you rather have 8-9 hours of productive alertness or 13 hours, where half your brain powers half of it?
Let’s say you are in a situation, though, that really does require you to do these long days, at least temporarily.
Acknowledge the limitations and the trade-off that goes with this. Slow down when you are able.
Do not start a new diet or exercise routine during this period.
Do not kick off something outside the norm.
Have a late night? Make up for the sleep at some point that week.
Traveling home from a business trip and thinking you can do an early morning beach clean-up and host a dinner party the next day? Don’t! I’ve learned from personal experience that this does not work (I attempted this in June 2024).
What Are You Actually Chasing?
As noted in “Primal Leadership” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, “We find that many young leaders, roughly defined as those under 40, have learning goals that are more holistic—addressing many aspects of their lives rather than just their work—than was the case in previous generations of leaders” (Page 120).
Given that this book came out about a decade ago, I have still found it to be true.
Across various generations, as an elder millennial, I do have a strong work ethic.
Are you working at the level you are, because that is how your parents worked? Is your life exactly the same, and does it need to be?
My great-grandmother worked hard, ran a general store, and raised four kids as a single mother. This was unusual in her generation, but she had to do it to survive. My life is quite different, and I do not have to work to that level of intensity to survive.
What are your professional goals?
No, really, what are they? Are your goals to have a big title, more free time, or reach a pivotal moment to make yourself or others proud?
What is your motivation?
Take stock in a moment of self-awareness.
Please write it down. Take a mental note. Make a note on your phone. Whatever works for you. Do it so you remember it, though.
Pull it up next time you are pushing yourself. Does this align with your goals? Are you doing it for you?
Is the 80-hour week getting you to your actual goal? Great, keep going.
If it doesn't align, pause and reset to what you need to be doing for yourself, for your soul.
You Don’t Need More Hours, You Need Boundaries
It’s 11, and you want to sign off. You know it’s not good for your brain.
But you literally have too much work.
Here’s the thing - you might be in a job where this is the norm, but it no longer aligns with you. It doesn’t align with your brain, body, or goals.
Sign off in a little bit, but take some time before bed or early the next morning to think about how you can pivot your career, role, or routine away from this.
If it’s just how things are right now, and it has crept up on you, it is time to take a different fork in the road, and start chipping away at the things chipping at your time.
We all have 24 hours in a day. We sleep for a portion of it. We are not a machine, and artificial intelligence that supplies itself with electricity at a constant churn.
It’s not about needing more hours, but rather the proper boundaries so that you can say NO.
Most people around you, including your boss, probably are not aware of the level of time you are putting in.
If you have been getting things done and doing it with your head down, they might expect you are humming along on your way.
Getting new things on your plate that are going to push you to the very last minute, just when you thought it was cooling off?
Say NO, but offering to take it on, and reprioritizing something else.
Not the best person to handle this, as you are not the SME, and it will take you three times as long. Don’t just take it on; agree to help find the right person and hand it off right.
Through empathy in communication, you can say 'no' respectfully and reclaim some of those hours in your 24 hours.
Ambition Without Boundaries Becomes Self-Sabotage
It’s good to be goal-oriented and have a purpose. Having a purpose keeps your mind humming and your spirit alive, waking you up and enthusing you for the day.
However, without boundaries to protect your actual goals and innate needs (such as maintaining brain health), they will ultimately destroy you.
Pause. Take on self-management, rather than having others manage your time for you. Is that one extra ask going to deprive you of getting the 8 hours of sleep you need to function in full alertness?
Say no, respectfully, and with empathy. In the end, they will get a better product output if it is produced when you are alert, balanced, and feeling well, not when your brain is foggy.
✅ What I’ve been analyzing this week (reading, watching, listening, etc.)
📖 I’m reading Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change by Marc Benioff and Monica Langley. I am now understanding all the references to Einstein in Salesforce products.
⛰️ I read this post by
on the pain of having to make so many choices in life as humansWant more on Empathy and Emotional Intelligence to Elevate your career? 📈
I empower💪tech people to elevate their empathy, to accelerate their careers
the productivity trap. sadly, we are saddled with so much responsibilities that sometimes the hours are not enough. not just in tech butin blue collar jobs. Our leaders, managers, supervisors, colleagues also need to have empathy and boundaries. Nice read Colette.