Book Report – The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz

Most of the time our work is very demanding, and for some of us that is actually an understatement. With plenty of due dates and information to provide, I can see us working non-stop until our goal is reached. However, in this book the author, Tony Schwartz, explains why the harder we try, the longer it takes us to finish our work.

Loaded with plenty of research, the author goes step by step of how our productivity decreases though we honestly believe we are giving our 150%. The more effort we put into finishing a task while we are obviously overwhelmed, the lower our focus and attention to detail will be.

While many companies promote the work ethic of more, bigger and faster, the reality dictates that a person working under those circumstances spends way more energy than they can renew or recharge. The higher the demand of our work, the more frequent our renewal periods should be.

Recent research and studies proves that companies who encourage their employees to take small breaks after every 90 minutes of continuous work, showed higher levels of productivity than the average company. Furthermore, these types of policies increase creativity and improve the employees’ self-esteem.

Following a misconception that we can produce more by neglecting ourselves, we often work extra hours, skip meals and such. In doing so, we are actually making ourselves more tired, weakening our immune system, and cutting short our sleeping hours.

It’s also proven that a bad diet and less than 8 hours of sleep daily can affect employees physically and emotionally. Research has established that the percentage of people who can actually function with less than 5 hours of sleep is 0%. Taking this into consideration this fact, and adding that most sleep-deprived people often don’t recognize their own limitations, we might not even realize how bad we are actually performing on our work.

This book was way more than simple information, it was truly eye-opening. I hope my report will inspire whoever hasn’t read it to do so.