Why Acceptance Can Help Increase Productivity
La version française de cet article est disponible ici.
Everyone seems to be on the constant lookout for ways to increase their productivity. One frequently-overlooked tool is accepting what you are unable to change — in particular, your colleagues or your employer.
I of course am not talking about situations like harassment, discrimination and the like, which are examples of unacceptable beahviour and which call for efforts to change them. Accepting these types of situations is obviously out of the question.
That being said, the road to low productivity is usually paved with small annoyances that drain one’s energy without reaching the level of legally or morally unacceptable. For example:
reporting obligations that serve no purpose other than to waste one’s time;
the inability to understand one’s colleagues, or see where they are coming from;
institutional practices that seem to date from the age of the typewriter… etc.
The problem is that your colleagues, taken as a group, along with the institutional culture of your workplace, are more powerful than any individual. So if no-one around you finds those monthly reports as senseless as you do, it might ultimately be much less draining to accept that’s the way it is and keep on doing them. Struggling to change what is impossible to change is a perfect recipe for burnout. Your efforts will probably be best focussed elsewhere.
Think about it this way: trying to swim against the current after falling into a river is a great way to get fatigued while making zero (or negative) progress, and a pretty poor strategy for getting to safety. A better strategy is to swim towards the bank as the current carries you downstream, even if it means a longer walk in the opposite direction once you are safely out of the water.
Similar reasoning applies at work: if you are unable to get your colleagues to change their working methods, how might you adapt your own so that they complement those around you? Accepting what will not change in your workplace allows you to focus your time and energy where it is most likely to bring results. On balance, you may be better off.
What might you change about the way you work to make yourself more productive? Contact Jon here to discuss. You can find information about his background and qualifications here.