Should You Really Be Playing?

Scenario: "Dude, we can't play. We gotta work. Yay!" Say you have a client project due next month.

What's the best way then to "Wow!" your client?

• A) Schedule play everyday.
• B) Schedule work everyday.

Conventional wisdom would tell you: "It's B! It's B!" But, conventional wisdom -- as seemingly always -- sucks. Locking yourself up into your office will get you shabby results, where you keep yourself busy without producing much -- according to Berkeley Psychologist Neil Fiore. Scheduling play everyday instead stimulates your soul to work much more productively, while keeping your morale higher than a freakish eagle.

How Play Speeds Productivity

Remember a big 10-page term paper in college that you had due in about a week, but hadn't yet started? Did something interrupt you between those days (e.g. a ball game, a concert, a night club, an evening run, a yadda)? Let's decipher two scenarios that could happen:

Option ^1: "Nope! I wasn't interrupted."

If you didn't let anybody interrupt you, you probably still completed your work -- albeit, you felt pretty dull during most of the process. Instead of driving your entire heart, body, and soul into every minute of your working hours, you instead went through a similar route:

• 1st day: Go over notes.
• 2nd day: Go over notes.
• 3rd day: Go over notes.
• 4th day: Write 1st page.
• 5th day: Edit 1st page.
• 6th day: Write 2nd page.
• 7th day: Write 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th pages. Proofread, cite, review, design cover letter, print, yadda.

You scheduled 7 days to work -- but, you really completed the majority of your work within a fraction of the alloted time. According to Fiore's study:

The anticipation of extended isolation from friends and recreation is likely to promote procrastination.

Option ^2: "Yes! I was interrupted."

Now, if you scheduled play: You not only (1) had a frickin' good sexy time, but (2) your productivity most likely soared. Why? Your badass subconsciously told yourself: "Since I have limited time to work on my paper, I will have to work more efficiently. Therefore, I will have to smartly plan my working schedule."

• 1st day: "Crap! I only have four days to write ten pages. I'll go over notes and write the first 3 pages today, so I don't feel guilty about going to the concert tomorrow."
• 2nd day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend concert.
• 3rd day: "The concert energized me. Let's write the next 3 pages."
• 4th day: Fun-sexy-time! Attend ballgame.
• 5th day: "My morale's rockin'. Again, let's write the next 3 pages."
• 6th day: Fun-sexy-time! Run the College Invitational.
• 7th day: Write final page. Deal with logistics. Finish!

Cheesy language aside, scheduling play ironically drives you to be much more productive according to Fiore:

We are more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success rather than isolation and anxiety.

How to Schedule Play

You'd think to schedule play, you'd have to:

1. Schedule work first.
2. Schedule play second.

But when you see your work schedule filled with work, scheduling play becomes super difficult. Instead, do what performance psychologists recommend:

1. Schedule play first.
2. Schedule work second.

You'll start seeing yourself churning the shizzle out of every working hour. We promise.

Play first, playa.

If you enjoyed Should You Really Be Playing?, get a complimentary subscription to our freshest articles through email or through your feed reader.