Time boxing, focus times, the Pomodoro Technique: various tools are designed to make the working day more productive and us more successful. But the constant focus on efficiency also has negative consequences.

According to psychologist Jennifer Haase, if you want to develop ideas that lead to success, you should be aware of a special mechanism in our brain: you are at a cocktail party, glasses are clinking, jazz is playing in the background and you are talking to a group of guests who are heatedly discussing a current topic. Suddenly, your name is mentioned in another conversation a few meters away and you take notice – even though you were fully focused on your circle.

„This says two things about our thinking,“ says psychologist Haase. „Firstly, we take in much more than we are aware of all the time and we process it because we are very selective.“ And secondly: the stream of unconscious impressions flowing in the background, the conversations of others are evaluated by our brain unnoticed and only get our attention when they seem important to us. Who just said our name? Perhaps we leave our slowly tiring conversation and have the conversation of the evening next door, perhaps we meet the person of our life.

Tools for job and workflow: Effective planning can threaten creativity

Haase cites the „cocktail party“ phenomenon to demonstrate this: Too much focus on the obvious can prevent great success. The psychologist studies the technological influence of software on our working lives at the Institute of Computer Science at Humboldt University in Berlin. She is researching what many people in professional life know from painful experience. Calendar entries pile up in team chats, invitations to calls pop up, notes in to-do lists and cards in Trello boards pile up into mountains of unfinished tasks.

Productivity tools such as Trello, Asana, ToDoist and co. are suitable for all busywork, Haase calls them „To Get Shit Done“ methods. They improve our time planning and our focus, but can rob us of the foresight to discover new thoughts and solutions. They are effective, but not effective in the long term. Pure efficiency traps.

New, creative solutions do not emerge in this way. But how then?

Success at work: Is it possible without efficiency?

„A four-phase model is very helpful in understanding how innovations come about and why some digital tools are counterproductive,“ says psychologist Haase. A model developed by social psychologist and co-founder of the London School of Economics (LSE) Graham Wallas in 1926 in his book „The Art of Thought“ has become established. It shows the phases that creative work goes through.

• Preparation: First of all, a basic understanding of the facts is required. Intensive discussion brings to light a problem or a question that cannot be solved quickly. „You always reach a certain point of frustration because the solution is not obvious,“ says Haase. It takes a certain amount of suffering.

• Incubation: Anyone who tends to procrastinate will love this phase: to put it bluntly, it’s all about doing nothing. At least as far as our conscious thinking is concerned. We turn away from the problem and seek distraction by going for a walk, occupying ourselves with something completely different. This is where the „cocktail party“ effect mentioned above comes into play: although we do not consciously engage with a topic, neurologists say that in this „relaxation mode“ other areas of the brain are more strongly activated than during concentrated thinking.

• Enlightenment („illumination“): This is the famous eureka moment (ancient Greek Heúrēka for „I have found it“). „This is usually a very short phase,“ says psychologist Haase. Suddenly you have an idea for a good opening for a speech or a new, promising business idea.

• Verification: In the final phase, the idea is checked. Does it fulfill a purpose and is it really useful? New alone is not enough. This is where rational thinking takes over again. Implementation is also part of the process. Ideally in a productive process in which the idea is processed into a creative product. „The following applies to all four phases: it is usually not a linear process, but you jump back and forth between several phases. If phase three or four fails, you go back to one of the first two,“ says Jennifer Haase.

The places or activities for the incubation phase, in which we switch to „relaxation mode“, can look very different: the cocktail party described above, a visit to the art gallery or the cinema. And creative coaches often recommend hobbies with the hands such as knitting or meditation. Everyone has an individual method.

For Tim Leberecht, it looks different again. The German-American author and consultant is sitting on the terrace of his parents‘ garden in Stuttgart during the Zoom interview. His TED Talks on YouTube have millions of views, in which he talks about the longing for a new economic life that frees itself from the relentless pace of efficiency.

Leberecht worked for many years as Chief Marketing Officer of the global creative and innovation consultancy Frog in Silicon Valley and is co-founder of the network and community platform „House of Beautiful Business“, which aims to help companies and managers worldwide to do business successfully with more imagination, empathy and ethics.

„I have observed a lot of efficiency traps. To put it bluntly, all these productivity tools lead to us collaborating ourselves to death. Ultimately, they remind me of the bullshit jobs that David Graeber talks about: jobs that only exist to manage work that wouldn’t even exist without them. These bullshit tools often create additional work and are sometimes pointless or even harmful,“ says Leberecht. Like psychologist Haase, he points out a risk: that the cult of efficiency tempts us to be satisfied with the first best result – and not the best. For the latter, we need vision.

„We tend to always evaluate ideas according to their direct result, but good ideas are always a waste of time; it’s about being allowed to stroll,“ says the author and consultant. Anyone who doesn’t take this to heart will have a problem. „Germany is actually the number one patient and deeply trapped in the innovation dilemma: After being innovative, many companies tend to just optimize and manage. This leads to stagnation and jeopardizes competitiveness,“ says Leberecht.

The best ideas always seem ridiculous to many people at first because hardly anyone understands them. Who would have thought at first how successful it would be to rent out your own apartment to complete strangers online? „Airbnb is a prime example of so-called divergent thinking. Two elements that are seemingly incompatible are combined and create an innovation.“ This requires a culture that allows time for thinking and does not demand immediate results: „Google has a culture where teams can work for years on projects that are ultimately not commercialized. This is the only way to create space for real ideas.“

Time boxing and the Pomodoro technique: using time management correctly

Effectiveness tools and time management methods such as time boxing are of course not bad per se. As is so often the case, it’s all about using the tools correctly. Alexander Häfner did his doctorate on time management and is Head of Human Resources Development at Würth Industry.

First question for the expert in the Zoom call: What do recent studies say about the relationship between time management, efficiency and performance? The answer is surprising. „Meta-studies show that time management has little positive effect on performance, but it does have a positive effect on the well-being of employees,“ says Häfner. He explains the fact that people feel better with the feeling of control that well-done time management can give you, which in turn „is likely to be associated with psychological security“.

You have the work under control. At some point, planning can turn into excessive demands, and digital tools invite you to keep planning. „If you add more and more to-dos to your list and constantly increase your working hours, you may fall into the efficiency trap. There is a risk of excessive demands, frustration and burnout,“ says the expert.

Follow-up question: What should you avoid in order to avoid falling into the efficiency trap? „Breaks should be firmly planned in. And it’s important to question goals and tasks, to let go of projects that no longer fit and not to keep putting off until the next day or week. „Can too much technology stifle creativity? 

The „planning fallacy“, introduced by the famous psychologist Daniel Kahneman, has been well researched: the tendency to constantly underestimate how much time a task will take. This phenomenon increases the pressure in the calendar, the to-dos pile up. A vicious circle looms: efficiency tools tempt us to pile up more and more tasks, control slips away and we lose the opportunity for innovative ideas that promise success.

Translated into Graham Wallas‘ four-phase model, this means that there is no time for in-depth preparation and the idea cannot develop in the incubation phase. According to Häfner, this is why, for example, a „quiet hour“ a day in the calendar is valuable, in which „you retreat with your favorite coffee and make space for a topic“.

One thought is important to Häfner: „We should take off our efficiency goggles and talk to our colleagues in the coffee kitchen, because work also has a social function.“ This can generate new ideas that lead to success. Alternatively, you can go to a cocktail party.

Note: This text has been translated from German into English.