Balancing productivity and wellbeing

I just put a message in the wrong Teams chat. Nothing sensitive or problematic – only a tad awkward to explain.

How easy is this to do though? Where’s the artificial intelligence (AI) bot that nudges you to say ‘do you really want to be talking about this topic in this thread, you slapdash character?’.

I can sometimes blame tiredness (who knew 11-year-olds could disrupt your sleep?). Otherwise my explanation – expounded in an argument between two factions of my own brain, one being the diligent and rigorous one, and the other who wants to be as efficient as possible – is that something did shift during Covid. It hasn’t ever quite reverted to how it was.

During Covid, I found myself managing more projects than ever before, all the while dealing with the disruptions many of us had during that time. I had to develop dramatically more efficient ways of working, and even though I have a much healthier workload now, I do retain some speed demon characteristics.

Clients like it – I’m super responsive in the main. But I’d better be careful I don’t send the wrong email.

Which brings me on to reflecting on the value of speed. In my general tiredness at the moment, and with the UK election having taken place in July, I’ve been thinking a lot about productivity.

We’ve got a long-standing productivity challenge in this country, as the hosts of The Rest is Money podcast regularly remind me. From 2010 to 2022, the annual average growth in UK gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked was just 0.5%, with little sign of improvement in recent years. We’ve felt it in this sector, as in many, with low wage growth.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2022, ranked on GDP per hour worked, the UK came fourth highest out of the G7 economies, with the US and Germany highest, and Japan lowest. UK productivity was around 16% below the US and Germany.

I’m no economist, and of course these nationwide statistics cover diverse industries and are influenced by structural challenges with the UK, such as low research and development (R&D) investment, a highly centralised economy and poor infrastructure. Some of these points don’t seem to translate readily into our sector, but the R&D one gives me pause for thought, and especially so for two reasons. One is that we’re in the summer. Many of us are, of course, taking time off, or scaling back work a little as we juggle other commitments, such as kids off school.

The other reason productivity is on my mind is AI, which is a subject matter of endless optimism, angst and debate across research and insight, as it is in many areas of business. I think about AI when I reflect on the fact we have a productivity issue in this country partly down to poor investment in R&D.

I generally wish to do more work (to quality standards I am 100% happy with) in less time. I do tend to think that we’re a little stuck still, in this industry as many are, with traditional notions of productivity: doing more per hour, per day. Producing more output, more profit, and ultimately more GDP per capita. More, more, more.

I’d hope AI can help us to reframe this mindset to help us see where we can be more efficient, free up time and get more time back for living. A watch-out for all of us is that AI tools don’t become a rod for our own backs. I can see the signs that we use AI largely to help us offer to do the same work in less time, and perhaps for cheaper, and perhaps (sometimes) to a lower standard.

There’s a risk of our shifting ways of working eroding our capacity to create breathing room to think, to let ideas develop. Just because we can do something faster doesn’t mean we should.

After all, the best ideas sometimes come when you least expect it – on a walk, in the shower, after stepping away from a project.

What if we can be more productive, do better work and at the same time, claim more time for our hobbies and other pursuits outside of work? I’m looking forward to some ‘down time’ soon, and hope you are too.

Louise McLaren is managing director (London) at Lovebrands