Why is everyone so exhausted right now? - TGT#9

3 ideas in under 3 mins on The End of Ambition, Communication over Creation and AI at work

Sep 28, 2023

Hey friends :) Every week, I summarise the top 1% ideas, research, tools and resources I’ve found - in 3 minutes or less. This newsletter has been on hiatus while I set up sustainable systems for the future. Thanks for your patience - onwards we go!

1. Why’s everyone exhausted?

It’s September, and people are saying they’re tired.

But it’s not just seasonal - it’s systemic. Research shows that more than half of U.S. workers feel exhausted at the end of the day. It’s not hard to imagine how that exhaustion turns into a desire for a less-stressful job - (i.e. Quiet Quitting and the End of Ambition.)

My take: People are coming into work, only to spend most of their time communicating via digital channels. That’ll get you down.

2. How do we spend our time at work?

We spend more than 57% of our work hours on email, Teams Chat, and Teams Meetings Recent, according to new Microsoft research.

In other words: we communicate more than we create.

My take: Excessive Communication → Exhaustion → End of Ambition.

It’s draining to spend your working hours shuffling information across multiple communication channels. But imagine a world where we empower individuals to create, focus, and engage in complex, meaningful work…

Chart based on the image of a scale, showing 23% of time spent in Teams meetings, 19% in Teams chat, and 15% in email, forming 57% of the time spent communicating. The other side shows 7% of time spent in OneNote, 8% in Powerpoint, 10% in Word, and 18% in Excel, forming 43% of the time spent in creation.

3. How much more productive are people who use AI at work?

This powerful Harvard x Boston Consulting Group shows that GPT-4 provides a significant surge in worker productivity:

40% increase in quality, 12% increase in volume, and 25% increase in speed.

My take: AI makes work different.

It can dramatically reduce the time you spend communicating (see CoPilot). And it can increase your mental capacity for hard thinking, problem solving and deep work. It’s time to radically re-think the work day, and protect energy and focus for creative work that leads to innovation (and fulfillment).

One question for you:

If you hired a virtual assistant to take care of the admin - what would you spend more time on?

Until next week and with love,

Sam

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