121: How to Stop Thinking About Work and Enjoy Your Free Time

Welcome to the final episode of our special podcast series on the Neuroscience of Success.. In this episode I’ll tell you about a famous psychology study where they paid participants to do a super boring task, then asked them to rate how much fun they had. The answer might surprise you.

Plus, I’ll explain why our actions don’t always line up with our beliefs when it comes to how we prioritize time and get stuff done.

Stick around and I’ll share one simple and quick strategy to help you shift your brain out of work mode at the end of the day, so you can actually enjoy your evenings and stop thinking about work all the time.

How much would you need to be paid to say a boring task was fun?

Back in 1957 at Stanford University researchers decided to test how much they had to pay participants to get them to lie and say a boring task was fun - and the answer was surprising!

Researchers gave participants a super boring task to do. Like sticking pegs into a board over and over again.

Just as you’d expect, initially participants rated this task pretty poorly and negatively. As boring, pointless, and wouldn’t recommend it.

Then they were either paid $1 or $20 to go back into the waiting area and tell the next person waiting in the lobby that the task was really interesting. Almost everyone did it. But here’s the really interesting part…

After they asked the same people how much they actually enjoyed the task.

Who do you think said they liked the task more, the people paid only $1 or the people paid $20?

It might surprise you to learn that the people paid only a dollar rated the task as enjoyable. The people paid $20 told the next person it was fun, but when they were asked after they privately told researchers it was boring.

But the people who were paid $1 told the next person it was fun, and even in private after they said it was fun!

Remember the task was not fun, it was super boring.

How cognitive dissonance can impact our behaviour

So why did this happen? How come the people that were only paid $1 changed their opinion? Because of something called cognitive dissonance. This is when our actions don’t match our beliefs, it creates an uncomfortable feeling for our brains.

Here’s an example. Say being on time is super important for you like it is for me. Then you have car trouble and you’re late for a meeting and the whole time you’re stressing out and feel super awful right? Totally, me too. That’s because of cognitive dissonance.

You’re late, and being on time is something important to you, so your brain feels this disconnect. If you’ve ever done something out of character, maybe snapped at your kids when you're exhausted and then you beat yourself up, that’s because of cognitive dissonance.

And that’s what was driving the participants in this study. They knew the task was borning, but they lied to the next person in line and said it was super interesting.

The people payd $20 could justify their actions because they were paid more. It was enough to overcome that dissonance.

But the people paid $1 couldn't. A dollar isn’t enough incentive for our brains to justify doing something out of character, so their brains changed their perspective. They decided that the task must be interesting if they said it was for only a dollar. That reduced the cognitive dissonance their lie created, and made their brains more comfortable.

What does this have to do with being a workaholic?

This idea of cognitive dissonance is important in understanding why we struggle to find balance between our work and our personal lives, especially as high achieving, driven, goal focused professionals like this community.

We have values and beliefs that we’ve learned over time about what it means to work hard and be successful.

In our modern world, working hard usually means long hours and being busy all the time.

As a result, when we’re not working or we take a break we feel uncomfortable. That’s dissonance.

Our brains feel icky resting because we feel like we should be working. If you've ever struggled to take a break, to leave work at work, to come home and enjoy your weekend or just rest because you felt antsy like you should be checking emails or doing something productive, you’ve experienced this dissonance.

But here’s the thing - we also all know that balance is crucial. Working all the time and stressing about productivity and getting more done can lead to burn out. Where our bodies and minds are running on empty. Where we’re exhausted as soon as we get up, we start to stumble over our words, forget more things, and even make more mistakes. Because our brains and bodies are running on empty.

How to give your brain boundaries between work and rest time

So we have this pressure to work harder, but we know we need to have a life outside of work. What do we do? How do we overcome that mental roadblock that makes us feel guilty when we rest?

One strategy I use and recommend to other busy type A professionals is to create boundaries for your brain between work and rest time.

This is especially important if you’ve transitioned to working from home part time or full time. When we work from home it’s harder for our brains to separate work and life.

That has benefits, we have more flexible schedules and we can take a break to pick up our kids from school for example more easily which is great.

But it also means work tends to run into our personal time. Checking emails all night, you keep wandering back to your desk to just do a few more minutes on that project while your kids are occupied elsewhere…

Here’s your challenge for this week - create a shutdown routine for your work day.

This 5-10 minute quick routine is a routine you’re going to start doing every day at the end of your work time to signal your brain you’re shifting from work mode into home mode.

It can be unique to your job but some of the things in my routine are to do one lask quick check for urgent emails, check my Asana list to make sure I don’t need to allocate time on another day for tasks I haven't finished, and tidy my workspace.

Even closing my computer helps my brain know that I’m not coming back to work tonight. I’m doing something else. So I’m less likely to slip into that dissonance. If my computer’s open staring at me, it’s a strong mental pull to keep working right?

Come up with your own shut down routine and start making it a habit. You might be surprised it’s a lot easier to leave work at work with this simple shift at the end of the day.

Episode bonus resources

Ever wished you had more time in your day? This free workbook will walk you through the steps I use to set up my day to maximize productivity so you can get more done in your day (without feeling totally overwhelmed or staying up all night to squeeze it all in!) Download your copy of Your Daily Productivity checklist at https://www.drnicolebyers.com/checklist

Episode takeaways

Here’s the key takeaway from today - our brains have developed beliefs and values when it comes to hard work and success.

When we feel like we’re doing something that conflicts with those beliefs (like actually taking breaks and resting) our brains feel uncomfortable, they experience cognitive dissonance, which makes us feel guilty not working.

But our brains and bodies need rest and to do things outside of work. Hobbies, spending time with friends and family, and exercise not only can make us more productive in the long run, they improve our brain health and can even help us live longer.

So challenge yourself to create a shutdown routine for work this week so you can have more mental space and energy after work.

Show Highlights

[02:33] - Participants in this study rated super boring tasks.

[03:20] - The results of this study were surprising!

[04:05] - What is cognitive dissonance?

[06:07] - When we aren’t working or we take a break, we feel guilty.

[07:13] - Create boundaries for your brain between work and rest time.

[09:11] - Download your Daily Productivity Checklist to help.

[09:47] - Our brains need rest.

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