A few things bubbled up after reading the NYT article about productivity tracking.
Kate-specific #1: I remember creating sophisticated schedules for myself, very economically using every single unaccounted minute of the day. And I remember deep disappointment of never sticking to it.
Kate-specific #2: I was always curious to read up on the peculiar set-ups famous/successful ppl would come up with during their lifetime. Like, get up at 4am, prepare for the day (meditate, talk to God, etc.), work from 5am to 9am w/o a break or food, and then call it a day (breakfast, daily businesses, errands, long walks in the wood, hefty dinner and wine and chatting with people — or no dinner, no wine, no people; straight to bed). It always felt like a possible pattern should emerge.
Generic #1: Ever since I had kids and tried to be a manager for a short while, I accepted “people are already motivated, you have to figure out what it is” as a very good starting point. So, looking at the modern labor market, I always assumed we were trying to solve the problem of “what if everyone has enough money not to work for a paycheck — what do you do then?” — not going back to the English factories of 19th century.
Generic #2: Seems like money as a motivational proxy (on both sides) works in the favor of employee (carrot), when they can easily leave; and becomes a huge stick, when they cannot.
Hi, this post is interesting.