Work Smarter Not Harder

I often encounter people that "work" a lot: they get very little sleep, they're always tired, or other things like that.
There seems to be a culture of pride about overworking and under-sleeping.

Let's do a bit of science in our observation of this phenomenon. I'm going to use a bit of physics.

Scientifically, work is

a constant force of magnitude F on a point that moves a displacement (not distance) s in the direction of the force. *

More simply, it's a force applied in a particular direction:

• W = F • s

Scientifically, work is a force multiplied by a displacement. This means that the object to which the force is applied must have moved. Furthermore, the actual work done only computes straight displacement.

Let us assume lines m and n occur in the same plane. If one were to shift the same mass along line m (from point A to point B) and line n (from point C to point D), both efforts would have produced the same amount of work.

In other words, it doesn't matter how much an effort thrashes back and forth. If CD is the same displacement as AB, they produce the same amount of work.

This is only the first layer.

The second layer concerns itself with what is called diminishing returns. This principle states that,

in all productive processes, adding more of one factor of production, while holding all others constant, will at some point yield lower incremental per-unit returns.

For example, let us say the average brick-layer can lay 100 bricks in an hour. Thus, in a typical, eight-hour workday, a man could lay 800 bricks. Presumably, if he worked an extra hour (for a total of 9 hours) he will have lain 900 bricks. Imagine with me that this bricklayer worked 24 hours straight. Will he have lain 2,400 bricks? Let us suppose he was in his prime at the beginning. It is thinly possible that he could lay 2,400 bricks. Let us suppose that he is put to work for 72 hours straight. He may die; however, assuredly, he will not be able to lay 7,200 bricks. In general, it is easy to support the hypothesis that sleeping poorly reduces health and, subsequently, capacity/efficiency.

Let us combine the two concepts (W=F•s and diminishing returns).

Some boast in the amount of work they accomplish (even when they've travelled along something that resembles line n).
Some also boast in how little they sleep/rest.
When combined, it is safe to posit that some individuals are reducing their productivity below even 8 hours' worth of work.

In all this, I mainly want to encourage patience and rest. Patience allows an individual to rest and reflect so that a task can be undertaken efficiently (like line m, from point A to point B). Rest prevents an individual from receding into diminishing returns.

There are many more issues that contribute to the problem, and there are many more factors to consider in the pursuit of a healthier life. However, I think it's worthwhile to consider how we manage our time and energy in the pursuit of accomplishing work.