The Future of Work + the 10% Retirement Challenge

Guest Column by Dr. Jay Van Bavel

NOTE: Enjoy a guest column by one of the best scientists on how group identities influence behavior and thinking - Dr. Jay Van Bavel. He offers an alternative to working 9 to 5 until you waste away or switch jobs 7.3 times until you realize wherever your go, your mind follows. Read this to find more sanity, balance, and meaning at work. I detail my own experience at the end.

Please consider subscribing to his newsletter, The Power of Us: for people who want to get smarter about groups and make groups smarter.

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The last few years have come with incredible upheaval in terms of how we work, from the challenges of working at home during the initial stages of the pandemic to the ongoing debate about hybrid work. This has introduced deep existential questions about how many of us want to live our lives.

I have both been grappling with these challenges in my work as well as my personal life. After a lot of discussion and reflection, I have decided to make some major changes to the way I work. Instead of constantly adding to my workload, I have decided to try something different and remove a few things (if you want to read about the power of subtraction, I recommend this recent interview on Hidden Brain with Leidy Klotz or our interview on Quitting with Annie Duke).

I am proposing something different: I’m calling it “the 10% retirement”. I decided to critically examine everything I do and try to remove tasks and activities that take up 10% of my time.

I am not advocating for “quiet quitting” because I genuinely love my job (and if you hate yours, I’d strongly recommend finding a new one rather than lingering in quiet misery). But I often feel like I am running on an academic hamster wheel. It gets faster and faster, but I feel stuck in place.

Therefore, I am proposing something different: I’m calling it “the 10% retirement”. I decided to critically examine everything I do and try to remove tasks and activities that take up 10% of my time. But my goal wasn’t to simply make my life easier, but to remove the distractions that take me away from the parts of me job that I’m most passionate about and where I think I can have the most impact.

Created by ChatGPT4

There are a lot of good reasons for doing this:

1. Feeling overwhelmed is simply exhausting. As we wrote about in a previous newsletter, burnout impacts mental health and makes it harder to get things done. Removing the clutter is a long-term recipe for feeling better, helping the people we care about, and achieving our goals.

2. It’s a perfect time to create new norms. The pandemic disrupted a lot of our lives. For the most part it was a stressful—if not a tragic—experience. But by disrupting our daily routines and breaking us from old norms and habits, it gave us all a chance to reflect on what really matters.

3. Quitting is hard, but necessary. We often overlook the value of removing things that get in our way. This means we should spent a lot more time thinking about what to remove from our lives, rather than continually adding responsibilities.

4. Many aspects of our jobs are full of these activities that have absolutely zero impact on the world—or even our careers. Yet we pursue them because someone asked us to or because we are simply in the habit of doing it. Getting rid of the clutter allows us to focus on the essential aspects of our work and life.

I have decided to share my thoughts on what the “new normal” looks like for me and some of the trends I see on the horizon. I would also love to hear about the challenges you’ve faced and changes you’ve made in the comments—tell me about your own plans for a 10% retirement.

Then track your progress. Do you feel less frenzied? Do you have more time and energy for your core priorities? For your health? Your family and friends? Are you any less effective? Please tell us how this works out in a year or two. Maybe if we all decided to retire from the most meaningless 10% we'd find that there were a lot of things that none of us truly enjoyed, and were quite unnecessary to begin with. Then we could stop pressuring one another to do it. Stop feeling an existential sense of dread wash over us when we miss out on some opportunity.

My 10% Retirement:

I have had the incredible fortune of taking a sabbatical this year. This has given me a break from the normal academic grind of teaching, editing, and service at my university and allowed me focus on my research (I also bought myself a nice hat to mark the occasion). It has given me a chance to recover from the burnout I felt over the past four years as I struggled to write a book, teach my young kids from home, run the NYU social psychology graduate program, and keep up with my research. I’m normally someone who loves my job, but the burden of managing everything was simply too much and created a constant sense of anxiety, guilt, and exhaustion.

For me, this is an ongoing problem. My wife, Tessa West, has a new book coming out called “JOB THERAPY” and she created a quiz for people to identify their own challenges at work. I completed her quiz this week and was unsurprised to learn that I’m “stretched too thin”. I guess this means her quiz works rather well because I could have guessed this is my kryptonite. (You can take her career quiz here to see if you’re in the same boat). I’m constantly struggling to juggle too many things.

But sabbatical gave me time to catch up on various papers and projects, submit grants for new studies, and start chipping away at another book. For the first time in years, I feel fully relaxed and on top of my work. The sabbatical also gave me time to step away from the daily grind and think about what I want to do with my life and how I want to work. I’ve been turning this over in my own head endlessly for the past year (and my poor wife has had to listen to me work through these challenges).

One of my favorite books last year was “4000 weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman. He explains how we should move beyond productivity hacks and think about our priorities given that we only have, on average, 4000 weeks to live. This means focusing on our relationships and core values and less on having to optimize our email workflow. This is a message that really resonated with me after dealing with the pandemic and burnout for the past couple of years.

Since becoming a professor, I have felt deeply engaged in my work but also overwhelmed by the sheer pace of it all. I get several dozen emails every day, teach a huge class with over 400 students, run a busy lab, and have an endless stream of requests for paper reviews, talks, meetings, etc. I make this far worse for myself by trying to keep up with the tsunami of new research and sharing it with the world on social media.

Of course, I’m hardly alone. Most of my colleagues have rather frenzied calendars. I once stirred up a hornet’s nest on Twitter when I noted that the average professor works over 60 hours a week and 30% of their time is spent on emails or meetings. A lot of people objected to the culture of overwork in academia. For many people, it feels impossible to juggle all of these tasks without compromising your mental or physical health.

So I decided to remove the things that aren’t having an impact or simply aren’t sparking joy (the Marie Kondo principle). If I could get down to 45 hours a week—and focus on the things I love—that would be a sustainable improvement for me. Of course, I want to have the same kind of impact with my research and teaching. So I decided to focus on removing the things that were the least necessary. Trimming the fat, if you will.

Here is my 10% retirement plan:

• I plan to skip most overnight trips to psychology conferences and other academic events for the next few years. I normally spend 10-20 days each year on the road each year at various conferences and universities. The conferences cost me few thousand dollars each and often leave me feeling completely drained when I return home (largely because they go from 8am to 10pm for several days straight). I still plan to give virtual talks or book events, but my students and postdocs can share my research at the big academic conferences and university talks (and they are happy to do it). This alone will save an enormous amount of money, energy, and time—possibly 10% of my time!

• I also plan to cut out a lot of academic work that simply has not been having an impact. In the early phase of my career I spend hundreds of hours creating posters, writing chapters for edited volumes, or attending meetings. But many of these things were a complete waste of time: I spent days creating a poster only to have two people look at it and I spend weeks writing chapters that almost no one cited. I’ve decided to pull back from as much of this busywork as possible and instead focus on a smaller number of higher-quality projects that are more likely to have a genuine impact on the field. This should save me at least 5 days a year that I can invest in other activities.

• For the past 15 years, I’ve run a huge lab at NYU. At one point, I was advising seven PhD students as well as a large number of secondary students. My lab meetings would overflow with over 20 researchers all hungry to launch new projects. In my world, a large lab is really energizing and often a mark of status. But I’ve slowly been shrinking my core lab to a couple PhD students and a few postdocs. I thought I would miss the large lab meetings, but we are more productive than ever. I’ve also had far more time during the week to read, write and think without an avalanche of meetings.

Of course, if you love putting together a poster or attending a large conference, go for it. Everyone gets to choose the things that spark joy for them. But give it some serious thought and see if you can’t carve out a few things that are undercutting your joy or having little impact from your own calendar. Then see how you feel once you’ve cut these things out of your own life.

For me, saying no is hard. So I constantly get roped into events and responsibilities that are beyond my bandwidth. But I’m trying to come to grips with the fact that saying no means I am actually saying yes to other activities. I am saying yes to things that give me joy. I am saying yes to the things that are more likely to have an impact. I am saying yes to the things that are more enduring. I am saying yes to having more time to think deeply about slightly fewer things. I am saying yes to better sleep, to more exercise, and to being more present with my family, friends, collaborators, and students. 

As we have noted repeatedly, this will all come much easier if we do it together. My colleague, Dolly Chugh has talked about how she created a “NO CLUB” to stop herself from getting sucked into things:

“We started the club because we tended to feel clear and confident about advice we would give others about when to say no, but were less likely to take that advice ourselves,” Chugh said. “The No Club gives us a confidential place to get that advice and be held accountable for acting on it.”

So start your own “No Club” or a “10% retirement club”. Get together with some friends or colleagues and share what you plan to drop and how you’ll support one another through it.

At one point, we thought about calling our book “Architects of Identity”. Our publisher didn’t like it, but I think it applies nicely here. You have the power to share the direction of your own life as well as those around you. If you use it wisely, you’ll be able to chart a more enjoyable and sustainable path. I want to know how much happier and productive we'd all be if we could just retire from the most pointless 10% of our jobs. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

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TODD’s 10% Retirement

Jay’s words resonate powerfully for me and I hope you. Much of his changes match my own and I have not discussed them publicly.

1. Like Jay, I avoid attending academic conferences out of town unless I am delivering a keynote or conducting a workshop that has the potential to influence hundreds or thousands. First, most of the work presented at these conferences can be found online, and it would be beneficial if organizers requested speakers to present new material. Second, I have an aversion to disingenuousness, which I consider to be the eighth deadly sin (here). These conferences are expensive, and yet host organizations often proclaim a commitment to equity and climate change, despite the fact that few can afford to spend $2,500 for a few days of science and thousands of airline flights are taken to attend such events.

2. I decline low significance writing. This involves courteously turning down most book chapters (with an exception for Paul T. P. Wong - here) - as edited academic volumes attract few buyers. This implies dedicating less time to peer-reviewed journal articles (after almost 230 publications, it's time for my next life chapter). In my Psychology Department, they regard a scientific journal article as a “citation classic” if it gathers 100 references. This astonishes me. It often takes years to carry out a study, another year to submit and publish it in a journal - and then it's only read by a handful of scientists (some of my research studies took 6 years - here )! It makes sense to allocate more time to work that reaches a large number of readers. For example, each edition of this newsletter is read by a minimum of 5,000 people in the first 24 hours. I plan to author more books: my 6th is currently underway. No more trivial tasks as I contemplate my legacy (it’s never too early).

3. I say no to low impact writing. This means politely declining most book chapters (an exception for

   Paul T. P. Wong
   is here) - as few people buy edited academic volumes. This means spending less time on peer-reviewed journal articles (after nearly 230 publications, it is time for my next life chapter). In my Department of Psychology, they consider a scientific journal article a “citation classic” if 100 people reference it. This blows my mind. It often takes years to conduct a study, another year to submit and publish in in a journal - only to be read by a few dozen scientists (some of my research studies required 6 years - here )! It seems logical to spend more time on work read by legions of readers. For instance, each issue of this newsletter is read by at least 5,000 people in the initial 24 hours. I will write more books: my 6th is in the works. No more busy work as I think about my legacy.

   

4. There are numerous emails that don't require my reply. Just because someone sends me one doesn't mean I'm obligated to do anything. As I grow older, the volume of emails increases. I'm comfortable responding to some, but not all. This is why it's crucial for people to be clear about what they want in their emails, detailing the request, the benefits and costs to me, and the reason for its importance. This isn't because I'm a mercenary but because I have 3 daughters (twin 17 year-olds and a 12-year-old). While they are still young, someone has to convince me to divert time and energy away from them.

5. As I step into my 20th year as a Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, I question countless meetings. Too often, these gatherings transform into non-interactive soliloquies, when a simple email could have sufficed. So, I've made a choice. I've decided to sidestep those meetings that are low on importance and high on redundancy. And I'm not shy about explaining why. I'll gladly share my reasons - advocating for the respect of everyone's time, reminding colleagues that diligent preparation - reading the documents sent before meetings - shouldn't result in a penalty of longer meetings rehashing the same content.

With this 10% retirement, I am more focused, more purpose driven, and have more time and energy to spend with friends and loved ones. What Jay Van Bavel tackles really resonates with my values. Ask yourself:

• What can I trim to do what really matters?

• What costs am I willing to incur to invest energy elsewhere?

Here's hoping Dr. Jay Van Bavel's guest post sparked changes in you. If you’d like to support his work please:

• Leave a ❤️ so that others can find it;

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