The 9-to-5 Ritual – The Pragmatism of “Desk-Side” Devotion
Podcast
Transcript:
Why do people feel more valuable when they’re exhausted? Why does doing nothing feel like you’re wasting your time? Why do we respect people who are always busy? And I guess my leading question is, is being busy just a more socially acceptable form of addiction?
Hello, and my name is Sarah Suleman, and I’m featuring on this episode of the Thoughtcast to talk to you about the 9-to-5 ritual, the pragmatism of deskside devotion. The answer to those questions is that we are confusing work and productivity with purpose and meaning. We are devoted to our work. Your 9 to5 work schedule. It’s what makes you feel less distressed. It becomes your psychological stabiliser. But why? If the brain is a meaning-making machine, it’s constantly looking for coherence. It’s asking questions like, why did I do this? What does this say about me? And you can only have answers to those questions of coherence if you have a strong sense of purpose and identity that you have developed. If it can’t find answers to these questions, it goes into distress.
So it looks for the next most available substitute. And most of the time, that substitute is active. And this replacement is a neurochemical process involving dopamine. Dopamine can make busyness feel like purpose over a prolonged period of time. Our neurotransmitter dopamine. Now I love to talk about this because dopamine is widely understood only as our reward chemical, but dopamine is actually released in pursuit of something. Dopamine spikes when something is anticipated, when something is potentially rewarding or when something is uncertain.
Now think about this. Modern work is engineered to create emails, notifications, metrics, and deadlines. This is called intermittent reinforcement, and it’s one of the most powerful conditioning tools in behavioural science. It’s actually the same schedule that makes slot machines and casinos really addictive. It’s not because the reward is great. It’s not because the salary increase will be so rewarding. It’s because it is unpredictable. So, your brain stays engaged. And that’s how dopamine can make busyness feel like purpose over a prolonged period of time.
What does that behaviour mean long-term? It’s an adaptation. The brain optimises for the environment within which you’re asking it to live. If you become so devoted to your work that it’s where you get your meaning from, you become skilled at things like rapidly shifting your attention or multitasking. Work provides positive reinforcements constantly.
Meanwhile, the rest of you, your playful self, your creative self, has no reward. And over time, you stop becoming a person who works, and you become a worker who occasionally exists. And you might even notice some of those signs in yourself. For example, not being able to tolerate boredom, not being able to have deep attention, and really analyse and think about something. Less risk, less imagination. If you’re watching this from Dar Salam, Tanzania, then a real example I can give you is how not a lot of people have the creativity to create work or projects or businesses of their own, which is why so many of the same kinds of restaurants are positioned right next to each other or so many community service organizations all doing the same thing, just because it seems quite difficult to explore an idea that might be new. Now, obviously, as someone who works full-time, I’m not discouraging you from a full-time job. But what I am suggesting is making a conscious change by understanding that your work cannot be your source of meaning.
And I always like to leave you with some things that you can do to make this better for you. The first thing I’d suggest is that you create a meaningful practice that is not productive. It has no ties to being productive, no ties to any reward. Because if the point of every moment is that it needs to be useful, then your brain will forget to find meaning in things that are just enjoyable. And the second thing that you can do is replace dopamine hits. Schedule your dopamine releases. For example, reading emails at set times of the day or batch messaging. Not doing it every single time that an inquiry or a message comes in. The third and probably most important suggestion, in my opinion, is to rebuild boredom tolerance. allowing yourself to be bored.
Modern work and even the way that we raise children now replace every single gap with stimulation of some sort. Every part of the day doesn’t need to be filled with stimulation because boredom is extremely important for someone to develop an original, creative, and strong identity way. Stand in line without your phone. I know if you’re wincing just at the thought of it, you really need to do this. Walk without listening to anything. There’s no power, especially if you’re in Tanzania. Don’t replace that time with another kind of stimulation. Maybe just lie down, write, journal. No objective tied to it whatsoever. It’s really just about retraining your mind or redirecting where it gets its sense of meaning.
