The Connection Between Illich’s Law And Negative Productivity

Illich’s law states that after a certain number of working hours, our productivity is significantly reduced. This law refers to a “negative productivity limit”, a point where we strive to maintain attention, and thus begin to make mistakes in our work.

Researchers have been very interested in studying productivity. Throughout history, the world of work has been organized based on economic and political purposes. However, it is important to always remember that we are really human. People downplayed this factor for a long time, and we now see the consequence of it: A decline in economic productivity.

People have always wondered what the best ways to achieve productivity are. For this reason, there have been several theories that have taken into account the human factor. We can not monitor this factor because it includes the individual’s potential and cognitive abilities, as motivation. This is how Illich’s law appeared.

Ivan Illich: The Creator of Illich’s Law

Ivan Illich, the creator of Illich’s law, was a Croatian-Austrian philosopher. He became famous after publishing his book Deschooling Society . In it he criticized the education system. He always promoted self-learning as a means of gaining knowledge and educating properly, and conversations as a tool to encourage analysis.

In 1980, Ivan Illich created Illich’s law. During this time he was a professor at Pennsylvania State University . After several studies, he concluded that productivity decreased after a certain number of working hours.

That is the basic premise of Illich’s law. In other words, this thinker states that working continuously for several hours in a row results in low productivity. Basically, working is no longer directly proportional to higher production. In fact, it is quite the opposite: working too many hours can saturate a person and lead to complete blockage.

Illichs lov

According to Illich’s law, the key is to arrange working hours and rest time properly. Let us illustrate this with an example. A person makes a pair of shoes in two hours. But if they work 12 hours in a row, they will not make 6 pairs of shoes. Why? Because their productivity begins to decline after a certain period of time.

That said, the person will end up making 4 pairs of shoes instead of the expected 6. The work that took them 2 hours in the beginning will take them 3 hours later and will continue to take more time as the hours go by. It is also very likely that the last products they make will be defective.

The situation can become even more critical when it comes to intellectual work. However, in both physical and intellectual work, working tirelessly leads to mental exhaustion. If this is prolonged over time, anxiety, depression and irritability may also manifest.

To work efficiently

Illich’s law states that alternating work with rest is the best way to avoid exhaustion. He suggested something called “time intervals” for this purpose. These “intervals” are ways of organizing time so that exhaustion does not threaten the individual’s performance.

The three most important time intervals are:

• A 2-minute break after each 10-minute work. Although many people think that this is quite short, this time interval has proven to be very effective. In 10 minutes, if the workload is not too overwhelming, all cognitive abilities return to their maximum potential.

• A 5-minute break after each 25-minute work. This is a productivity range that corresponds to the well-known Pomodoro technique. In fact, many people have testified that this technique works very well.
• A 12-minute break after each 12-minute work. It is a time interval that has proven to be very effective for mechanical and tedious tasks.

Since most of us are used to working long hours, it can be difficult to use these time intervals first. Just remember that it’s all about habit. They will become part of your routine in no time. One thing that can motivate you to practice them is to consider how productive you were after a long day at work. The next day, use a time interval and do the same afterwards. Then compare both results. They can surprise you!