How burnout makes us less creative | The Way We Work, a TED series

Transcriber: TED Translators admin

Translator: Ika Wulandari Reviewer: Hafizh Alfarisi

Beberapa tahun lalu, obsesiku terhadap produktivitas sangat parah

hingga kualami kelebat lelah berkepanjangan

yang sangat menakutkan.

Yang kumaksud insomnia, berat naik, rambut rontok,

pekerjaan.

Aku bekerja terlalu keras sampai-sampai otakku

A few years ago, my obsession with productivity

got so bad that I suffered an episode of burnout

tidak mampu lagi memunculkan pemikiran lain.

Aku tersadar bahwa apa yang kualami berhubungan dengan produktivitas.

that scared the hell out of me.

I'm talking insomnia, weight gain, hair loss -- the works.

[Cara Kita Bekerja]

I was so overworked that my brain

Apa kau merasa bersalah jika belum cukup produktif seharian?

literally couldn't come up with another idea.

That indicated to me that my identity was linked with this idea of productivity.

Apa kau banyak membaca tips produktivitas,

merancang kerangka kerja,

dan menguji aplikasi baru agar lebih produktif?

[The Way We Work]

Aku sudah coba semua aplikasi: aplikasi tugas, kalender,

Do you feel guilty if you haven't been productive enough during the day?

manajemen waktu, dan hal-hal yang dapat menata hari-harimu.

Kita sangat terobsesi untuk lebih sering bekerja

Do you spend hours reading productivity hacks,

trying new frameworks and testing new apps

hingga lupa akan hal terpenting.

Semua aplikasi itu tidak berguna dan hanya memperburuk keadaan.

to get even more done?

I've tried them all -- task apps, calendar apps,

Kita bahas dahulu arti produktivitas.

time-management apps,

things that are meant to manage your day.

Dalam sejarahnya, produktivitas yang kita kenal sekarang

We've been so obsessed with doing more

that we've missed the most important thing.

telah dterapkan sejak masa revolusi industri.

Inilah sistem yang mengukur kinerja berdasarkan hasil yang konsisten.

Many of these tools aren't helping.

They're making things worse.

Kau memulai sif kerjamu

OK, let's talk about productivity for a second.

dan bertanggung jawab atas pembuatan beberapa barang

Historically, productivity as we know it today

di jalur pemasangan.

was used during the industrial revolution.

Pada akhir sif, akan cukup mudah mengetahui

siapa yang bekerja keras dan yang tidak.

It was a system that measured performance based on consistent output.

Ketika kita beralih ke ekonomi pengetahuan

You clocked into your shift

orang tiba-tiba punya tugas yang jauh lebih abstrak,

and were responsible for creating X number of widgets

seperti menulis, cari solusi, atau atur strategi.

on the assembly line.

At the end of the day, it was pretty easy to see

Semuanya tugas yang tak mudah diukur.

who worked hard and who hadn't.

Perusahaan sulit membedakan siapa yang bekerja dan siapa yang tidak.

When we shifted to a knowledge economy,

people suddenly had tasks that were much more abstract,

Jadi, mereka menerapkan sistem lama sebisanya

things like writing, problem-solving or strategizing,

hingga memicu hal-hal seperti jam kerja meresahkan

tasks that weren't easy to measure.

yang membuat pekerja tertekan

Companies struggled to figure out

dalam menentukan cara menghabiskan tiap detik mereka.

how to tell who was working and who wasn't,

Hanya satu masalahnya.

so they just adopted the old systems as best as they could,

Sistem seperti ini tak cocok dengan pekerjaan kreatif.

leading to things like the dreaded time sheet

Kita masih memandang produktivitas bagai olahraga berat

where everyone is under pressure

Kita mencoba membuat banyak pos blog atau memadati hari kita dengan rapat.

to justify how they spend every second of their day.

There's just one problem.

Namun, cara menghasilkan yang konstan tidak mendukung pemikiran kreatif.

These systems don't make a lot of sense for creative work.

Saat ini, pekerja terdidik menghadapi tantangan besar.

We still think of productivity as an endurance sport.

You try to churn out as many blog posts

Kita dituntut untuk terus produktif dan kreatif secara setara.

or we cram our day full of meetings.

But this model of constant output isn't conducive to creative thought.

Namun, nyaris mustahil bagi otak kita

untuk menciptakan ide-ide baru tanpa istirahat.

Today, knowledge workers are facing a big challenge.

Sebaliknya, waktu rehat begitu diperlukan otak kita

We're expected to be constantly productive and creative

untuk pulih dan berfungsi dengan baik.

in equal measure.

Berdasarkan Tim Peneliti Universitas Southern California,

But it's actually almost impossible

for our brains to continuously generate new ideas

with no rest.

membiarkan pikiran kita berkelana sungguh penting untuk keadaan mental

In fact, downtime is a necessity for our brain

yang membantu pembentukan identitas kita, memproses interaksi sosial,

to recover and to operate properly.

Consider that according to a team of researchers

dan bahkan memengaruhi kompas moral dalam diri kita.

from the University of Southern California,

Kebutuhan kita beristirahat dikalahkan narasi budaya terus bekerja.

letting our minds wander is an essential mental state

that helps us develop our identity,

Dengan kata lain, etos kita sebagai masyarakat

process social interactions,

saling menanam konsep kesuksesan dan bagaimana mewujudkannya.

and it even influences our internal moral compass.

Etos seperti “Impian Amerika”,

Our need for a break flies in the face of our cultural narrative about hustling,

yang merupakan kepercayaan kita yang sangat mengakar.

Etos ini mengingatkan jika kita bekerja keras, kita akan sukses.

in other words, the stories that we as a society

Namun, ada sisi negatifnya.

tell each other about what success looks like

Kalau kau tidak sukses, itu artinya kerjamu tidak cukup keras.

and what it takes to get there.

Stories like the American Dream,

which is one of our most deeply rooted beliefs.

Dan, kalau kau merasa kurang berusaha,

This tells us that if we work hard, we'll be successful.

tentunya kau jadi terjaga semalaman hingga bergadang

But there's a flip side.

dan memaksakan diri meskipun sudah tahu konsekuensinya.

If you aren't successful,

Produktivitas telah menyusup dalam harga diri kita

it must mean that you're not working hard enough.

sehingga hampir tak mungkin membiarkan diri kita berhenti bekerja.

And if you don't think you're doing enough,

of course you're going to stay late, pull all-nighters

Rata-rata karyawan di AS cuma mengambil setengah jatah cuti berbayar.

and push yourself hard even when you know better.

Productivity has wrapped itself up in our self-worth,

Hal ini menegaskan meski ada pilihan beristirahat,

so that it's almost impossible for us to allow ourselves

kita tak mengambilnya.

Biar kutegaskan.

to stop working.

Bukan maksudku produktivitas atau usaha peningkatan kinerja itu buruk.

The average US employee only takes half of their allocated paid vacation leave,

Hanya saja, model yang kita gunakan untuk mengukur kerja kreatif tak masuk akal.

further proving that even if we have the option

to take a break, we don't.

Kita butuh sistem yang mendukung kreativitas

To be clear, I don't think that productivity

dan tak mempersulitnya.

[Cara Memperbaikinya?]

or trying to improve our performance is bad.

Tak ada cara instan untuk memperbaiki hal ini.

I'm just saying that the current models we're using to measure our creative work

Aku paham. Ini menyebalkan.

Tak seorang pun yang suka kerangka ide atau akronim bagus

don't make sense.

We need systems that work with our creativity

lebih dari aku.

Namun, sebenarnya tiap orang punya narasi sendiri

and not against it.

[SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?]

yang harus mereka singkap.

There is no quick fix for this problem.

Narasiku baru muncul saat kugali kembali keyakinanku soal pekerjaan.

And I know, I know, that sucks.

No one loves a good framework or a good acronym

Di situlah aku mulai mengurai akar etos kerjaku sendiri

better than me.

But the truth is everyone has their own narratives

dan akhirnya mampu melepas perilaku yang merusak

serta menciptakan perubahan positif yang awet.

that they have to uncover.

It wasn't until I started digging around my own beliefs around work

Satu-satunya cara melakukannya

adalah dengan menanyakan sendiri beberapa pertanyaan sulit.

that I began to unravel the root of my own work story,

“Apakah kesibukan membuatmu merasa bernilai?”

finally being able to let go of destructive behaviors

“Siapa yang kau anggap sebagai contoh kesuksesan?”

and make positive, long-lasting changes.

“Dari mana asal pandanganmu tentang etika kerja?”

And the only way to do that

“Seberapa erat ikatan identitasmu dengan pekerjaanmu?”

is by asking yourself some hard questions.

Kreativitasmu punya ritmenya sendiri.

Does being busy make you feel valuable?

Energi kita naik turun setiap hari, pekan, bahkan musim.

Who do you hold up as an example of success?

Where did your ideas of work ethic come from?

Aku tahu kalau diriku selalu lebih bersemangat pada awal pekan

How much of who you are is linked to what you do?

daripada akhir pekan.

Jadi, kutumpuk semua tugasku pada awal pekan.

Your creativity, it has its own rhythms.

Karena suka kerja larut, aku meluangkan sore dan malamku untuk tugas kreatif.

Our energy fluctuates daily, weekly, even seasonally.

Aku pun menulis lebih banyak

I know that I'm always more energetic at the beginning of the week

selama musim dingin yang nyaman daripada musim panas.

than at the end,

Itulah rahasianya.

so I front-load my workweek to account for that fact.

Membongkar mitos, menantang pandangan lamamu,

As a proud night owl, I free up my afternoons and evenings

mengenali narasimu.

Itulah pekerjaan sebenarnya yang harus kita lakukan.

for creative work.

And I know I'll get more writing done

Kita bukanlah mesin

in the cozy winter months than during the summer.

dan sudah waktunya kita berhenti bekerja seperti mesin.

And that's the secret.

Dismantling myths, challenging your old views,

identifying your narratives --

this is the real work that we need to be doing.

We aren't machines,

and I think it's time that we stopped working like one.