Why Do We Even Need to Work?

Why does doing your work feel overwhelming and so hard? That’s what we are looking at this week.

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Episode 234 | Script

Hello and welcome to episode 234 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein and I am your host for this show.

A lot has changed over the last two hundred years or so when it comes to how and why we work. For most people living two-hundred years ago, there was a purpose to work—to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. Life wasn’t fair, crops were destroyed by drought, floods and wars, but we had a purpose every morning when we woke up. To ensure our family were fed. 

Today, there are multiple reasons why people work. The truth is, despite everything going on in the world, we are living like emperors and empresses. The vast majority no longer need to worry about where the next meal will come from. For most, their biggest worry now is their mobile running low on battery power.

With all this luxury, it can be very hard to find our purpose. We have everything we need. Food, clean, running water and, for most of us, a safe, stable environment in which to go about our lives. Why do we even need to work? Great questions and ones that all come from this week’s question. 

Speaking of which, I think it’s time now for me to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.

This week’s question comes from Jesper. Jesper asks, hi Carl, I recently lost my job and I’ve found myself struggling to find the motivation to construct a system to find another job. Instead I am waking up later each day and instead of working on my CV, I read news and look for new productivity apps. Is there a way to help me be more productive now I don’t have a boss telling me what to do?

Hi Jesper, firstly I am sorry to hear of your lost job. I hope you find a new job quickly.

Now, let’s deal with how you structure your day when hunting for a job. A myth I need to remove is the myth that you need to spend all day hunting for a new job. 

One of the benefits of not having to go to an office or place of work is you no longer need to commute and sit in meetings all day. Instead you can concentrate your time. This means you no longer need to be “working” on your job seeking activities eight to ten hours a day. Instead you can do the required work on less than four.

This is great when it comes to structuring your day. 

Now, I don’t know how long you have been working for, but if you have held down a job for the last five or more years, now is a good time to do some deep personal thinking. Many people get a job based on advice given to them by teachers and professors who may know about a student’s academic credentials, but have no knowledge of their individual motivations. 

It could be that you were good at chemistry while at school and so you were pushed towards a career in science. But that might not be where your motivation is. Your motivation could be entrepreneurial or legal and studying law or business is really what you wanted to do. 

A loss of a job, while devastating, it’s also a great time to reflect. What was it about your work you enjoyed? What was it you did not enjoy? That’s going to help you to find your own motivation. It’s unlikely it will be the money. Money is a poor motivator in the long-term. People are not motivated by money. People are motivated by what they think money can do for them. What is much more likely when you reflect on your previous job is there will have been parts of that work that excited you, motivated you and gave you a buzz. And there will have been parts of your work that did the opposite. 

Look at these first. This will give you a starting point for what to look for in a new job. 

Now, if money is tight, it’s often worth swallowing your pride and going to work in a coffee shop or other job below your skill level, temporarily. You do not want to let money get in the way of choosing the right career or job for you. 

I remember, I lost my job when I was in my late twenties and was struggling to pay the rent. I wanted to get into law at that time and so I worked in a bar five nights a week so I could pay my rent and have food to eat. It was an unpleasant five months, but it was worth it. Had I let me pride dictate the course of action, I would never have worked in a law firm and instead gone back into selling cars. Who knows, I might still be doing that today, had I not taken that part-time bar work for a few months. 

Once you know what you liked about you previous job, you now have a list of things you want to do. You also have list of things you don’t want to do. 

Next up is your skills. What skills do you possess? We all have skills, often we are unaware of them, but we all have them. Take some time to think about what you are good at. Don’t worry at this stage is some of the things you are good at are things you do not enjoy doing, just list out the things you believe you are good at. A good way to determine this is to think of things you do with ease that other people find difficult. 

Are you good at talking to strangers? Organising events? Delegating? Leading teams? Where are your skills? Write them down.

Next comes the fun part: matching your skills with a job. Find a job vacancy site and read through the listings. See which jobs match your skills. This is going to lead you down avenues you may not have ever considered. Once you’ve done this, what are the jobs that match your skills?

Okay, now the hard bit. It could be that the jobs that jumped out at you were jobs that required professional qualifications. Qualifications that currently you do not have. Here’s where you need to decide whether it’s worth going back to school, even part-time, to get those qualifications. 

Now, when you look at the process to get to where you want to be, do you really need to be spending eight to ten hours a day searching? Not likely. 

So, while you were in full-time employment, what did you miss out on? What were the things you wanted to do, but could not do because you were stuck in an office or wherever your workplace was? 

Do those things now. 

You will be back in full-time employment again soon and these opportunities will disappear. Take these opportunities now. Get plenty of rest, do a lot of reflection, exercise and give yourself four hours a day for job searching. 

That means, if you prefer to wake up later in the day do so. Do your job search work in the evenings or the afternoons. You have complete freedom now. 

And here’s the thing. While there is a lot of debate around how we should be working. Working from home, working in an office or a combination of both, learning to structure your time during the day is going to be a new skill we all require. And structuring your day is part planning and part self-discipline. 

Planning because we need to set up our work sessions and self-discipline because we need to stick to our planned sessions whether we like it or not. 

The final piece, is to begin the day with an objective. What do you want to accomplish today? What one meaningful task could you do today that will leave you feeling satisfied and fulfilled. 

Now, this does not need to be related to job seeking. It could be you decide that today’s the day you clean up you home from top to bottom—it’s surprising how good it feels when you’ve spent all day cleaning and you sit down at the end of the day and look at your work. 

Related to your job search, you may decide you will apply for seven positions today, or you will complete a summary of your skills. Pick something. That something is going to give the day a purpose. It’s the purpose that will pull you through the day. 

Remember, Jesper, losing a job can be awful, it can be stressful, but it also gives you a chance to reflect, reset and rediscover your passions. Don’t let that opportunity go. 

When I look back through my career, losing a job has always turned into something very special. It gave me a chance to look at what I was doing, to do some self-reflection and to accept my weaknesses. On the flip side it gave me the chance to reconnect with what I enjoy doing, to learn new skills and to find a job or vocation that ignited my energy. 

It was losing my job back in 2002 that caused me to fly to Korea to teach English for a year. Within three months I discovered my passion for teaching and knew, deep down, I would spend the rest of my life teaching. And today, twenty years later, I am more passionate about teaching than I have ever been. 

A job loss can be soul destroying, but it can also be a catalyst to something much greater, something more special and a change within ourselves that starts us on a journey that we never tire of. 

Good luck, Jesper, I hope you find what you are looking for. Remember to structure your day, make sure you know where your skills are and maybe, you will discover something so much better than what you were doing before. 

Thank you for your question and thank you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all very very productive week.