Author Morten Hansen, in an engaging conversation with Guy Raz, discusses how top performers achieve more by working less. They explore the myth of overwork equating to excellence, emphasizing the importance of setting limits and focusing on essential tasks. Hansen's research findings on performance efficiency over long hours are thought-provoking, challenging traditional work norms for success.

Do you feel like you’re putting your nose to the grindstone and working longer and longer hours, but not getting anywhere with your career? My guest today makes the case that if you want to be a top performer and advance in your job, you need to start working smarter instead of harder.His name is Morten Hansen and in his book Great at Work, he highlights his groundbreaking, exhaustive analysis on top performers and shares his "7 Work Smarter Practices” that can maximize your job performance, without necessarily requiring you spend more time at it.Today on the show, Morten explains why top performers concentrate on fewer things, but obsess more about them, as well as the optimal number of hours to be working each week. He then shares some advice on how to convince your boss to limit the number of irons you've got in the fire. We then discuss a practice Morten called "the one thing" that will elevate your skills, why you shouldn't pursue a job based on passion alone, why the best collaborations involve a bit of heated debate, and why you need to find more time to work alone. This show busts a bunch of myths as well as offers a lot of really interesting insights that you can put into practice. Get the show notes at aom.is/greatatwork.

There is a myth in the workplace that says we need to work longer hours to achieve more and do so with higher quality. But this is purely a myth and there’s a lot of science to prove it. Get your Bookworm shirt! Discuss on the Bookworm Club Free Agents Mac Power Users Macstock PopClip Moom Great at Work by Morten Hansen Good to Great by Jim Collins Built to Last by Jim Collins Great by Choice by Jim Collins Bookworm on Essentialism The ONE Thing by Gary Keller Bookworm on Peak Bookworm on Mindset Bookworm on How to Win Friends and Influence People Bookworm on Grit Bookworm on The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Asian Efficiency No Fail Meetings by Michael Hyatt 12 Week Year by Brian Moran The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Boundaries by Henry Cloud The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey Mike's Rating: 4.0Cory's Rating: 4.0