What if by simply drawing a line you could reduce the suffering and anguish of thousands and save lives in the process? Wouldn’t you think it was a good idea?
In 1874, seafarer Samuel Plimsoll did just that. Plimsoll found a way to prevent ships from being overloaded and sinking under the weight of excess cargo. Literally thousands of lives were saved because Plimsoll Lines, indicating the maximum vessel load capacity, were painted on the sides of ships. Given today’s overloaded workplaces and lifestyles, we can learn a lot from Plimsoll’s approach. We can learn to draw a line indicating our maximum capacity and prevent the negative effects of personal overloading.
When it comes to matters of staying afloat, a brief review of Archimedes’ principle is in order. Archimedes discovered that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this to the world of shipping and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships sink when they weigh more than the water they displace. As seafaring commerce developed in the 1800s, insurance coverage on the ships and cargo often enticed ship owners to significantly overload their ships. If the ships arrived safely, the payoff was greater for the more heavily loaded ships. If the ships sank, insurance covered the loss. Unfortunately, the cargo on many of these ships happened to be human beings. Thousands of people lost their lives on these dangerous voyages. Eventually the general public became concerned enough about the loss of crafts, crew and passengers that British Parliament was forced to appoint a committee to investigate the growing number of sinking ships.
Enter Samuel Plimsoll, a member of British Parliament. Plimsoll’s solution was stunningly simple. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the sides of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and buoyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line, referred to as the Plimsoll Line, the ship could not set sail. It is estimated that this line, still used today, saved countless lives since the late 1800s.
So here we are in the 21st century. Most of us don't live anywhere near the sea. What can we learn from the Plimsoll Line Story? We can acknowledge that consistently overloading a workday makes no more sense than overloading a seagoing vessel. Keep it up and you will sink. In terms of overloading your workday, that simply means that your current commitments exceed your capacity to deliver. I recently watched an interesting MIT Sloan School of Management lecture by Professor Rebecca Henderson on overloading. She showed data and made comments supporting the fact that entire companies included in some of her research projects were 300 to 500 percent overloaded.
Occasionally pushing hard to work through a heavy load is fine. However, when “occasionally” turns into “consistently,” it is time to draw the line on overloading. Other wise – prepare to sink.
Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.
Smart Stuff 4 Work is written by Chris Crouch. Chris has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive and is the author of several books on the topic including Getting More Done
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