CHAPTER XVIII MENTAL ECONOMY It is one of the characteristics of mental economy that efficiency and ease seem to go together.-CARL EMIL SEA SHORE. The Art of Mental Economy The supplies of physical and mental energy, the production of which was discussed in the two preceding chapters, must, notwithstanding their abundance, be expended with judicious hand. This is the province of mental economy; it concerns conservation, the utilization of the physical and mental resources with superior discrimination. This, of course, does not mean shirking, nor mental sabotage, but the handiness of the veteran who uses every inch of cover in the charge, while the untrained man recklessly exposes himself. The guiding principles of mental economy are illustrated in this study of four Italian typesetters of the Niccolai Printing House. The record of the output and quality of their work from hour to hour during the day showed the following results: Hours 8-9 9-10 IO-II II-12 12-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 Total lines set........ 84 104 92 86 Rest 99 82 64 28 Rest 5 22 30 As These figures are significant to every business man. the day wore along the amount of work decreased while the errors increased. Both in quantity and quality, working capacity rises and falls from hour to hour. The Tired Person Is Poisoned These fluctuations in working capacity have been experienced by practically everyone. At the beginning of the day we have a feeling of freshness, of reserve force and exuberance, and we attack our tasks with zest. After a time the feeling of freshness with which we started disappears and we feel dull and uncomfortable. It becomes hard to concentrate; the work before us no longer appears inviting, we are easily distracted, and upon slight provocation the mind escapes its imposed task and indulges in aimless wanderings. The feet become cold, the head hot. Indifference gives way to repugnance, then to restlessness, nervousness, irritability, and liability to passionate outbursts. The well-nourished cells with which we began the day's work have been destroyed; their energy has been yielded up and impurities now clog the system. Literally and accurately, the tired person is poisoned. A Record From Life's Firing Line An instrument called the ergograph shows the process graphically. The hand, back down, is strapped upon a small table and to the end of one finger is attached a cord which, passing over a pulley at the edge of the table, ends with a small hanging weight. Closing the finger lifts the weight and at the same time by means of a pointer traces a line on the registering apparatus. The more vigorous the muscle action the longer is the line traced. The diagram (see Figure 32), therefore, pictures graphically what is taking place inside the cells, on life's firing line. The muscles, bending energetically to their task, at first pull the pointer over wide distances, but the length of their contractions gradually diminishes until in the end, thoroughly fatigued, choked with poisons, they are no longer able to raise the weight and the tracing ceases. Fatigue and Inefficiency A very important law of exhaustion now comes into play. The muscle, thoroughly fatigued, requires a certain period of rest before coming back to normal, but if half-fatigued it requires not one-half this amount of repose but only one The flexor muscles, upon being stimulated by an electric current every two seconds, demonstrated their strength by lifting a small weight, with which was connected an apparatus for registering the length of the lift. No. 1 was the muscle's record made just before the subject took an examination. No. 2, written immediately after the examination, showed "fag" from which, according to the No. 3, written two hours after the examination, the subject still suffered. (From Mosso's "Fatigue," by courtesy of G. P. Putnam's Sons.) fourth. That is, if thirty contractions completely exhaust a muscle and a two-hour rest period restores it, the injury done by fifteen contractions can be repaired in one-half an hour. "Work done by a muscle already fatigued acts on that muscle in a more harmful manner than a heavier task performed under normal conditions." Work done when fatigued is costly. This costliness is highly significant when considered in its relation to efficiency. Fatigue disintegrates the personality in an especially insidious way, because it avoids to the last the basic instincts, such as greed, hunger, fear, and sex appetite, but the later and finer acquisitions-creative ability, sound judgment, generosity, self-control-it attacks first of all. Since civilization at best is but a thin veneer laid on in fear and trembling, it is easy for fatigue to unmask the savage in us. The business man poisoned by fatigue is selfish, ill-mannered, explosive, as tenacious perhaps over a two-cent stamp as over a $10,000 project. The storm clouds which gather on his face when the most trivial mishaps occur and his puttering devotion to essentials and non-essentials alike prove that poison products have dulled his sense of balance and that perspective is gone. The tired man drifts naturally towards inefficiency. The presence of fatigue means that the work performed under these conditions is both costly in energy and deficient in results. It behooves us, therefore, now that we are employing the methods described in the preceding chapters for making all possible increases in our energy product, to adopt in the expenditure of this energy the wise policies of conservation that will next be described. Definite Accomplishment The action of a dozen inexperienced track laborers in trying to move a heavy rail contains a moral which may serve as our first principle of mental economy. They will tug and tug at it, straining and expostulating and perspiring, yet the rail does not budge. But observe an experienced gang. With a hearty "Heave ho, heave ho!" they swing the rail into place. They know how. The mental worker who keeps himself under a non-intensive, continuous strain dribbles away fruitlessly his nervous force. Such is dawdling, the bane of efficiency. Time and effort are required to prepare the materials needed for a task and to get oneself properly warmed up. A person cannot afford to put himself through these first timeconsuming and painful steps again and again; changing aimlessly from one job to another without fully completing any is an inexcusable waste. When once under way the efficient worker energizes intensively and pushes the task hard until he has some positive accomplishment to show. Then comes rest, real freedom, for the thing carried to completion is, as it were, placed under the custody of a ratchet which will not allow it to roll back and crush him. Concentrate; aim at definite accomplishment. Habits and Specialization When this policy of concentration and definite accomplishment is put into operation, the energy stores will doubtless be drawn upon vigorously during certain periods. This is as it should be; accomplishment demands a consumption of power. At the same time, however, judicious selection ought to be made among the energy stores for those best suited to the requirements of the task at hand. The problem is analogous to the choosing of employees. When a group of young women apply for work at the employment department, the skilled manager, while he may engage all of them, places them with a sureness born of long experience. The stolid-faced girl with unkempt hair and skirt which does not meet the waist by two inches or more he assigns to a machinery room where the work is greasy, while the refined and sensitive girl is placed in an inspection department where the work is of a higher character and conditions are very different. Such placing, the manager knows, utilizes to best effect the characteristics and the different grades of employee ability. In our mental make-up there are the stolid workers, those stable reactions imbedded in the subconscious-old, fixed, easy and inexpensive; and the sensitive workers, those highly plastic |