How Many Hours Should I Work?
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This question has been burning up cycles in my head for more than a week. A post on one of my favorite blogs started the thought process.
Initially, I thought the question was ludicrous. Especially when posed to another person. Can’t he answer that himself? My gut-level response last week was, “As many as it takes.”
However, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for over six months now, and it’s starting to suck.
Often enough, working until a task or project is complete is a necessary and beneficial experience, sometimes mandatory. And there’s a lot to be learned from a mandatory-to-completion environment.
But most workplace tasks and projects, admittedly, do not fall into that category unless horribly planned or pathetically procrastinated.
The question still remains: “How many hours should I work?”
Two approaches: 1) the one already mentioned, “until it’s finished”; and 2) ”X hours per day/week/month.”
“Until It’s Finished”
The problem with “‘Til Finished” is that it becomes a habit. Started, perhaps, in order to catch up, but long after you’re caught up, it’ll continue. This is my problem right now at 10pm on a Tuesday.
You’re never behind and that feels good. Working all the time can compensate for being disorganized, or feed the rats of being too type-A. But even that “bonus” is short-lived when you start burning out.
“X Hours Per Day/Week/Month”
The problem with an “X Hours” approach is how we, society, have been conditioned to think about work. Most jobs focus on punch-in, punch-out and “putting in your time”. Big problem: no one pays us for our time; they pay us for what we put into our time.
But “X Hours” can make sense if we approach it properly. It’s similar to picking your backpack before you start packing any other gear. If it don’t fit in; it don’t go in.
The unforeseen benefit is that once you’ve defined the limits of your day, or the limits of your backpack, you think hard about what to put into each, and what you don’t put in, which is often the more important choice. We must separate the wheat from the chaff, and that choice, above all, determines if we succeed.
Tomorrow, I hope, I’m gonna try it.