2009 / October 11^th/ It’s just not about how many hours you work

My favorite discussion amongst web professionals is when people start talking about work/life balance and how many hours they’re working. There’s been no end of interesting ideas to pop out from this — everything from 4 hour work weeks to 100 hour work weeks. And everyone thinks that they’ve got the answer. But I think everyone’s just arguing about an irrelevant metric: the hour.

Let’s talk about that work/life balance thing

Most of this discussion always seem to revolve around the idea of a work/life balance. The basic idea is to keep yourself sane. Don’t abandon your real life for your work. That makes sense, until people start attaching hours to it. I’ve had discussions with people where they try and argue to me that 40 hour work weeks keep them balanced. But I have to wonder, where does that magical number 40 come from?

The fallacy here is that people are thinking in black and white terms of “work” and “life.” I never really understood that, and I think I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I can see why: it’s a bunch of bullshit that employers made up to promote 40 hour work weeks. If you really think that there is a certain number of hours you can work a week to balance your life, you’re doing it wrong. So let’s ditch this idea of a work/life balance, because it just doesn’t make sense.

It’s about creating a creative environment in your life

It’s just that simple. If you’re in the creative field, you need to make sure your life promotes a creative environment. There isn’t one catch-all formula to do this. There isn’t a number of hours you need to work. You just need to experiment and find out what works for you. What I will do is try and offer some advice.

Find your passion in life and try to make money from it

If you hate your job, it’s unlikely that you’ll be successful in fostering a creative environment. Try your best to fix this. Find out what you’re good at, and try to make money from it. You’ll be producing better (more valuable) work and enjoying life more.

Explore projects that are explicitly not for profit

Money taints things, there is no denying this. So I suggest to find an outlet that you purposefully can’t/don’t make money from to help exercise your brain. That might mean creating websites, making music, or hacking on an epic perl script that no one but yourself will use. It doesn’t have to be something different from your work — it just has to be separated from your work. Something you can change or destroy without worrying about what others think.

Stop working if you’re producing crap

The only thing worse than being unproductive at work is forcing false productivity. If you find yourself at your desk and you can’t come up with anything useful, just stop trying. Leave your desk and go do something else. Maybe for a few hours, maybe for a week, maybe for a year.

Accept that there is no way you can be productive for 40 hours a week

The 40 hour work week is completely unsustainable. Human beings are not meant to sit down and really focus for 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Our brains can’t handle it. I’m sure startup founders will come in here exclaiming how they’ve been working 100 hour work weeks for 6 months now and every hour was well spent. They’re lying.

Your brain needs to purposefully not think in order to come up with creative ideas. That might mean relaxing to your favorite book or movie while your subconscious attacks your latest project. You’re not working in the strict sense–but you’re getting work done.

That’s not to say you can’t have weeks where you get hundreds of hours of work done. But in my experience, after a week like that, I need another week or two to decompress.

Focus on what matters

My goal with this post is to hopefully get people to stop thinking in hours. Start focusing on making great things. It’s about the things you produce, not the hours required to make them.

Once you realize you’ve been focused on the wrong metric I think you’ll realize arguing about a work/life balance is just ridiculous. Spend time on your life. Spend time on your work. But always strive to do better. That’s all you need.

1. 

   Avinash

   October 11^th | #

   Start focusing on making great things. It’s about the things you produce, not the hours required to make them.

   Well said. I generally stop working if I find myself not being productive anymore, or when my mind starts wandering. Going out and getting some fresh air or just watching music videos for a while helps me regain my creativity.

2. 

   chris rhee

   October 12^th | #

   Some creative service companies would argue… it IS about how many (billable) hours you work ;)

3. 

   Winnie Lim

   October 12^th | #

   I think it took me quite a long while to accept that there was no way that I can be productive for 40hrs a week – I spent most of that long while wondering what was wrong with me.

4. 

   Chris

   October 13^th | #

   Some good thoughts here. But perhaps part of the issue is not the time spent working, but what kind of work we’re doing. I agree that we’re not meant to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week. It’s not only hard on the mind, but slow suicide for the body as well.

   A suggestion of mine is that you can work more than 40 hours a week, but spend some of the time doing work that is more physical in nature. This also frees your mind to ‘be creative’ as you exert yourself physically.

5. 

   David

   October 16^th | #

   Chris, I think you hit the nail on the head. A given in this post is that the work week being assumed is all computer related. I agree, 40 hours in front of PC will shutdown your body and put you in the grave just about as fast as the junk food you eat everyday.

   Find some way to add physical activity to your work load if possible. If not, then drop some work and spend that extra time biking or playing a sport.

   On the other hand, if you’re actually working – like with your own hands and body – then you can handle 40hrs a week no problem. Of all the people I know, it seems the old farmers live the longest and are out doing the most far after their friends are on oxygen at the hospital.

   If you don’t use it, you lose it.

6. 

   T.J. VanSlyke

   October 26^th | #

   Kyle, this article was exceptional, and put the last nail in the coffin of the style of work ethic which haunted me for most of my career.

   On an aside, I love the design of your site. My first impression is “what if Tim Burton had a blog.” I think it’s the star in your logo and the clocks. Kudos!

7. 

   Rishikesh Kankal

   December 18^th | #

   Kyle, this is really good article. Let me mention I am from India where things are not counted in terms of creativity. Here quantity is really a matter of fact. I completely agree what you have said. Definitely will try to work on this !!! Once again let me mention keep posting such articles…
   -Rishi

8. 

   MarmaladeToday

   January 14^th | #

   You make a good point. People get too hung up on magic numbers from some guru rather than thinking for themselves and addressing the fundamental thing: balance. As you intimate, that’ll be a variable thing between different people doing different work. And it’ll vary over time. No room then for a prescriptive formula.

   @chris rhee. This is true, but I’d suggest that perhaps the agency adjust their pricing to take account of value, though billable hours may still be a factor in their algorithm (they’ll need to cover their costs).

9. 

   seth

   January 28^th | #

   Great article! I like that focus on creating the creative environment, its definitely true that a job you hate is not something you can just shake off when you get home. Yay I’m a slave, now on to that novel!

   Seth

10. 

    Shaukat – Sell eBooks

    February 28^th | #

    Nicely explained… Productivity in work environment in the key. It’s better to stop and clear your mind and then resume your work again. I agree with you regarding 40 hour work week. You are 200% right. Nice article!

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