The last few months, I’ve been wondering about something. I am self-employed. I work in an office by myself. No one watches me or looks over my shoulder. I work flexible hours. Do those hours really add up to 40 or more a week?
My Productivity Experiment
I did an experiment in which I calculated all of the hours I was actually working (i.e. writing, attending phone meetings, pursuing leads, responding to business-related e-mails) versus doing personal tasks or surfing the Internet.
It turns out that I do indeed work 40 or more hours a week, but those hours aren’t organized in 5, 8-hour chunks like the hours of traditional employees. Rather, I am able to complete several administrative and business development tasks for my business in the morning and do heavy lifting writing in the late afternoon, when my energy level is highest.
Especially if I’m sitting at my computer the whole time, I definitely lose steam between 11AM and 3PM, and again between 6PM and 9PM. But it’s not uncommon for me to continue working with all cylinders firing after my children are in bed.
9 to 5 as inefficient?
Even though I’m pretty efficient overall, my rate of efficiency during the “traditional” 9 to 5 work day is not that great. And yet I suspect I’m not alone. I don’t think most employers would be thrilled that people are tooling around on social media for hours every work day, but this is common and part of being human.
Human beings only have the ability to focus intensely for a few hours at a time, at which point our energy slackens and we switch to an activity that requires less brain power. In the days when most of us worked in the fields or in factories, it didn’t matter if we were able to concentrate because so much of the work was rote. But a great deal of today’s work relies on creativity, analytical ability, and strategic thinking, and for that, we need to be sharp.
Long Breaks for the Self-Employed
Everyone’s productivity cycle is different, and as a result of my research, I’m learning how to manage mine. After working for a few hours in the morning, I go to the gym, run errands, grab lunch outside, or take a nap during my low energy time in the early afternoon. I write like a fiend in the late afternoon and continue through the early evening, and then, after a two hour break engaging with my kids and having dinner with my husband, I’ll sit down at the computer and finish a project or catch up on e-mails.
Unfortunately, if you’re employed in a traditional business environment, you can’t have a schedule like a self-employed person. You are expected to work productively for 8 hours straight, and at some point during this long stretch, you are likely kidding yourself. Coffee can only do so much. The typical office culture does not allow you to recoup your energy in an effective way, so you sit at your desk clicking mindlessly or staring into space. This isn’t good for anyone.
The Solution for the Average Employee
Given that productivity cycles vary by individual, knowledge workers are most effective if they set their own hours and leave the workspace to do something else when their energy depletes. Thanks to technology, being tied into the business from home 24/7 is now feasible.
However, I’m a realist, and I don’t think the majority of workplaces are ready to employ telecommuting on a grand scale (although I can see this happening in the next 10 years). What employers can do is encourage flex-time. Let your people come and go as they please provided the work is getting done with great results.
Get them up and away from their desks by setting up fitness and recreation programs onsite or nearby, and create a culture where eating meals is a social and/or networking activity instead of yet another thing to be done in front of the computer. When people are permitted to work when they feel their best, productivity will improve across the board.
(Photo credit: Image of business documents on workplace via Shutterstock)
of course I do, competition is huge everywhere, we just need to stay motivated and work hard to achieve our goals
I’m self-employed but I probably work well over 40 hours a week. The
great thing is that it doesn’t feel like work, my schedule is really
flexible, and I actually still have plenty of time leftover for
relaxation and leisure.
Here, here! The thing that stops me from even considering a full-time job is my tennis schedule. I play four times a week at times no employer would put up with. But most nights I’m also still working between 10 pm and midnight, for an average 12-hour day. I also work both days most weekends. I doubt I would if I had to start by driving to an office, but I suppose that’s what DropBox is for.
It’s not so much my ‘real’ job in which I work ~45 hours/week, but I’ve always had side projects.
When you add adjunct teaching for a community college, the odd workshop on MBTI, and keeping an active blog (which I know will someday turn a profit), I’m easily looking at 70+ hours/week.
Thank goodness for exercise; it’s the only thing that keeps me sane…
When I was at University studying for my finals, my daily routine slowly slipped until I was completely nocturnal. I ended up waking at about 4-5pm, sort meals, see people for an hour or two before settling down for a 12 hour shift, ending up in bed at 7am. This was the quietest, most productive time I had, although it wasn’t that healthy – I was at my most productive at 3am!
Jim
I’m also self-employed and Im quite sure I work over 40 hours a week. But because I have really own schedule for every day I’m really fine with it since I’m having breaks (lunch, biking, running) during the day when I’m in the mood for specific activity and doing the rest of work later that day, I really prefere to work during the late hours – no phone calls, almost no IM activity etc.