Maybe not a 4-hour work week, but not 40 hours either
ByYesterday I started reading Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. Although I’ve barely cracked the spine, he said something that really got me thinking.
He compared two people: one making $100,000 per year working 80 hours per week vs. one making $50,000 per year but only working ten hours per week. He pointed out it’s not about how much money you can amass. It’s having enough money and time to do what you want.
It’s true. I didn’t start a business just to earn lots of money. Sure that was part of the equation, but not the entire picture. Not even close. I resented not being able to go on my son’s class trips. I hated leaving him in daycare after school. I hated being tied to 9 to 5 plus evenings and weekends. I hated being tied to someone else’s schedule.
Today I’m there to greet my son when he gets home from school. Sure there are days that I go back to my home office and do another hour or so of work before supper. But I can greet him, get him a snack and ask how his day went. I go to Pilates class Wednesday mornings. Yes I work evenings and weekends, but it’s based on my schedule, not someone else’s. Although truth be told, I’m more likely to be working at 5 am than 8 pm. Turns out I’m a morning person.
But in spite of my embracing this flexible schedule I’ve realized that I’m still working with a 9 to 5 mentality. Even on days when I work 4 am to noon (that’s an eight-hour work day. Do the math) I feel guilty if I take the afternoon off to read a trashy novel. And if I work less than eight hours in a particular day, I worry about my work ethic – even if I completed all my major tasks for the day.
I’m still straddling two worlds: the old nine to five worker bee and the new millennium technology-based entrepreneur. I grew up in a time when you went to school, got a degree that guaranteed a well-paying professional job that you kept until retirement. I’ve accepted that a degree doesn’t really mean much these days. And not only do I know few people stay to collect that gold watch after 40 years, I wouldn’t want to.
But old habits die hard.
However, now that I’m aware of my personal foibles, maybe I can start shedding the old way of thinking. Next time I take an afternoon to smell the roses I’ll remind myself it’s part of my overall plan. Will the guilt still be there? Probably – at least for the foreseeable future. However, I’m confident I can break myself of this habit, eventually.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Show me a woman who feels no guilt and I’ll show you a man.
Heaven forbid I beg off the vacuuming to watch a chick flick in the afternoon!
As I was doing laundry at 1 am last night(I left my office at 11:30 pm, after working a full day – well mostly a full day – I did Jelly ) while my husband was snoring.. I wondered why does he get off so easy? and again I wondered at 2 am when I had to get my 6yr old a glass of warm milk because he was coughing so bad and at 4 am when the 2yr old got up and wanted Milk. and at 5 am when he got up with an exploding diaper and at 7 am when I finally pulled myself out of bed because I was getting tired of being hit on the head with a stuffed moose. I’ll be here until 5 today. go home make dinner then back to the office after I put the kids to bed until midnight or so because of deadlines today. and I will wonder what he’s up to tommorrow on his “day off” while my kids are at the sitters. Gotta love being a momprenuer.
Jacki,
I’m still laughing. You are so right!
Jen, I hear you. And of course, when your kids are up all night, it’s always when you have a deadline you can’t miss the next day.
Andrea
This post really hit home with me, Andrea (no pun intended). I’ve been a Virtual Assistant for two years and I’m still fighting that urge to work 8 hours a day during “normal” working hours! I do allow myself to do the wash and the grocery shopping during the day (how daring of me!) but the guilt is definitely there.
Why can’t women relax? Men don’t seem to have a problem doing it
Of course, the crux of the matter is, even when we’re doing the laundry and the groceries, it’s not exactly relaxing. I guess we’re so used to being busy, we just can’t turn it off.
I am a 48 year old man who had a 20 year career with the 2nd largest pharmaceutical company in the industry.
I started my own consulting business when I was caught up in a down sizing because I wanted to be available for my 14 year old son and support my wife who does not have any hour flexibility.
I cook and take care of the dishes with my son on the nights that my wife works. I help with the homework and run errands. After spending a lot of time in a hotel room for so long, I am enjoying my time home.
I also wrestle with the 8 to 5 hours that I think I should be working. The beautiful thing with what I am doing is that I actually do not feel like I am working.
I read the 4 Hour Workweek also. I agreed with the fact that we should have a sense of how much we need in our lifetime to support the lifestyle that we want and not any more. This prevents us from working all our life to amass an amount of money that we think that we need and then are too old to enjoy it.
All about balance.
Mark Parbus
http://babyboomerjourney.blogspot.com/
[...] While I also don’t know if the 4-hour work week is obtainable. This post provides a possible solution; maybe not a 4-hour work week, but not 40 hours either. [...]
I think I’m lucky, because as a work at home mom, my kids kind of “force” me to step back from my work throughout the day to pay attention to their wants and needs. And I’m grateful for that, because it’s so easy to get caught up in one more email, one more blog post, just ONE more task and suddenly it’s two hours later! I work for myself from my home for flexibility AND fewer overall hours.
Take care!
HI Andrea
I just discovered you blog. Great niche! (Liked your article about niche-phobia too.)
I think you’re doing the right thing. After much trial and error of unproductive days and frustrated evenings when I looked back on how little got done, it’s important for someone who works from home to keep to at least a rough work schedule. For one thing, many of your clients DO work 9-5 and don’t have a lot of sympathy if they call at 10:30AM to find they’ve woken you up. For another, see Parkinson’s Law in Tim Ferriss’ book: work expands to the time alloted, so short dealines and tight schedules mean you work in a focused and productive fashion, while having all the time in the world means that projects sprawl out over days without any special efforts at procrastination. With a schedule you can DECIDE to take a day off and feel good about it. Without one, you DO feel guilty anytime you take a few hours to play golf or read a novel. See also the book The Now Habit by Neil Fiore, where he talks about the concept of Guilt-Free Play.
Anyway, great blog! BTW, though, did you know that the teleseminar link does not work (at least when I signed up i got an error message).
Lisa
My name is Dan Rizzo. I am the mayor for life! You punks better get used to it.. Kiss the ring.
If Apple didn’t help make computers as well as Starbucks failed to help to make espresso, how appear experienced these people become so thriving? Right onto your pathway to achieve the state-of-the-art and a lot interesting products, even though envigorating, is often a fairly crowded region. If possible, Apple company and also A coffee house built their particular market.