Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to balance long work days with occasional
Speaker 1: shorter work days. This can feel better than working medium
Speaker 1: long hours day after day. Fall tends to be racing season,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of people are training for marathons
Speaker 1: and half marathons. Training for a marathon naturally requires a
Speaker 1: lot of running, but you don't run the same amount
Speaker 1: every single day. You do a weekly long run with
Speaker 1: increasing mileage up to a point at which point you
Speaker 1: go down again. You do some shorter days focused on
Speaker 1: speed work or what they call tempo, hard but sustained efforts,
Speaker 1: and of course there are rest or cross training days.
Speaker 1: Rest isn't what you do when you are not training.
Speaker 1: Letting your body rest and recover is a part of training.
Speaker 1: This varying rhythm can make even intense training feel more
Speaker 1: doable than running the same amount day after day. We
Speaker 1: can use the same thought process in planning our weeks
Speaker 1: as well. For instance, when I plan out the kids
Speaker 1: activity schedule, I aim to have some days be very
Speaker 1: busy and others be not so busy at all. I
Speaker 1: find It is better to do multiple things on one
Speaker 1: night and then have a night off than to do
Speaker 1: medium amounts of stuff every single day. Long days are
Speaker 1: followed by short days. We know there is a break coming,
Speaker 1: so it is easier to push through a longer evening.
Speaker 1: Same with work. Varying the rhythm can help make work sustainable.
Speaker 1: Some of this is just about building in recovery time.
Speaker 1: When you have a major project or a tight deadline,
Speaker 1: or when you are covering for a colleague who is out,
Speaker 1: you may work some long days. You get in early,
Speaker 1: you stay late. It is amazing how much you can
Speaker 1: get done in a day when you need to, and
Speaker 1: it feels good to work hard and accomplish something important.
Speaker 1: But it is inefficient to work like that long term
Speaker 1: because you wind up getting cranky and making mistakes. So
Speaker 1: when you work a really long day or several long
Speaker 1: days in a row, aim to make the next day shorter.
Speaker 1: For instance, if you work several long days in anticipation
Speaker 1: of your company's annual meeting, and then you have the
Speaker 1: high demands of fulfilling your role during the meeting, aim
Speaker 1: to take it easy the next day. Perhaps you get
Speaker 1: in at instead of eight, or go for a long
Speaker 1: walk in the park on your lunch break, or call
Speaker 1: it a day after you wrap up from a one
Speaker 1: o'clock meeting. Or maybe you work eight hours, which is
Speaker 1: theoretically a standard work day, but it's actually a lot
Speaker 1: shorter than your usual. Leaving work at five is very
Speaker 1: different from leaving at eight, so recognize that and make
Speaker 1: the most of those hours. At some companies, working a
Speaker 1: shorter day after a long day may be formalized as
Speaker 1: camp time. At a lot of workplaces, though, and just
Speaker 1: about universally for remote workers and freelancers, you can decide
Speaker 1: on a shorter day for yourself. This is especially true
Speaker 1: if your shorter day is nine to five. It is
Speaker 1: unlikely you need permission for that. Use those extra hours
Speaker 1: to do whatever will energize you. But honestly, as we
Speaker 1: think about our schedules, I find the long day short
Speaker 1: day mix can help us take advantage of time in
Speaker 1: a smarter way, even if we are not thinking about
Speaker 1: rest and recovery. For instance, when people talk about combining
Speaker 1: work and life, they often talk themselves into a corner
Speaker 1: because their young kids go to bed around seven pm,
Speaker 1: and with a full time job in a commute, they
Speaker 1: don't get home until let's say six pm. Life is
Speaker 1: horrible and terrible, and clearly no one can have it
Speaker 1: all right. But if you have some flexibility, which many
Speaker 1: people do to some extent, why not divide the same
Speaker 1: number of work hours into long days and short days.
Speaker 1: Rather than settle for half an hour with the kids
Speaker 1: every night, work really late past bedtime two days per week,
Speaker 1: then leave much earlier on the other days. Come home
Speaker 1: at ten thirty pm two days, and come home at
Speaker 1: four pm three other days, and it's like coming home
Speaker 1: at six thirty pm every day, except you triple your
Speaker 1: evening time with the kids. Now, I know this doesn't
Speaker 1: work for everyone, but it does for some, and working
Speaker 1: until ten thirty pm feels far more doable. If you
Speaker 1: know the next day is going to end at four
Speaker 1: You can do this split even if you don't have children.
Speaker 1: Early nights might allow you to play in a softball league,
Speaker 1: or volunteer, or just bike when it's light out. If
Speaker 1: you have an expectation of long hours, then alternating some
Speaker 1: really late nights with earlier ones might make this all possible.
Speaker 1: So the next time you've worked a lot of long
Speaker 1: hours and are starting to feel exhausted, build in a
Speaker 1: shorter day, and if you are looking for more work
Speaker 1: life balance in general, try alternating the length of your days.
Speaker 1: You will probably find the mix more rewarding. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
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