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 for those working in jobs where long
Speaker 1: hours are considered the norm, you can make life sustainable
Speaker 1: by aiming for a work week that well longer than
Speaker 1: forty hours is not terrible. In many cases, it may
Speaker 1: be fairly close to where you are already, at least
Speaker 1: on average, and building your life with this in mind
Speaker 1: can make you be more mindful of time in general.
Speaker 1: So from time to time some study will claim to
Speaker 1: find that people in certain jobs are working ridiculous numbers
Speaker 1: of hours, and there are certainly places where people are
Speaker 1: working long nights, weekends, and so forth. But these headline
Speaker 1: numbers are almost always obtained through recollection and estimation, not
Speaker 1: from people actually keeping track of their time over a
Speaker 1: length of time that might give you an honest result.
Speaker 1: Surveys often ask how much do you work during a
Speaker 1: typical week? But what is a typical week? I have
Speaker 1: found over the years that it is rarely the week
Speaker 1: where you had a day off, or came in late
Speaker 1: one morning or went home early one night when work
Speaker 1: was slow. We have a tendency to remember our worst
Speaker 1: weeks as typical. Furthermore, most people don't know that there
Speaker 1: are a hundred sixty eight hours in a week. There
Speaker 1: is no rational attempt to account for proportions. Plus, in
Speaker 1: our competitive world, no one wants to be the guy saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I worked fifty hours a week when everyone around him
Speaker 1: is claiming to work ninety. But there has been some
Speaker 1: research into this, and it turns out that the farther
Speaker 1: north people claim to be from forty hours, the more
Speaker 1: likely they are to be overestimating. I have personally seen
Speaker 1: time logs from people working in all kinds of companies
Speaker 1: that have a reputation for being white color sweatshops, and
Speaker 1: the reality is that intense jobs often require somewhere around
Speaker 1: sixty to sixty five hours a week long term. It
Speaker 1: just feels like ninety because well, everyone's working hard and
Speaker 1: long and no one is actually tracking it, so we
Speaker 1: just put a high number on it, and numbers like
Speaker 1: ninety sound good. But the good news is that if
Speaker 1: you are working sixty to sixty five hours a week
Speaker 1: long term, you can account for this time an account
Speaker 1: for the time that is not spent at work too.
Speaker 1: There are a hundred sixty eight hours in a week.
Speaker 1: If you work sixty hours and sleep in shower for
Speaker 1: eight hours a day, which is fifty six hours per week,
Speaker 1: that leaves fifty two hours for other things. Now, of
Speaker 1: course it's not as much time as we might want,
Speaker 1: but it is not nothing either. Anyway, if you are
Speaker 1: working sixty hours a week over the long term, you
Speaker 1: could try aiming for fifty six. Why fifty six, Well,
Speaker 1: I like that number because it makes the week balanced
Speaker 1: in a way. With a hundred sixty eight hours in
Speaker 1: a week. If you work fifty six, sleep and do
Speaker 1: personal care for fifty six, then that leaves fifty six
Speaker 1: hours for other things. That is a reasonable amount of time.
Speaker 1: It's enough to see family, to exercise, read, maybe do
Speaker 1: some hobbies too. In any case, if you are in
Speaker 1: an extreme job, try tracking your time for a few
Speaker 1: weeks and see where you land. If it is between
Speaker 1: sixty and sixty five hours when you average six weeks
Speaker 1: of data, then you've got a roadmap for getting to
Speaker 1: fifty x. See if you can come in half an
Speaker 1: hour later. Some days, oftentimes when people need to work late,
Speaker 1: no one's noticing exactly what time people start. Or maybe
Speaker 1: you could leave half an hour earlier some days, or
Speaker 1: take a slightly longer break in the middle of your
Speaker 1: days and consciously use this time for something rejuvenating. Create
Speaker 1: a window for work on weekends, because if you're working
Speaker 1: that kind of hours, you probably are working on weekends,
Speaker 1: but nudge all work into that smaller window. The truth
Speaker 1: is that fifty six hours is still a really really
Speaker 1: long work week. If you start work at nine am
Speaker 1: most days and work to nine pm most days, with
Speaker 1: ninety minutes of non working time in the middle at
Speaker 1: various points, that is ten point five hours per work day,
Speaker 1: which theoretically gets you to fifty two point five by
Speaker 1: Friday night, but it doesn't really. You probably check out
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier on Fridays, let's say six pm,
Speaker 1: so that gets us down to forty nine point five hours.
Speaker 1: To hit fifty six hours, you'd wind up working seven
Speaker 1: hours or so on the weekend, which is what many
Speaker 1: people in extreme jobs do, either a full nine to
Speaker 1: five type work day with an hour off somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle, or spread over two days on and off. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a lot of time, but the key thing
Speaker 1: is it is not all your time, especially if some
Speaker 1: of this work time is logged at home, as many
Speaker 1: people are doing these days. You could go for a
Speaker 1: half hour run three days a week during your middle
Speaker 1: of the daytime off. You could have breakfast with your
Speaker 1: kids most days in the morning, or have a glass
Speaker 1: of wine with your spouse after work a night or
Speaker 1: two a week. You could attend worship services over the
Speaker 1: weekend and go on a bike ride with a friend.
Speaker 1: All these things are possible even for someone who is
Speaker 1: theoretically working from nine to nine every day and on
Speaker 1: weekends two, because it may not always be like that,
Speaker 1: and even when it is, there is some time there
Speaker 1: if you're mindful about it. But when you assume you
Speaker 1: are working ninety hours a week because everyone else claims
Speaker 1: to be working ninety hours a week, well then you
Speaker 1: assume there is no time for anything else, and so
Speaker 1: you don't see the time that is there. Your leisure
Speaker 1: time has nothing in it, and so it feels unmemorable,
Speaker 1: and that makes the work time seem even more pronounced
Speaker 1: than it is now. I am not denying that there
Speaker 1: are horrible situations or sometimes horrible weeks, but it behooves everyone,
Speaker 1: and particularly those in extreme jobs, to try tracking their hours.
Speaker 1: Once you know the number there may be a reasonable
Speaker 1: path to get to something that feels sustainable for many people.
Speaker 1: A fifty six fifty six fifty six split can work
Speaker 1: okay of the long term, it's not forty, but you
Speaker 1: know what, these jobs tend not to pay like forty,
Speaker 1: So this is a way to honor that reality, but
Speaker 1: make them work for you too. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: 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
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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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