I was watching some video online tonight looking for inspiration for my final project and one of the speakers at Y Combinator (David Hansson of 37signals) closed with a startling comment – QUIT WORKING 14 HOURS A DAY! Boy, was that music to my ears?! (Do you hear that Karen North – my late-night working partner-in-crime?!)
Having been guilty of putting in at least 12-14 hours a day for the last few weeks, that is some advice I am ready and willing to adopt. Hansson said no one can be creative working 14 hours a day. He thinks the goal should really be to get in 5 solid hours of work a day and then to enjoy yourself and have a life. In his experience, he believes a person can get so much more done in a focused 5 hour day than a in a lengthy 14 hour day. The software developer he was advising confessed to having a hard time with focus and being guilty of becoming distracted and surfing the Internet.
While I myself do not suffer from “Internet-surfingitis,” I will admit to suffering from burnout and not feeling the same motivation that I know I should feel. Perhaps there is a difference between “being creative” and simply working to complete tasks, because I know I work very hard to get as much done in every day as I possibly can. I have no choice. I have deadlines that have to be met. However, I often leave work exhausted and wake up the next day feeling even more tired than when I went to bed.
It does not take a genius to realize this cannot be a good situation. However, I persist because despite my exhaustion, I love my job. I love the people I work with and this situation I currently find myself in is one that we hope to have resolved within the next few months. Yes, a faint light shines at the end of the tunnel!
And even though I do admit to working too many hours on occasion or even working non-conventional hours, I don’t think it is all bad. I work the way I do in normal times (right now is not a normal time) because I have a passion for my job and take pride in doing the best job I possibly can. If I work non-conventional hours, it is because I have chosen to do so, not because someone is making me do it. Even now, no one is making me put in the extra hours. It’s just that when you care about what you do, you want to do it well.
However, the words spoken by David Hansson, have given me something to seriously think about. It was not so long ago that I couldn’t wait to get in to work every day -- eagerly awaiting the new challenges that were sure to arise. I want to feel that way again and I know it is possible. If I weren’t on overload at the moment, I would be feeling that way right now. There are so many exciting things happening in my job, at our new Center on Communication Leadership and at the Annenberg School itself.
I think I am going to make this online promise to myself and blast it outward to the world, as only a blog and the Internet can do. After this class and my 6 week summer session ends, I AM GOING TO TAKE SOME QUALITY TIME FOR MYSELF AND RECHARGE MY BATTERIES. Perhaps I’ll take a short trip somewhere and get away… or maybe…just maybe… I’ll do nothing at all. Imagine that, just laying around the house and enjoying the feeling of having no deadlines to meet and no place to be. I wonder if I could actually do that?! I’m not sure but I am always up for a challenge, and perhaps this is my most important challenge yet.
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