Switch to mobile version

Experiment Log No. 14 — Working an eight-hour workday on my own work

The purpose of this experiment is to see whether I can, if I decide, work an eight-hour workday on my own projects, at home. I’ve done it for employers thousands of times, but I can never seem to harness a whole free day and put it to use furthering my own creative work.

The terms

The workday will be Sunday, January 13, 2013.

I will begin my workday at 9:00am and will be at work until 6:00pm.

I will take a one-hour lunch break and two 15-minute coffee breaks.

Except at breaks there will be no social media and no web browser usage except to look up something specific. There will be no NFL football on in the background. Ambient music is okay. My phone will be on silent, in another room. I may return texts and calls during my break.

When I realize I am daydreaming I will get back to the task at hand.

I will decide on what work items to do the day before. My regular Raptitude article will not be part of it. It will be done and scheduled by the end of Saturday.

The last half hour at the day will be spent answering these questions:

Did I start on time and finish on time?

Yes.

Did I stretch my breaks?

No! My lunch break was exactly an hour, like I planned, but I had no desire to stretch it. I didn’t take my fifteen-minute coffee break in the morning. I was on a roll and really didn’t want to interrupt myself. I would have worked ten hours, or more. In fact as soon as I’m done this I’m going to do some writing, which I haven’t done all day. I feel really awesome right now and if I had tomorrow off my day job I’d do this again.

Did I spend non-negligible amounts of time distracting myself or daydreaming?

No, I didn’t. I did catch myself a few times daydreaming, but I really had very little desire to go on Facebook or Twitter all day. I think I learned that my impulse to click over to social media is mostly about avoiding the next thing I have to do. Today I felt really empowered because I was blowing through a large volume of work and there was really no other way I wanted to spend my time other than to continue what I was doing. The idea of quitting early seemed unattractive.

At one point I was curating some post ideas, and ended up running into an aphorism that would make a good Tweet. So I just tweeted it, and never checked my DMs or @ replies, never surfed my steam of other people’s tweets. It wasn’t even a temptation.

Other comments:

Surprisingly, at no point did I feel any resistance to doing the work. I wanted to be doing it. I got a lot of legwork behind me, and I’d love to have a lot more time to work on my own projects. I will definitely make it typical to devote one of my weekend days to a full workday like this.

The clear boundaries really did help. I never had to deliberate whether I’d done “enough for the day.” I just kept going. I also got started at a reasonable time. Often when I’ve designated a Saturday or Sunday a “working day”, without establishing a clear start time, I’d find 11 o’clock rolling around before I’d started. Then I’d tell myself I might as well have lunch before beginning, then it’s 1pm, and I’m ashamed enough at not having started that I will again distract myself from the thought of starting. Whole days have slipped by like this. The definite start time was totally necessary.

My work was mostly some long-overdue planning and organizing, and correspondence. I decided not to do any writing, which probably made it easier. Writing can be painful if what you’re working on isn’t clicking. None of the work made me want to stop working today, but writing could certainly be mentally grinding enough to do that.

Overall, the non-arbitrary start and stop times were obviously the key. Historically, whenever I don’t set them, then all I have is a vague idea to “get a lot done on Sunday”, and I never really did.

I can’t wait until I have more time off. I wish I’d done this at the beginning of my Christmas holidays. Looking forward to the most productive year ever.

*high-fives himself*

{ 12 Comments }

DiscoveredJoys January 7, 2013 at 3:50 am

I’ve read (I can’t remember where) that office workers only ‘work’ about 40% of their office hours. The rest of the time is spent in non-working activities such as chatting, private calls, day dreaming etc. People digging ditches don’t spend all their time digging either.

So if you are spending 8 hours or so working on your own stuff, that’s equivalent to two and a half days of ordinary working…

{ Reply }

tigerlyly January 7, 2013 at 4:33 am

hmm, i am shocked… we are so obviously different – different genres, ages, social backgrounds and everything else, thousands of miles apart… and sooo much alike in this i could not not comment…
I think there is a whole sleuth of procrastinators out there, people like us who always wanted something else in their professional life, who believe that doing what they like instead of what they must is better and makes them happier. and when they have the chance to do it we torpedo ourselves because it does not feel as important as when you have to answer to others.

So , i am getting a page from your book and tomorrow will put that 8hrs totally for myself. To get back in track with my own list of to-do :). i would wait till the 13th since it is my lucky number ;P, but I am afraid I will lose the momentum :D
Wish me luck….

{ Reply }

Anne January 7, 2013 at 10:55 am

I was fortunate enough to be able to retire from paid work 2 years ago, quite unexpectedly, and suddenly all my dreams of whole days to write, sew, read and reflect, explore my creativity, seemed about to come true. Two years on and I find I’m filling my days with the practical stuff that I “ought” to do, with social media and surfing, with catching up with TV programmes, with not very much at all. And my sewing, writing, reflecting, creating still get the lowest priority. I’m not doing that which would reward and fulfill me because I allow distractions and “oughts” to steal my time. Why do deprive myself like this? Why am I not making the most of the huge gift of freedom that my retirement handed me? I need to continue to reflect on those questions. But I also need to do something about the situation, so a “workday” is going into my diary.

{ Reply }

Terri Lynn January 13, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Evelyn January 13, 2013 at 7:00 pm

Hi, How did it go today?

{ Reply }

Maxim P January 19, 2013 at 10:05 am

So glad you’re continuing with the experiments! I remember reading something about you being disheartened by the whole idea, but to me, they’re some of the most interesting parts of your blog. I hope you keep going and keep on experimenting, and tell us all about it.

Also, the Thought Catalog is working out well for you! I was browsing… something, and it seems like a lot of your traffic is now coming from them. Congrats!

{ Reply }

Tobi January 22, 2013 at 3:15 pm

I’ll be interested to see how this works out after more time has gone by. New disciplines are so easy at the beginning.

{ Reply }

Kieran August 1, 2015 at 10:02 am

For newest news you have to pay a visit internet and oon world-wide-web I found this ebsite
as a best site for newest updates.

{ Reply }

Rhea August 5, 2015 at 2:20 am

Post witing is also a excitement, if you know then you can write orr else it is complex to write.

{ Reply }

Bridgett September 17, 2015 at 3:42 pm

Excellent write-up. I definitely love this site. Keep it up!

{ Reply }

Nathan October 11, 2015 at 2:29 am

Thank yyou for some other informative web site. Where else may I am getting that type of information written in such an ideal approach?
I’ve a mission that I am simply now running on, and I’ve been on the glance out for such information.

{ Reply }

ipad cases January 30, 2016 at 10:25 am

Remarkable issues here. I’m very glad to look your
article. Thank you a lot and I’m looking forward to touch you.
Will you please drop me a mail?

{ Reply }

Cancel reply

Leave a Comment

Desktop version

Raptitude is an independent blog by . Some links on this page may be affiliate links, which means I might earn a commission if you buy certain things I link to. In such cases the cost to the visitor remains the same.