We work three productive hours a day, on average
In an 8-Hour Day, the Average Worker Is Productive for This Many Hours, Inc.
Takeaways:
- “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest” was coined by Robert Owen in 1817, nearly a century before Ford Motors implemented it.
- Ford doubled wages at the same time they reduced hours. The goal was a more humane workday, but the benefit was greater productivity.
- In an eight-hour day you probably only do three hours of work.
At first, I felt relief wash over me. As the article says:
This is particularly good news for freelancers and others who work from home. It's easy to feel like you're not "doing" enough when you don't have to go into an office. Yet this research suggests that if you're productive for just three hours a day, you're outputting the same amount as someone in the office for eight hours.
Daily, I feel like I haven’t done enough. I now track my time for a few reasons:
- to keep myself accountable
- to get a sense of how much time tasks really take
- to understand my work style and focus periods better
For the most part, Sunsama is great for both planning and review of my day and week. The analytics could be more robust; in particular I’d like to see a month view. When I pull a task from an integration like ClickUp, it would be awesome if time-tracking flowed back to that app, perhaps during the daily shutdown ritual.
Individual humans are not endlessly productive. Nor does your boss, if you have one, need you to be. When you started your job you agreed on a rate for a certain kind and amount of work. If you are doing that work well, it makes no sense to squeeze more work into your day for the same amount of pay. If you make enough money, do things that you enjoy and that are important to you. If you need more money, do things that help you earn it.
There is immense value in time to do nothing.