HowTo Transition Into Working A 4-Hour Workday

Last week I started a little productivity project that I called my "4-hour Workday Experiment". My goal was to work only 4 optimally productive hours a day and to keep my efficiency ratio at 80% or higher. I think I did pretty well with it, considering that it turned out to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. 

No kidding--it's tough, and I'm not gonna fudge and say that I didn't fall off the wagon once or twice. I did. Those of you who received emails and skypes from me on Saturday and Sunday know what I'm talking about :-). But in comparison to the hours I used to work, last week was a HUGE improvement, and I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm so excited that bunches of other small biz owners have expressed an interest in doing their own 4-hour workday experiments. Since I learned some great lessons already and am tweaking my plan, I'd like to pass on some pointers for how to make the most of your 4-hour workday:

Keep your timekeeping system as simple as possible.

I think I made things extra hard on myself by trying to track my productive hours by task (in TraxTime), instead of by just time spent working. My idea was that I would use the data to see if there was any one task that I was unknowingly spending excess amounts of time on (such as email).

While this is an admirable (and obsessive/compulsive) plan, it's not necessary when you're first starting and can end up making your workday much clunkier than it needs to be.

So, I'm gonna stop measuring my time on each task, but will simply clock in when I start working and clock out whenever I stop working. I will still be able to come up with my efficiency ratio with this info.

Don't try to force yourself to work harder.

I'd already gotten this piece of sage advice from Steve Pavlina, but did I listen? Nope.

On a few of the days, I got over-eager and worked with the intention of cramming 8 or more hours of work into a 4-hour workday, with disappointing results.

Learn from my mistake--trying to work harder doesn't make you more efficient; it just makes you frantic, frazzled and frustrated.

Steve Pavlina advises to severely limit your work hours with no expectations on how much work you will complete. His assertion is that your mind will automatically adjust to the scarcity of work time and that you will naturally pace yourself accordingly.

Some folks may feel uncomfortable with this approach. You may be thinking, "I'm trying to run a business. I have things that NEED to get done. I can't just say 'Whatever gets done, gets done.'"

I hear ya. But one thing I've found is that this experiment is almost entirely psychological.

Yes, you have to plan. Yes, you need to set up your environment so that you can work in a focused manner, but none of this will work if your mindset isn't in sync with your goals.

Your goal is not to work harder. Your goal is to be more productive. These are two very different things.

To work harder is just to expend more energy. Productivity has to do with how fruitful your efforts are.

So, if you believe that the only way to get things done is to work really hard, then this experiment is not for you. But, if you're willing to try something different, to trust that your mind is a powerful tool that you can train to be more productive, then this 4-hour workday experiment may be worth a shot. 

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is to take the day off.

One of the major challenges of being a small biz owner is that we have no paid vacation or sick days, and we often don't have staff who will pick up our slack if we decide to take the day off. What happens is that we just work, work, work, and put our own self-care at the bottom of our to-do list.

Around Wednesday of last week, I started feeling under the weather. Of course, I ignored it and just kept chuggin' along. As each day went past, I felt worse and worse. By Friday, I was miserable, but I was determined to gut it out and work anyway. Looking back on it, that was a mistake.

When you're really not feeling up to par, the pain and discomfort you feel makes it almost impossible to concentrate and be optimally productive. On Friday, I couldn't work 4 hours straight through, because I felt so icky.

I ended up working on and off the entire day with an efficiency ratio of 75%. That's not bad (your average office worker operates at only a 18% efficiency ratio), but my goal is to stay at 80% or above. I felt sub-par on Saturday and Sunday too, but felt like I needed to make up for Friday by working over the weekend.

Needless to say, I didn't operate at my efficiency goal on any of those days, plus I was exhausted from working in my sickly state. Perhaps if I had taken the day off on Wednesday of last week and focused on resting and getting better, then I could have gotten better faster and bounced back full force by Thursday.

At a certain point you need to ask yourself, "How will I get the most bang for my buck with my time?"

Sometimes the most productive thing we can do with our time is take the day off and take care of ourselves. 

Write down your list of prioritized tasks every day before turning on the computer.

At least for me, it wasn't enough to just severely limit my work hours.

I had varying amounts of success depending on how meticulously I planned my work strategy (a prioritized to-do list) and stuck to it.

On the days I did my prep work before turning on the computer, I was focused like a laser beam. On the days when I thought, "I know what I need to do--I don't need a list today" I got easily sidetracked and distracted and felt more overwhelmed. 

Not suprisingly, my fun days were the ones where I was focused, had direction and felt like I was doing my best work. My not-as-fun days were the ones where I felt overwhelmed and like I was working bunches but not getting very much done.

Give yourself a break. Don't beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon.

Like I said, this 4-hour workday experiment is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but the hard part is not sitting down for 4 hours and working optimally. That's the easy part.

The hard part is stopping at 4 hours. The hard part is turning off your computer when your workday is over and resisting turning it back on. The hard part is not answering/checking emails compulsively throughout the day and night. The hard part is thinking mindfully about how you spend your time and not simply doing things out of habit.

The hardest part of all is stopping your mind from thinking about work after you turn off the computer.   

Be prepared for withdrawl symptoms.

If you're used to spending all day (and night) on your computer, you will probably experience some withdrawl symptoms when you severely limit your workday.

I know I did. It's a feeling of discomfort, of feeling like you're missing out on something, or that you should be working when you're not. You also may feel bored and like there's nothing to do.

Since having bunches of free time is new to me, I had to consciously come up with alternate things to do besides work. I didn't have any problem coming up with stuff I had been wanting to do, but sometimes it was a struggle to get myself to actually do those things instead of falling back on my old friend, the computer.

The more I got into the habit of doing alternate activities (reading, working in the yard, cooking, interacting with live human beings, exercising, playing with my dog, etc.) then the withdrawl symptoms started to fade. I also started to feel more relaxed and more in touch with what was going on around me.

This 4-hour workday experiment is as much a lifestyle change as starting a new exercise program or making healthy changes to your diet. For the first few days or weeks, it'll feel a little awkward.

You may give in to a Sunday afternoon internet surfing binge (like I did). You may give in to the urge to check email one last time before bedtime. We're all human and these things happen.

Productivity is a muscle. It takes time to build it up.

What I'm focusing on is progress, not perfection. I know that although I didn't do everything perfectly, that I did start to make some major healthy changes in my work habits.

Every day last week I turned off my computer at about 3pm. On all days (except for one) I kept the computer turned off for the rest of the day.

I also got into the habit of delaying the start of my workday and spending the early morning doing non-work activities that I enjoy.

I think that I've made great strides in breaking the obsessive/compulsive aspect of my relationship with work and also to be more mindful as I experience each day.   

If you're doing this experiment too, I'd love to hear your take on things, so please don't hesitate to chime in and share your own observations and experiences.

Related posts:

The 4-hour Workday Experiment: A 9 Step Plan

The 4-Hour Workday Revolution

HowTo Get More Work Done In Less Time

PM Computer Fasting & Pumpin' Up The Productivity

7 Benefits Of Working A 4-Hour Workday

7 Ways To Tame Your Email Inbox

Comments

[Gavin Heaton]

Ok ... now I am jealous. I can't even get my blog reading/writing down to 4 hours ;)

[Sharon]

I feel your pain, Gavin:-)

Blog reading/writing is my Achilles heal also. I'm trying to come up with some ways to get a hold of it, such as limiting myself to only 5 posts a week and using the news aggregator--its a never ending work in progress.

I love your blog, BTW. Servant of Chaos is absolutely one of my faves.

Cheers,
Sharon

[Maryam in Marrakesh]

Sharon, this is really absolutely brilliant. Can you share what your schedule was like? Is the idea that you write down exactly the number of minutes you are working in order to see your productivity? It's 80% of your 4 hours, right? Were your four hours in the morning? I work two jobs and blog. I just don't see how it is possible for me to do everything in 4 hours esp as I a on a book deadline right now. In fact, I have hired a life coach for a month just to help keep me on track. I know you have said that you have fallen off the wagon on this 4 hour workday a bit. But I just can't tell you how inspiring this is - the thought of it even being possible.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hi Maryam,

Yes, I have to admit that I'm somewhat addicted to the internet. I have to be on it for work, and then the blog is supposed to go along with my marketing plan (although I do it cuz it's just fun!) so that needs to be worked on everyday, then I like to explore and find new blogs, and visit and comment, and before long, it's like--where did the day (and night) go?!!!

I start doing the 4-hour workday whenever I feel like my internet/work consumption is getting out of hand . As far as the schedule goes, I would adjust it to fit the day--for example, sometimes it would be this:

10am to 12pm--Work
12pm to 1pm--Lunch
1pm-3pm--Work

Other days it would be 2pm-6pm straight through. I would usually do the straight through thing if I was working at a cafe (for some reason, it's so much easier for me to concentrate when out of my normal environment.)

And yes, I was aiming for 80% efficiency ratio for the 4 hours. Since I've started back up with the 4 hour workday schedule, I've stopped keeping track of the efficiency ratio.

I mean, it's a bit cumbersome to have to clock in and clock out for every activity I do on the internet. (I use a time keeping software to keep track of client time, but if I'm surfing or blogging, then I don't want to have to think about it.) Perhaps when I first started it I was a bit too anal with the documentation .

I work at home for myself, so I probably have a lot more leeway than folks who have jobs in outside offices. But, one thing that definitely helps is drastically restricting your work hours, even if it's more than 4. I've also heard of some people who work 8 hours, then have a computer fast at night. When 5pm comes around, the computer is turned off until the next morning. That's a less severe version of the 4 hour workday.

There's something that clicks in our minds that helps us get more work done in less time if we restrict the time. If I don't give myself a cut-off time on the computer, then I could work on it all day long and not even realize it!

Oh, and that's cool that you've got a coach to help keep you on track with your book deadline and everything else you've got going on--having an outside person keeping us accountable is very motivating.

I must tell you, your blog is so enjoyable; it's like leafing through an imported design magazine. I just love it!

[Marty Marsh]

Sharon, you've inspired me to give this notion a try. I've tried a number of things to spend less time in front of this machine but this sounds like something I can actually do.

Always enjoy your blog and you have the most interesting people show up here. I enjoy clicking through to learn more about the folks who leave comments here and have discovered a great community of folks out there.

Woo hoo!
Marty

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hi Marty,

Thanks so much! So glad to have you here. Please let me know how it goes! :-)

Cheers,
Sharon