May 8, 2019 • 8 mins
How to succeed without working around the clock
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about the best way to allocate your
work hours so you don't have to work around the clock.
I recently got a letter from a Before Breakfast listener
(00:23):
who had listened to this split Shift episode. That episode
looked at strategies for preserving family and personal time if
you needed to work long hours. This listener wondered about
the right length for a work week. She worked her
forty hours, she wrote, which is a normal full time job,
but she was hearing on this podcast of people wanting
to work fifty or sixty hour weeks. She wondered if
(00:44):
this was common and if working long hours was necessary
for success. This listener noted that she was protective of
her personal life and didn't want to work at night
or weekends, but she wondered if those barriers made her
seem like a bad worker. Well as someone who works
about forty hours a week as my long term average,
I certainly hope that doesn't make us seem like bad workers.
(01:05):
I do think it's possible to do a lot in
forty hours a week. The key is being very strategic.
That's because success isn't about just doing the work in
front of you. You have to build your skills, you
have to dream up future projects, you have to build
your career capital. All this takes time, they're The good
news is that it doesn't take an infinite amount of time.
(01:28):
In a well planned work week, you can find space
for all of it. Since I've seen thousands of time
logs over the years, I've learned that many successful people
do not work around the clock. Indeed, work hours by
themselves often have nothing to do with how important you are.
I was reminded of this when inc Magazine had me
study the schedules of several high profile entrepreneurs on a
(01:52):
single day in November. Since I tracked my time, I
also knew how I spent that day in November of
And guess what, I wound up working more hours on
that day than most of these famous successful people. I
can tell you for sure that the demand from my
time is not as high as the demand for their time.
(02:15):
Work hours are not a sign of how important you are. Indeed,
we have data that CEOs in general don't work around
the clock. In a future episode, I'll talk more about
a large CEO time diary study, but for the purposes
of this episode, this particular study found that the average
work week for these people was about sixty hours. It
wasn't a hundred hours a week. I also find that
(02:38):
different people work in different ways. I recently finished reading
Mason Curry's new book about the daily rituals of women artists.
He also wrote another book a few years ago that
covered the daily rituals of famous men and women. Some
of these successful creative sorts worked long, strange hours. I
guess we all love tales of that sculptor who works
(02:58):
best at two am, but others had much more normal routines.
A common one might be to go to the studio
or office from eight am to noon and do intense
creative work after a lunch break. Research, emails, meetings, and
phone calls might consume one to five pm or so.
That's eight hours a day, but spent wisely, it can
(03:19):
be enough. The key is being intentional. Planning a strategic
forty hour work week means knowing what you intend to
accomplish and leaving plenty of space for stuff to come up.
A smart work week requires doing the stuff of your
job of course, just like an artist planting herself in
her studio from eight to twelve each day to work
on her commissions would do. Then there will likely be
(03:42):
administrative tasks. If you reach a certain point, you can
delegate some of this, but it's hard to get that
down to zero. Then there's the stuff you do as
race car driver. Sarah Fisher once put it in an interview,
that increases our exposure and broadens our scope. I really
love this phrase because it neatly sums up the idea
(04:03):
of building career capital. Part of broadening one's scope means
practicing skills. One reason I still blog multiple times per week,
even though no one's paying me to do it, is
that it's a great way to hone my writing technique.
I practice making arguments, I practice telling stories, and I
see what people like and what they don't or what
they ignore. Broadening your scope can also mean taking on
(04:27):
speculative work. You try something new even though you don't
know what will come of it, because you think it
might lead to big things in the future. You spend
time thinking of new ideas and seeing what's out there
that other people are doing that you could augment or
iterate on. In some way. As for increasing your exposure,
this is yet another way to think of networking. How
(04:48):
can you share your ideas with an ever expanding, ever
more influential audience. You can get to know people one
on one and through mass channels like being a guest
on a podcast or giving a talk at an industry conference.
All these things are necessary for long term success. Some
(05:08):
hours are just spent and done, but hours spent increasing
your exposure and broadening your scope our investments. They have
a long term payoff in terms of advancing your career.
These things also take time, of course, they don't need
to take a ton of time. If you faithfully split
(05:30):
ten hours per week among various skill building, speculative and
networking activities, you would build a ton of career capital.
If you can make space for those ten hours within
a normal work week, then sure you can conquer the
world working from nine to five. If you don't make
space for these things, though, then it's going to be
(05:52):
a lot harder. It's not about the hours themselves, it's
about how you spend them. And if you don't have
the flexibility to be able to use normal working hours
for these time investments, then you might have to do
them on top of your normal job, and that's when
the hours start stacking up. But even so, they don't
have to stack up too far. If you could do
(06:14):
your normal work in thirty five to forty hours a week,
then ten additional hours of career capital work just takes
us to forty five to fifty hours. This is still
pretty reasonable. There are a hundred sixty eight hours in
a week. If you work fifty and sleep eight hours
a night or fifty six hours per week, this still
(06:35):
leaves sixty two hours for other things. So take some
time today and think about where you could find space
in your professional schedule for ten hours a week or
two hours a day to increase your exposure and broaden
your scope. Over time, these career building hours can transform
how you spend every other hour at work, whether that's
(06:59):
thirty hours, forty hours a week, or whatever number works
for you. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
(07:19):
me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
That's b E. The number four then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com that before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
(07:47):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I Don't
Get
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about the best way to allocate your
work hours so you don't have to work around the clock.
I recently got a letter from a Before Breakfast listener
(00:23):
who had listened to this split Shift episode. That episode
looked at strategies for preserving family and personal time if
you needed to work long hours. This listener wondered about
the right length for a work week. She worked her
forty hours, she wrote, which is a normal full time job,
but she was hearing on this podcast of people wanting
to work fifty or sixty hour weeks. She wondered if
(00:44):
this was common and if working long hours was necessary
for success. This listener noted that she was protective of
her personal life and didn't want to work at night
or weekends, but she wondered if those barriers made her
seem like a bad worker. Well as someone who works
about forty hours a week as my long term average,
I certainly hope that doesn't make us seem like bad workers.
(01:05):
I do think it's possible to do a lot in
forty hours a week. The key is being very strategic.
That's because success isn't about just doing the work in
front of you. You have to build your skills, you
have to dream up future projects, you have to build
your career capital. All this takes time, they're The good
news is that it doesn't take an infinite amount of time.
(01:28):
In a well planned work week, you can find space
for all of it. Since I've seen thousands of time
logs over the years, I've learned that many successful people
do not work around the clock. Indeed, work hours by
themselves often have nothing to do with how important you are.
I was reminded of this when inc Magazine had me
study the schedules of several high profile entrepreneurs on a
(01:52):
single day in November. Since I tracked my time, I
also knew how I spent that day in November of
And guess what, I wound up working more hours on
that day than most of these famous successful people. I
can tell you for sure that the demand from my
time is not as high as the demand for their time.
(02:15):
Work hours are not a sign of how important you are. Indeed,
we have data that CEOs in general don't work around
the clock. In a future episode, I'll talk more about
a large CEO time diary study, but for the purposes
of this episode, this particular study found that the average
work week for these people was about sixty hours. It
wasn't a hundred hours a week. I also find that
(02:38):
different people work in different ways. I recently finished reading
Mason Curry's new book about the daily rituals of women artists.
He also wrote another book a few years ago that
covered the daily rituals of famous men and women. Some
of these successful creative sorts worked long, strange hours. I
guess we all love tales of that sculptor who works
(02:58):
best at two am, but others had much more normal routines.
A common one might be to go to the studio
or office from eight am to noon and do intense
creative work after a lunch break. Research, emails, meetings, and
phone calls might consume one to five pm or so.
That's eight hours a day, but spent wisely, it can
(03:19):
be enough. The key is being intentional. Planning a strategic
forty hour work week means knowing what you intend to
accomplish and leaving plenty of space for stuff to come up.
A smart work week requires doing the stuff of your
job of course, just like an artist planting herself in
her studio from eight to twelve each day to work
on her commissions would do. Then there will likely be
(03:42):
administrative tasks. If you reach a certain point, you can
delegate some of this, but it's hard to get that
down to zero. Then there's the stuff you do as
race car driver. Sarah Fisher once put it in an interview,
that increases our exposure and broadens our scope. I really
love this phrase because it neatly sums up the idea
(04:03):
of building career capital. Part of broadening one's scope means
practicing skills. One reason I still blog multiple times per week,
even though no one's paying me to do it, is
that it's a great way to hone my writing technique.
I practice making arguments, I practice telling stories, and I
see what people like and what they don't or what
they ignore. Broadening your scope can also mean taking on
(04:27):
speculative work. You try something new even though you don't
know what will come of it, because you think it
might lead to big things in the future. You spend
time thinking of new ideas and seeing what's out there
that other people are doing that you could augment or
iterate on. In some way. As for increasing your exposure,
this is yet another way to think of networking. How
(04:48):
can you share your ideas with an ever expanding, ever
more influential audience. You can get to know people one
on one and through mass channels like being a guest
on a podcast or giving a talk at an industry conference.
All these things are necessary for long term success. Some
(05:08):
hours are just spent and done, but hours spent increasing
your exposure and broadening your scope our investments. They have
a long term payoff in terms of advancing your career.
These things also take time, of course, they don't need
to take a ton of time. If you faithfully split
(05:30):
ten hours per week among various skill building, speculative and
networking activities, you would build a ton of career capital.
If you can make space for those ten hours within
a normal work week, then sure you can conquer the
world working from nine to five. If you don't make
space for these things, though, then it's going to be
(05:52):
a lot harder. It's not about the hours themselves, it's
about how you spend them. And if you don't have
the flexibility to be able to use normal working hours
for these time investments, then you might have to do
them on top of your normal job, and that's when
the hours start stacking up. But even so, they don't
have to stack up too far. If you could do
(06:14):
your normal work in thirty five to forty hours a week,
then ten additional hours of career capital work just takes
us to forty five to fifty hours. This is still
pretty reasonable. There are a hundred sixty eight hours in
a week. If you work fifty and sleep eight hours
a night or fifty six hours per week, this still
(06:35):
leaves sixty two hours for other things. So take some
time today and think about where you could find space
in your professional schedule for ten hours a week or
two hours a day to increase your exposure and broaden
your scope. Over time, these career building hours can transform
how you spend every other hour at work, whether that's
(06:59):
thirty hours, forty hours a week, or whatever number works
for you. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
(07:19):
me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
That's b E. The number four then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com that before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
(07:47):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I Don't
Get
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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