The working week - which is best?

[h4rm0ny]

I've taken on a job that is very project based and predominantly my work. There's some interaction and dependency on others, but it's mostly asynchronous. Barring the occasional update meeting, I have no specific schedule requirements. Basically, I'll need to provide a significant number of hours (40-50 per week), but when I do them is not that important.

Holiday is not provided nor paid for. Any time I take off I'll need to make sure I can afford both in terms of money and delivering the project.

So here's my question - now that I'm not tied to the traditional working week or daily hours, what's the most natural and productive schedule for the human being? What routines have other people followed and how has it worked for them? I've always felt like a bit of a night owl but the traditional working week has always meant I'm trying to fill that with leisure rather than productivity. I've heard about people doing sleep patterns that follow a "six-day week" very successfully.

Any advice and experience from GD on this?

 

[h4rm0ny]

I'm currently thinking of either working long hours for four days and having a three day weekend. Or alternately splitting the two weekend days to have one day off on Wednesday for mid-week. And keeping the Saturday as a day off.

This is going to be a lot of work so I need something that is sustainable and will stop me having a break-down.

 

[h4rm0ny]

From a maximum productivity side, 6 hours a day of hard mental or physical work is optimal, but then you are working 7 days a week (although you can achieve more in 6x6hours than 5x8). I have done this before and i is better than it sounds, but with a family it is not rally possible anymore. With 6 hours a day you can get up early and get on with work and be done by noon, leaving the afternoon to go running/hiking/skiing/cycling/gym/drinking/gaming whatever (or vice versa). you never have a weekend but then every day has a great work-life balance so you don't feel you need it. The risk is those 6 hours turn to 8 and you end up working 7 days a week full time.

On the other extreme 4x10 hours gives a long weekend every weekend. The problem is it just isn't so productive as you get tired, and thr longer day means much less time to enjoy life until the weekend. It sounds more appealing than it is, especially if there is a commute involved.


Then in the real world you do 8-10 hours M-F and another 5-6 over the weekend.

I don't have any particular family commitments that would interfere with this right now. It's also quite focused work that requires me to pretty full on. One of the problems I'm trying to counter is the tendency for my attention to wander when I'm locked in a box for an extended period of time (metaphor for work, not literally). So the focused six hours would work. I can shift those six hours around a bit so I could get them done early on a weekend and still be up and about to have a sociable weekend afterward. Would be nice to have a lie in at least one day a week, though.

 

[h4rm0ny]

I work 07:00 to 15:00. Always been an early morning person. Mostly though it avoides ask the traffic so I'm home in 45 minutes Vs 1h 50m of I finish at 17:00.

Five days a week? Do you find you get a lot done afterwards and still enjoy your day?

 

[h4rm0ny]

Oh, as D.P. asked - no commuting. I'll have to travel to meetings occasionally but they're more big trips and hotels than regular commutes. I'll be working from home for this. Which just makes having a clear routine even more important because I'll need to self-discipline throughout.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Bang them all out Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, take 3 Day weekend.

Works well for a friend of mine, she basically hibernates Monday/Tuesday working very long hrs on these 2 days but always goes swimming every night 2100, eats then works till the early hrs again, its quite funny when people call her to do work on a Friday

I imagine that doesn't go well for the caller!

I quite like the idea of a couple of hyper-focused days. But I think that's the idealised fantasy version of myself I have in my head rather than the reality. After ten hours staring at the computer screen I'm not sure I'd still be effective. I think I could be though, if I worked up to that routine. I've worked very long hours before and been able to do it, but I've needed a clear day off the day after.

 

[h4rm0ny]

What I quite liked when I had more flexibility over my hours was doing normal hours through the bulk of the week but then on a Friday I was doing an early start - 5-6am and a compressed day so doing a 6 hour stint with bare minimum lunch break and then done for the day by noon - which really made the weekend feel longer and more relaxed.

A mid-day finish on Friday sounds very appealing. I think it would be nice in itself and I figure it might get the exhaustion part of the weekend where you just want to do nothing done and over with, meaning your Saturday just kicks in as a nice fresh day rather than an attempt to reclaim energy-debt from the week just gone.

 

[h4rm0ny]

You might need to try a few different hours/options and pick which works best for you, we're all different so ultimately can't give you the "answer" sadly.

True, but I'm getting a lot of insights and ideas from people's replies. There's merit in seeing what works for other people.

 

[h4rm0ny]

How does any of this help OP?

Oi!

Now I'm going to have to edit my response saying how useful that information is. But I'll have you know that I do in fact have difficulty maintaining focus after 3-4 hours of mentally demanding work. So from this we can infer that I am indeed hyper-efficient/intelligent.

I actually think breaking the day down into 2x3 hours rather than 6 as someone suggested earlier is quite good. I like it if I can somehow still manage to keep the hours up. Maybe do a 3x3 on Monday and Tuesday to make up for it.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Ah, I'm not suggesting for one moment that you ignore the suggestions in this thread - quite the opposite in fact. I'm merely suggesting that you may need to take a few suggestions and create your own schedule that works best for you

I'm taking a little from here and a little from there. I'm currently working out how I can accommodate two of the suggestions that particularly appeal to me: Blocks of three hours and finishing mid-day on a Friday.

 

[h4rm0ny]

I find when doing challenging work I can go for about 4 hours in 1 go before I start to drop off. If you don't mind working in the evenings I'd be inclined to try a split day.

5 days of:

07:00 - 11:00

19:00 - 23:00

This gives you a good 8 hours in middle of the day. It depends on your hobbies as well. I tend to structure my working hours around going to the gym in the middle of the day for example.

I work from home and my day looks like this:

08:00 - 11:00

12:30 - 17:30

Gives me 1:30hr to go the gym and I eat lunch at my desk.

I quite like this. I do actually work quite happily in the evenings. It's the middle of the day to late afternoon where everything just sags for me. I don't know if that's a natural cycle for me or a product of my current working pattern. I do know that I wouldn't be able to go straight to bed after work, though. I need a little wind down time for my mind to stop whirring so I might have to bring it forward a little. Plus if I'm going to have a definite start at 7:00 am I will need a little time at the end of the previous one to do things like have an evening shower, etc.

Possibly this:
7:00 - 11:00, 14:00 - 17:00, 19:00 - 21:00 on M/T. (9hrs)
7:00 - 11:00, 14:00 - 17:00 on W/Th (7hrs)
7:00 - 13:00 on Fri. (6hrs)
- on Sat (0 hrs)
8:00 - 11:00 on Sun. (3hrs).

That's only 41 hours so I may have to stretch it a little. But in theory they're 41 very effective hours and Summer is coming where I could probably add a little without feeling I'd lost the whole day or keep Saturday afternoon as my overflow for when I had to do more hours.