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"This post originally appeared on the ooomf blog.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201CAs long as you get your eight hours in.\u201D\r\n\r\nI used to hear this phrase a lot.\r\n\r\nThe thinking is that as long as you put in a set amount of time working (usually at least eight hours or more) you will do well at your job and be successful.\r\n\r\nWe learned that eight hours of work a day is what we\u2019re supposed to do almost as soon as we step foot into a classroom. School days are eight hours long and classes are usually structured by slots of time rather than what is accomplished in that time.\r\n\r\nWhen you get a job, usually part or all of your pay is based on hours worked.\r\n\r\nSince starting\u00A0ooomf, I\u2019ve made huge strides in how I approach my day to be more productive, but sometimes, I still catch myself looking at the clock, calculating how much time I should be working rather than focusing on what I\u2019m getting done in that time.\r\n\r\nOn days where I put in less than eight or ten hours of work, I feel a bit guilty, like I\u2019m not pushing hard enough. But,\u00A0this is the wrong way to think.\r\n\r\nAt ooomf, we don\u2019t work set hours.\r\n\r\nTwo of my co-founders prefer to work late into the night while I enjoy starting work early in the day.\r\n\r\nBecause we have different energy levels at different times, it would be counterproductive for my co-founders to work at 9AM (just like it would be inefficient for me to be working at 2AM).\r\n\r\nGranted, there are times when scheduling a time to meet during the day to discuss important matters is needed (and there are many days when we all work through the night), but the importance is our work schedules are rarely managed by a set number of hours; rather,\u00A0they are guided by our energy levels.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, we\u2019ve seen the results of working without a set schedule in the quality of our work, our productivity, and our health.\r\n\r\nBut, working set hours is typically the norm for full-time professionals, so I wondered where this 40-hour work schedule came from and if there\u2019s any scientific backing as to why we\u2019ve been working this way for almost a century.\r\nHow the 40-hour work week came to be\r\nDuring the Industrial Revolution, factories needed to be running around the clock so employees during this era frequently worked between 10-16 hour days.\r\n\r\nIn the 1920s however, it was\u00A0Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, that established the 5-day, 40-hour work week.\r\n\r\n[caption id=&amp;quot;attachment_718567&amp;quot; align=&amp;quot;aligncenter&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;520&amp;quot;] Henry Ford next to a 1921 Model-T[/caption]\r\n\r\nSurprisingly, Ford didn\u2019t do it for scientific reasons (or solely for the\u00A0health of his employees). Rather, one of the main reasons he came up with the idea to reduce the working hours of his staff was\u00A0so employees would have enough free time to go out and realize they needed to buy stuff.\r\n\r\nIn an interview\u00A0published\u00A0in World\u2019s Work magazine in 1926, Ford explains why he switched his workers from a 6-day, 48-hour workweek to a 5-day, 40-hour workweek but still paid employees the same wages:\r\nLeisure is an indispensable ingredient in a growing consumer market because working people need to have enough free time to find uses for consumer products, including automobiles.\u200A\u2014\u200AHenry Ford\r\nSo the 8-hour work day, 5-day workweek wasn\u2019t chosen as the way to work for scientific reasons; instead, it was partly driven by the goal of increasing consumption.\r\nNight owls vs. early birds\r\nYour body keeps track of time in a section in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (or SCN).\r\n\r\nThis part of the brain is located behind your eye, where the optic nerve fibers cross, which allows your brain to use cues from light in your environment to help you keep track of time:\r\n\r\nLight and genetics are the two main factors\u00A0that help your body tell time, establishing a natural a cycle of energy levels (a circadian rhythm) throughout your day.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s a few of the main events that happen in your body as part of a typical 24-hour biological clock:\r\n\r\nThe length of your 24-hour cycle may be longer or shorter due to genetics.\r\n\r\nIf your cycle is a bit longer, you would be considered a night owl but if yours is a bit shorter, you\u2019re most likely an early riser,\u00A0says\u00A0Katherine Sharkey, MD, PhD, associate director of the Sleep for Science Research Lab.\r\n\r\nResearchers have even\u00A0pinpointed\u00A0that the length of a particular gene called Period 3 or \u201Cclock gene,\u201D could be largely responsible for your sleep-wake cycle.\r\nNight owls outlast early birds\r\nA typical workday for most of us usually starts at 7AM and ends around 5PM. This lifestyle design really only works well for one type of person. The early riser.\r\n\r\nIf you\u00A0prefer working nights\u00A0(like 44% of women and 37% of men do), then you\u2019re often stuck slugging away at a time when your energy levels are low and your work ultimately suffers.\r\n\r\nBecause night owls wake up later, they sometimes get a reputation for being lazy because they\u2019re asleep while the rest of the world is hustling.\r\n\r\nBut,\u00A0recent research\u00A0from the University of Brussels suggests that\u00A0night owls may beat out early birds\u00A0in the length of time they can stay awake and alert without becoming mentally fatigued.\r\n\r\nResearchers conducted a study with \u201Cextreme\u201D early or late risers. Early risers awoke between 5AM-6AM while late risers awoke at noon.\r\n\r\nThe participants spent two nights in a sleep lab where the researchers measured their brain activity, looking at alertness and ability to concentrate.\r\n\r\nAfter ten hours of being awake, the early risers showed reduced activity\u00A0in areas of the brain associated with attention span and completed tasks more slowly than late risers.\r\n\r\n\u201CIt\u2019s the late risers who have the advantage, and can outperform the early birds,\u201D said Philippe Peigneux, one of the publishers of the study.\r\n\r\nForcing someone to work early (or late) doesn\u2019t necessarily lead to better results.\r\n\r\nA night owl can be just as productive (if not more) than an early riser, they\u2019re simply more productive at a different time.\r\nThe importance of taking a breather\r\nBecause\u00A0our bodies were designed to work in rhythms,\u00A0not for endless hours on end, breaks are often just as important as the work we do.\r\n\r\nResearch discussed in the landmark book\u00A0Creativity and the Mind\u00A0showed that\u00A0regular breaks significantly enhance problem-solving skills, partly by making it easier for you to go through your memories to find clues.\r\n\r\nFocusing only on your work for four or five hours straight\u00A0limits your chances\u00A0to make new, insightful neural connections, which won\u2019t help you when you need to be creative.\r\n\r\nA few companies have embraced this need to remove work to improve production and creativity.\r\n\r\nIn\u00A0his TED talk, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister explains the importance of time off and why he shuts down his design studio for a year. Sagmeister says this removal of work allows him and his colleagues to gain new perspectives and refresh, ultimately producing better work.\r\n\r\nQuirky, a web company is working on an experiment to shut down operations for four weeks every year. Here\u2019s an excerpt from an email Quirky CEO, Ben Kaufman sent to Quirky staff (full email here):\r\nWe are going to shut down the entire machine for 4 weeks next year. Instead of running for 52, it will run for 48.\r\nThis is a full, mandatory shutdown of all internal activities. Lights out. Deep breath\u2026\r\nOur thesis is centered around the fact that this will lead to better work, more beautiful products, and an emotionally balanced team.\r\nTake a breather not just for creativity (but for your health)\r\nGiving yourself a break not only can benefit your creative juices but also your health.\r\n\r\nDan Buettner, a writer for National Geographic recently assembled a team of researchers to look at three communities around the world that have the longest, healthiest lives on the planet.\r\n\r\nIn his TED talk,\u00A0How to live to be 100+, Buettner showcases one of these communities, the Seventh-Day Adventists in California.\r\n\r\nThe members of the Seventh-Day Adventists must take one day off a week from work completely, no matter how busy they may be.\r\n\r\nBuettner points out this opportunity to reconnect with people and the world around them relieves stress and is likely part of the equation for why the Seventh-Day Adventists have five times the number of people who live to be over a hundred than the rest of the country.\r\n4 steps to work-life bliss\r\nI\u2019ve experimented a lot with different techniques to improve the way I work. A couple weeks ago, I tried to not look at a clock for a day and instead, just rely on my energy levels to tell me what I should do (I found it nearly impossible and failed within the first couple hours).\r\n\r\nThrough trial and failure however, I\u2019ve found a system that has worked wonders for me.\r\n\r\nI will continue to try more things to constantly improve the way I work and report my findings, but here\u2019s what I\u2019ve figured out so far that has produced the best work of my career.\r\n\r\n1. Write a realistic to-do list\r\n\r\nMake a to-do list for the day that has 3-4 major tasks that you want to get done.\r\n\r\nBecause your days will naturally fill up with other things, David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals,\u00A0recommends,\r\n\u201CPlan for 4-5 hours of real work per day.\u201D\r\nLaying out your daily tasks knowing this, helps you\u00A0create a to-do list that you can consistently complete, rather than one that has too many items and leaves you feeling bad, like you\u2019re constantly falling behind.\r\n\r\n2. Create cycles with your work\r\n\r\nYou probably have lots of different types of tasks to worry about.\r\n\r\nTo accomplish more of the important things while maintaing balance in your energy levels so you don\u2019t burnout, try breaking your day up like this:\r\n\r\n\tA creative task. Starting with your most creative or important task before that urgent email pops up will help you feel accomplished. For me, I usually wake up and work a 90-minute session on my most creative task before I feel my brain and concentration start to fatigue.\r\n\tAn un-timed break.\u00A0Your break could be 20-minute run, a nap, lunch,or simply doing nothing for a few minutes. This gives you a chance to refresh and regain mental power before starting your next task. By keeping it un-timed, you\u2019re using your energy levels as a guide to when you should start work again, rather than a rigid set amount of time.\r\n\tA mundane task. By bulking your mundane tasks together and doing them all at once, you\u2019ll save time. Check all your emails or try to schedule multiple phone calls in a row. This way, when you switch back to a creative task, you won\u2019t have the cloud of a hundred emails hovering over your head.\r\n\tAnother un-timed break.\r\n\tRepeat. Try going through this cycle three to four times in a day.\r\n\r\n3. One day with no work\r\n\r\nSteve Blank, the pioneer of the Lean Startup Movement\u00A0uses\u00A0a Date Night every week to remove from work completely. My fiance and I do this same thing.\r\n\r\nOne night a week, we have a planned time where we spend time not talking about any work (no checking of iThings allowed).\r\n\r\nTry removing work completely for a day.\r\n\r\nWhen you return to work the next day, you\u2019ll probably feel inspired and driven, helping to keep distractions at bay.\r\n\r\n4. Find a true metric to measure your tasks\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s easy to count hours but not so easy to figure out another way to measure the work you do that encompasses the true goal of what you\u2019re producing.\r\n\r\nFor example, it\u2019s easy to measure how many hours you wrote today but what is the goal of your writing?\r\n\r\nIs it to simply get your thoughts down? Then maybe you should be measuring how many days in a row you are writing.\r\n\r\nIs it to grow your audience so people purchase what you\u2019re selling? Then maybe you should track the sales that result from each blog post you write rather than the number of posts you write.\r\n\r\nTrack your progress using one of these metrics and your mindset may shift from \u201CI worked x hours to do this thing\u201D to \u201CI did this thing and it produced x results.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis system is hard to maintain because a lot of things in the world are designed to steal your attention and I\u2019ve found myself falling into the busy trap once in a while.\r\n\r\nBut, if you give it a shot (even just for a day or a few hours), you may uncover one of the most productive ways you\u2019ve ever worked, like I did.\r\n\r\nIf you work at a company that requires you to be there for a set number of hours I\u2019m not saying you should quit or that it\u2019s a bad gig.\r\n\r\nThe important thing to remember is it\u2019s not about the amount of hours you work, but what you do in those hours that counts.\r\n\r\nDon't miss:\u00A0Why entrepreneurs are obsessed with failures"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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