Do you like a 4-hour workweek or 7-day weekend?

Leestijd: 5 minuten

 

Which of these would you prefer?

 

Work only 4 hours a week or have a weekend that last 7 days?

 

These examples are NOT randomly chosen

 

I am actually quoting two book titles.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and the 7-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler.

 

And I am reminded of these two in a period where I am putting in close to 60 hours a week… with just about enough time to stare at Ferriss’ s book on top of a pile of other probably-nice-to-read-books-if-only-I-had-the-time.

Mmm… what am I not getting?

Join me! That is, if you have the time.

 

60 hours a week

 

What did I do to find myself working close to 60 hours a week? Especially after having just barely recovered from a lower back hernia? Something very simple. I said yes to an interesting and challenging project. No more, no less. It would allow me to work (again) with people I know, like and admire for who they are. It’s about implementing a new IT support team and quite frankly, I happily said yes.

 

Me and My Project (1)

 

How do you work? What do you do when you work? Why do you work? These questions may seem irrelevant in a paragraph about Me and My Project, yet, are they? I sincerely wonder what you would answers to these questions.

When I tried answering these questions I came up with some interesting facts.

 

As I do not have your answers,

I can only give you mine.

 

And maybe then you will understand how the answers I came up with forced me to use this title for this paragraph.

 

Why do I work?

 

For lots of reasons. But definitely these:

  1. I need money to live the life I like to live
  2. I like to feel useful and contribute and all that
  3. I am a breadwinner. I cannot really send my cat out to work – sooo there is a ‘have to’ element
  4. I have been lucky and worked with some great people having a lot of fun doing what we were doing which is kind of addictive especially when you can do with the same crew

And I realised the last few days, being off ill at home with The Flu (yes, a 60hr work week is a sure recipe to contracting whatever flu is roaming about) – that…

 

There is another reason why I work

One that I like a lot less than those listed before.

 

I also work because of a subconscious belief that I am not allowed to BE unless I DO something.

 

How do I work?

 

It should really not be me writing up this paragraph but people who work(ed) with me and have observed me working. If I give it a shot, I’d say that I go into any job with all that I have. My enthusiasm, willingness to succeed, goal oriented, physical, mental and emotional energies, flexibility, caring, eagerness, drive, ambition, quickness, diligence and the list could go on.

 

All of these qualities contribute highly to making sure that the reasons listed above are met and that I do make a living. And in most instances, have fun, results and satisfied customers.

 

However, there is a side effect.

 

What do I do when I work?

 

It is this being-doing reason for working that sometimes interferes with making the right decision at the right moment.

This needs some explaining.

Being off ill with The Flu has had the positive side effect that in between sleeping and drinking loads of water to reboost myself into living again, I have been able to read “The Decisive Moment” by Jonah Lehrer (also see Books). Great piece of work! In it, he very successfully explains how our brain works when making decisions.

 

We may think we act rationally or intuit all our decisions using pure intuition… but we are constantly fooling ourselves.

 

How is this relevant to my being-doing revelation?

 

‘How’ I work is ok, until my brain starts ignoring simple facts because it has a certain belief it wants to continue believing. In my case, the belief that I need to DO something in order to BE.

 

PS. If you want to know more about how this works, go read Lehrer’s book. Not enough space here to explain the details and he does an excellent job at it!)

 

The net result?

 

Is that in cases where a lot of work needs to be done in short timeframe, my positive qualities turn into a headstrong bull and I keep going. No quitting. And while that makes me good at getting things done and a valuable ‘asset’ in especially those projects that have irreversible deadlines and where one just has to deal with what is, it is also a perfect recipe for potentially getting the one thing undone that matters most… myself.

 

Me and My Project (2)

 

Back to Me and My Project. As long as I continue to believe that I need to work in order to exist, there will always be something fundamentally flawed with some of the decisions I make. There will be some level of identification with ‘this thing called work’ that yes, ultimately is a very unhealthy thing to do. Initially just for me. But in the long run for everything else I am a part of. Every system. Be that friends, family or projects. Starting with a body that says no and ends up at home with The Flu to a total burn out which I had many years ago. I know all about that.

 

Fortunately, I like to learn new things

 

Which means that:

  • I have had a burnout once, know the signals and have never had one again;
  • I have learned to investigate my own beliefs and have become quite good at them, which helps to change them (using the growth mindset that Carol Dweck talks about);
  • I have learned to unwind and meditate, do yoga, go for walks, turn off my cell phone and more. This helps me with making sure that my being-doing belief no longer gets hold of me the way it used to.
  • Etcetera.

 

Back to the 4-hour workweek and 7-hour weekend

 

I am not sure which I prefer myself.

The 7-day weekend is about re-arranging your work in such a way that you experience a sense of freedom in your work that you normally associate with your weekend. The 4-hour workweek implies the creation of a means to make money so you can create a lifestyle that only takes you 4 hours of traditional work.

 

I have not yet achieved either of these. Have you? 

 

PS, I do like my life, and my work despite working more than 4 hours ;-D

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