Haiku Productivity: Limit Your Work Week

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

What if you only worked 4 days a week? Or 5 days of 3 hours a week? Or whatever hours you decided?

Last week I talked about the fine art of limiting yourself in my new Haiku Productivity system. This week, let’s see how Haiku Productivity could be used to allow you to work less, be more effective, and free up more time for yourself.

I know, it sounds nice but unrealistic. But it doesn’t have to be, if you really want to control your work life. It depends on what you’re willing to do.

What I’ve Done
This is something I’ve been doing myself for the last couple of months, so I can share my experiences with you. I decided that I wanted to limit my work to three days a week, about half a day’s work for each of those three days.

I’ve pretty much done that, despite that I have a full-time job, I blog, and I do freelance writing.

I didn’t start by limiting myself to three days a week right away. I first tried to fit all my work into four days, and that was a challenge. Then I started eliminating some of my work, slowly, and that made things much better.

Now I’ve stacked everything into three days. That includes writing posts for Zen Habits (one half day), freelancing (two half days), and my regular work (interspersed among the other two). I’ve done that by eliminating some of my work in all three areas, down to the essential.

Now, I should confess that I do work more than those three half days. I do some work in the other halves of those three days, for example, and I do a little work on the two other weekdays. But my essential work is limited to those three half days, and the work I do outside those three half days consists of personal projects I want to do that I couldn’t do before (such as writing a book).

What do I do with the rest of my time? I respond to reader emails and comments, I work on other projects that I want to (including an upcoming ebook and a longer-term book project), I spend time with my family (I get off at 3 p.m. these days). I don’t do any work on weekends.

My work week isn’t exactly where I want it yet. I am working on quitting my day job (just want to save up a bigger emergency fund first) and I am working on getting to my ideal day. It’s a longer-term process than just setting limits and making the change overnight.

How to Do It
So how do you go about limiting your work week? The key is to set a limit, but how you go about achieving the limit is the hard part. Here are some suggestions:

First, set the limit. I suggest something like 4 days a week. But you might be ambitious and shoot for 3 or even less. Or you might go for 5 days a week, 6 hours each day. Whatever seems ideal to you, go for it!
Identify the essential. OK, if you have less time to do your work, how do you get that done? You have two choices: 1) work faster; or 2) do less work. I suggest taking the second option. You need to determine what exactly you really need to accomplish within the limits you’ve set for yourself. If you cut your work week by 20%, for example, you need to cut out 20% of your work. That means identifying what MUST be done, and what can be put off. Make a short list. Do what MUST be done first, and don’t putz around.
Eliminate the rest. If you have a short list of your essential tasks, take a look at what’s not essential. Is there any way to eliminate it? Delegate it? Outsource it? Delay it? Think hard about this, because if you can somehow eliminate 20% of your list, you’ve made huge strides to meeting your self-set limits.
Batch. If there’s something you do every day, consider batching it all into one day. For example, I was writing my Zen Habits posts every day, but now I do it all at once. And in truth, it saves me time. You could do that with almost anything. Same thing goes for something you do throughout the day, like email or phone calls. Consider batching tasks like that into one session per day.
Do it in stages. If you have a big cut in work hours as your goal, you might not be able to accomplish it all at once. I recommend a gradual change. First, set a smaller limit (maybe 1 hour less per day, for example, or only a half day on Fridays). Focus on making that first stage work, and when you’ve got that down, make further cuts. Keep doing this until you get to where you ultimately want to be.
Decide what to do with excess time. Setting limits on your work isn’t going to work if you don’t know what you want to do with that extra time. Decide on working 1 hour less each day? What are you going to do with that hour? It can be anything: fun projects, creating a side business, spending time with loved ones, reading, exercising, going to the beach, whatever. But set aside that block (or blocks) of time for something, and be sure to do it.
A note on communication. Whether it’s email, phone, IM, Skype, Twitter or whatever, you can fill your work day with communication tasks. It will fill the time alloted to it. Instead, allot a small amount of time for each vital communication method (30 minutes for IM, 30 minutes for phone, 1 hour for email, or whatever) and don’t allow anything outside of that limit.

What if I’m an Employee?
Most people don’t exactly control their work days or weeks. I understand that. I have more flexibility than most people, but that’s been something I’ve consciously developed, by changing my expectations and the expectations of my boss and the people around me. If they expect me to work 40 hours a week, then I have to do that. But if they expect me to do the essential work, and do it well, then it shouldn’t matter if I do that in 2 hours or 40.

However, I’ll acknowledge that not everyone has the luxury of flexibility that I do. So how can you apply Haiku Productivity to your work week in that case? It’s still possible, but it’s more limited. Here are some ideas:

Manage expectations. You need to start with a conversation with your boss about expectations he or she has of your work. What is it that they really want you to accomplish? Is it so important where or how or how long it takes for you to accomplish that? If you are able to do it from home, or in fewer hours, would that matter? Talk about wanting to be more productive, which doesn’t mean producing more, but producing more important stuff. And then make that happen. If you can change the expectations that people have of you, you are well on your way.
Use free time for other projects. You might be able to free up time by limiting your work to 6 hours a day (for example). But perhaps you can’t just leave work after 6 hours. Instead, use the extra time for new projects (work-related or otherwise, depending on the flexibility you have) that you’ve wanted to work on but couldn’t. I used to use that free time for freelance writing, but my working conditions have become more flexible since then.
Work from home. If you can work from home, you’re set. You need to show your boss, through a one or two day trial run, that you can actually produce more from home. Know what your boss wants you to complete for that day, and do that and more. Once you get approved to telecommute, you can then set your work hours. Just be sure to get the work done, but how you do that is up to you.
Move to task goals, not time goals. This goes back to managing expectations, but you want your boss to set goals for you that are based on tasks or projects, not on how long you work. If you can do that, you have taken a big step towards being able to limit your work hours.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

See also:

Haiku Productivity: Limit Your Work Week

Photo by Mike9Alive

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

What if you only worked 4 days a week? Or 5 days of 3 hours a week? Or whatever hours you decided?

I know, it sounds nice but unrealistic. But it doesn’t have to be, if you really want to control your work life. It depends on what you’re willing to do.

I’ve pretty much done that, despite that I have a full-time job, I blog, and I do freelance writing.

How to Do It
So how do you go about limiting your work week? The key is to set a limit, but how you go about achieving the limit is the hard part. Here are some suggestions:

First, set the limit. I suggest something like 4 days a week. But you might be ambitious and shoot for 3 or even less. Or you might go for 5 days a week, 6 hours each day. Whatever seems ideal to you, go for it!
Identify the essential. OK, if you have less time to do your work, how do you get that done? You have two choices: 1) work faster; or 2) do less work. I suggest taking the second option. You need to determine what exactly you really need to accomplish within the limits you’ve set for yourself. If you cut your work week by 20%, for example, you need to cut out 20% of your work. That means identifying what MUST be done, and what can be put off. Make a short list. Do what MUST be done first, and don’t putz around.
Eliminate the rest. If you have a short list of your essential tasks, take a look at what’s not essential. Is there any way to eliminate it? Delegate it? Outsource it? Delay it? Think hard about this, because if you can somehow eliminate 20% of your list, you’ve made huge strides to meeting your self-set limits.
Batch. If there’s something you do every day, consider batching it all into one day. For example, I was writing my Zen Habits posts every day, but now I do it all at once. And in truth, it saves me time. You could do that with almost anything. Same thing goes for something you do throughout the day, like email or phone calls. Consider batching tasks like that into one session per day.
Do it in stages. If you have a big cut in work hours as your goal, you might not be able to accomplish it all at once. I recommend a gradual change. First, set a smaller limit (maybe 1 hour less per day, for example, or only a half day on Fridays). Focus on making that first stage work, and when you’ve got that down, make further cuts. Keep doing this until you get to where you ultimately want to be.
Decide what to do with excess time. Setting limits on your work isn’t going to work if you don’t know what you want to do with that extra time. Decide on working 1 hour less each day? What are you going to do with that hour? It can be anything: fun projects, creating a side business, spending time with loved ones, reading, exercising, going to the beach, whatever. But set aside that block (or blocks) of time for something, and be sure to do it.
A note on communication. Whether it’s email, phone, IM, Skype, Twitter or whatever, you can fill your work day with communication tasks. It will fill the time alloted to it. Instead, allot a small amount of time for each vital communication method (30 minutes for IM, 30 minutes for phone, 1 hour for email, or whatever) and don’t allow anything outside of that limit.

Manage expectations. You need to start with a conversation with your boss about expectations he or she has of your work. What is it that they really want you to accomplish? Is it so important where or how or how long it takes for you to accomplish that? If you are able to do it from home, or in fewer hours, would that matter? Talk about wanting to be more productive, which doesn’t mean producing more, but producing more important stuff. And then make that happen. If you can change the expectations that people have of you, you are well on your way.
Use free time for other projects. You might be able to free up time by limiting your work to 6 hours a day (for example). But perhaps you can’t just leave work after 6 hours. Instead, use the extra time for new projects (work-related or otherwise, depending on the flexibility you have) that you’ve wanted to work on but couldn’t. I used to use that free time for freelance writing, but my working conditions have become more flexible since then.
Work from home. If you can work from home, you’re set. You need to show your boss, through a one or two day trial run, that you can actually produce more from home. Know what your boss wants you to complete for that day, and do that and more. Once you get approved to telecommute, you can then set your work hours. Just be sure to get the work done, but how you do that is up to you.
Move to task goals, not time goals. This goes back to managing expectations, but you want your boss to set goals for you that are based on tasks or projects, not on how long you work. If you can do that, you have taken a big step towards being able to limit your work hours.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

See also:

Posted on 24 September 2007 in Productivity & Organization, Simplicity |
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Comments (30)

andrew Says:

September 24th, 2007, 5:55 am

Leo, I have no doubt you’ll reach you’re ideal day. I have to strongly agree with your point on task goals rather than time goals. What you get done is more important than how long you work :)

Stephen Says:

September 24th, 2007, 8:43 am

I wish I could do something like this, but as a consultant, it’s about the work you do AND the time you put in, since we bill our client by the hour.

It’s not so bad though. I am eligible for overtime bonuses as a salaried employee, which none of my friends that are employed have as a benefit =)

andrew Says:

September 24th, 2007, 9:53 am

Billable Hours…gotta love consultants :)

Grey Says:

September 24th, 2007, 10:53 am

This has sooo been my mission for a few weeks now.

I’ve been keeping a daily log of my activities for the past week or so to see where all my office time goes. I’m self-employed, and it seems there is never enough of me to go around.

Email is a horrid timekiller. I’m learning (slowly) to check it only at noon, and 4:00.

From there, I am working on creating a job description for someone who doesn’t need a whole lot of training, but can handle some paperwork that eats up about 15 hours of my week. Billing, burning backup DVDs, filing, mailings, even writing my proposals if I just feed them the price should all save me tons of time. Be great if they don’t mind going to the grocery store, too.

My goal is 4 days a week. I was working six. Better already!

Adrian Koh (www.couplehood.net) Says:

September 24th, 2007, 10:53 am

I’d love to work from home, and put in about 4 days of paid work (ideally) so that I’ll have time to spend building my family (I get married December 1st this year!) That’ll really help me get away from being an employee, to building my own business.

Leo, could you share how long it took from the time you started out to now? I’m interested to see how I could plan over the next 5 years.

Empress Juju Says:

September 24th, 2007, 11:19 am

I’m also paid by the hour, so working less means making less.

But I’m learning to stack jobs geographically so that I spend less time on the road, and to consider the energy investment required (passing on high-profile, stressful jobs that don’t pay more than the low-key gigs, for example). And I do limit the hours that I’m willing to work (not before 10, so I have my mornings to myself).

At home, batching has really helped streamline my free time: I pull a week’s worth of outfits on Sunday, and prepare meals for the week, so that all my free time isn’t spent in service to my job!

Thomas Enever Says:

September 24th, 2007, 11:34 am

My wife is pregnant and when we have the baby we are planning to change from five to four day weeks each, with one day working at home each leaving us only one day where we will need to pay for daycare… and we are going to try and avoid that if we can. This is only a possibility because of the flexibility of our jobs, both are desk and phone (administrative) jobs all we need is the Internet to stay productive.

Pril Says:

September 24th, 2007, 12:08 pm

this makes me jealous! I so wish i had a job that would be flexable with my time! I have asked and shown how it would work but they want that body here!
eerr that just sucks

Van Says:

September 24th, 2007, 12:21 pm

I made a huge move in my life in the past months, that involved quitting to my old slavery job, and starting a new job from home, though I’m still employed, have to fill in the 8 hrs of day shift, and sometimes.. as it is this web design/development job, you know when you start, but don’t know when you’ll finish… it’s something sad and bad for my body and mind, I’m fully aware to that because I’ve lived the consequences. The problem to try to set up a personal schedule in a job where you have to deal with a established time shift and adding the plus of a deadline within a week for a major website, having few weeks to develop it completely new… its not easy to set a real change of routine… Though i try it.. but it’s quite impossible, at least right now.. So far I have in mind someday to start my own business where I’d have complete control of my time.. and as a plus I add.. yes I completely agree with tasks goals, rather than time goals… i guess it’s because of that point that i can’t really measure my time when working.. If something has to be done.. it just has to be done.

Eat Your Elephant Says:

September 24th, 2007, 15:30 pm

Great article! I like the approach form the beginning. Might help to write that limit down once you set it…

Chris in Colorado Says:

September 24th, 2007, 15:57 pm

Notice this will mostly involve women who have this choice.

Jason (www.DownWithCorporate.com) Says:

September 24th, 2007, 16:28 pm

Great concept! Many people working the typical 40 hour work week put in 40 hours because that’s what’s expected, not what is actually needed to get their job done.

Kudo’s to those who can pull this off!

Grey Says:

September 24th, 2007, 16:36 pm

Chris in Colorado, I disagree. I think women have less choice - many of them work full time and then have a house to run (laundry, cooking, cleaning) plus kids to take care of. Most of them have so much of their “free time” spent helping at a community center or church as well. I think women have the hardest time keeping the work/life balance going.

Leo Says:

September 24th, 2007, 19:02 pm

@Stephen: As a freelancer, I have similar issues … working less can mean making less. However, I’ve solved that problem by slowly increasing my rates and cutting back my work. :)

@Pril: Well, I believe anyone can get this kind of flexibility. You just have to want it, keep an open mind, and consider all options. For example, you can always get a new job, become a freelancer, start your own business, or work out a different arrangement with your current employer.

@Chris in Colorado: I’m not sure I understand why women would be more likely to be able to limit their work week than men … perhaps you could elaborate?

@Adrian Koh: Hmmm … I think it’s been a gradual thing for me, now that I think back. For example, when I took my current job (about 2 years ago), I told them that in order to hire me at the salary they were offering, they would need to allow me the flexibility to do freelance work outside of the office … either that or pay me more. They opted for the flexibility … which is how I can decide how my work week will go.

When I first started this arrangement (again, nearly 2 years ago), I did a lot of freelance writing. A high volume, at low rates. Since then, I’ve transitioned to freelance work that pays better (higher rates) so that I can do less of it. That allows me to blog.

The blog, of course, has become a third source of income for me, which allows me to freelance less.

When I decided to work 4 days a week … and this was about 4 months ago … I decided to blog a little less, raise my freelance rates, and cut out time-wasters as much as I could.

In the last month, I decided to make it 3 days a week … and really only about half a day on each of those 3 days. I’ve had to become more focused, but I’ve pretty much made that work. I’m not exactly there yet, but I’m pretty close.

This free time has allowed me to work on new projects … again, I’m working on a book, and possibly starting a second blog.

Gradual transitions, but it’s possible. You can decide your work day and your work week, but you have to want it, and keep your options open. And set limits, and figure out how to work within those limits.

Allese Says:

September 24th, 2007, 19:25 pm

This is such an inspiring post! One I really needed to read- cheers to you! And thank you!

Littlepixel Says:

September 24th, 2007, 19:45 pm

@ Grey. What Century are you living in? Laundry? Church? All this while the man is presumably drinking a gin cocktail and demanding his pot roast.

Keane Says:

September 24th, 2007, 20:28 pm

I used to be an entrepreneur in college, but now that I’m out, I don’t have the luxury to work for myself any longer. I think this post only pertains to people who either blog for a living, work for themselves, or have a job that isn’t client oriented. I work in marketing, and maintaining a client-agency relationship as well as managing projects is anything but a 3 day a week job, let alone a 4 day a week job. For entrepreneurs, this is a great post. But for jobs that take up lots of time, require continual communication, interpersonal relations and constant meetings, I don’t think it really pertains. Or maybe I’m missing the point…

Evelyn Vincent Says:

September 24th, 2007, 20:53 pm

I just discovered your website/blog - terrific!

I especially enjoyed this article, I’m been pondering a plan of action to bring more structured prductivity into my worrk week.

Having my own business will allow me to take full advantage of the principles you speak of. I have one item left to do today - and then - I will sit down with pen & paper and map out that which I do want to achieve.

Big thanks for the ideas!

Warren Greeley Says:

September 24th, 2007, 21:08 pm

Many people assume that they are confined to an office for 40 hours a week even if they are working on salary. This post is right. If you have a good boss at least, you can set terms of project completion instead of time worked. Cause time isn’t everything when confined to a small space for too much of it.

Peter (www.iwillchangeyourlife.com) Says:

September 24th, 2007, 22:07 pm

This is inspirational. Leo I have followed your blog for some time now and it is fascinating to see how you are creating the life you want.

Since becoming a dad I have become a firm believer in the idea of “time affluence”. I want to be around to see my children grow up. Since realizing this, I have taken various steps to change my life so that one day I will be time affluent.

Grey Says:

September 25th, 2007, 6:58 am

@ Littlepixel - LOL - I used church as an example. Though, I admit I have moved to a VERY Baptist area (it’s really kind of scary) so that’s why it came to mind too. A lot of mothers I know actually spend their free time teaching classes at the Y or helping at their child’s school or something.
And laundry, ah, that is like the poor. It will always be with you.

GreatManagement Says:

September 25th, 2007, 9:19 am

Great post with lots of great ideas and tips.

One area I’d like to add is in my experience: individuals like to be seen to be busy working long hours and/or they feel they have to work long hours; especially the employed. Both are all in the mind and this makes individuals look for work to make themselves busy or fill 40 - 50 hours per week. Working long hours may be necessary, short-term, to meet an urgent project but should not become standard.

You don’t need to work long hours to have a successful career but you do have to deliver. Being seen being busy is not going to get you that promotion so only fill your time with actions which help the delivery or outcome.

Andrew

Adrian Koh (www.couplehood.net) Says:

September 25th, 2007, 10:12 am

@ Leo: Thanks for the advice! Greatly encouraged.

chris Says:

September 25th, 2007, 11:01 am

You could always just not show up for work. Then you’d be fired and then you would have even more free time. Perfect.

How can it not matter if you get done in 2 hours or forty hours? That’s a ridiculous statement. If it’s a 2 hour job that took you all week, you should be fired. If it’s a forty hour job you did in two hours, you probably didn’t do it right.

And if they are paying by assignment, that’s a totally different thing. I get paid by the hour.

Leo Says:

September 25th, 2007, 14:58 pm

@chris: I think you misunderstand … if you can do a job in less time, but do it well, it shouldn’t matter how many hours you spend doing it. I’d like to hear an argument to the contrary.

If you are paid by the hour, you could follow some of the tips in the last section of the article. Or don’t follow the tips at all … they’re just suggestions for people who are interested in reducing their work. If you’re not interested, move on.

Perfect Life Project Says:

October 2nd, 2007, 22:52 pm

Reducing my work hours has been my biggest accomplishment this year in my quest for my Perfect Life.

I have managed to go from an overworked, stressed out business owner to a rather blissed out person in a matter on months. I now only work 4 hours per day, 5 days per week, but often spend one of those days well away from the office.

I have also managed to convince myself that its OK to take holidays. So far I have managed 2 weeks in Queensland (Australia) and 10 days in Thailand (since May). I will spend the next two months at work then take 6 weeks off to ski in Colorado and visit San Francisco. Not long after that I am travelling to Sabah Borneo for a week and have plans for another Australian Island holiday to round out a great 12 months.

By the way…business has never been better. I just prioritise, focus on whats important and concentrate woork into dynamic blocks of time so I can enjoy the free time I have created more.