A lmost exactly a year ago I wrote a post about my average working day. I thought that today it might be interesting to have a recap on what my hours are like now and how productive I’m being. Has anything changed? Let’s find out.
Working till 4:00am
Not that much has changed I’m afraid. The main thing I’ve discovered is that my productivity goes through cycles – and various international time-zones, as it turns out. Right now I’m on 8:30am to 1:00am, but from December till March I was on a fairly consistent 10:00am to 2:30am, sometimes even slipping into 11:30am to 4:00am.
Once I get into one of these cycles it’s very hard to break myself out of it. I tried for several months to force myself to work around ‘normal’ hours but I just ended slipping right back into my old pattern the next day. I’ve basically learned to accept this now.
It’s probably something that varies from person to person but I’ve found that I’m most productive if I don’t try to force myself in to any specific schedule. I’ve accepted my imperfections.
The Same Number of Hours or More
In the post last year a lot of you commented saying that it seemed like I had a very long working day. Well, not much has changed there either! Perhaps you were hoping that I’d be raving about being rich after a year and only working a couple of days a week?
Starting a business takes a lot of hard work and a ridiculous amount of drive. If you’re planning on leaving your job and working for yourself from nine to five, forget about it.
Several people have asked me how I’ve managed to get set up and land big clients like Virgin Atlantic and Ubisoft within 9 months. To be totally honest I don’t think I’m special and I certainly don’t think I have more talent than anyone else. However, I do think I’ve put in as much work over 12 months as some people put in over three years.
Someone who plays basketball every single day and night for twelve months will improve so much that their skill level will be equal to someone who just played for a couple of hours each Saturday for several years.
This is not speculation, you really need to ask yourself: “Is this what I really want? Am I willing to work as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life to get it?”
Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
That last part all sounded a bit serious, so let me lighten the mood a little. When I say to people “I usually work for around 16 hours a day.” They always have the same sort of reaction: “OMG No Wai?!” (or similar). The problem here is that when you say ’16 hours’ to most people they think about being in an office for 16 hours, being told what to do by their boss for 16 hours, sitting in silence and boredom for 16 hours. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
I work at home so I have silly comforts like being able to work in any sort of clothes, use my bathroom, my coffee, my kitchen. There’s no one to tell me what to do, or how to work. I have three monitors, so on many days I’ll sit at my desk with Twitter on one, the latest episode of Lost playing on another and my work in the last one. If I get bored of working on something, I just stop. I don’t have anyone looking over my shoulder, so if I feel like screwing around on YouTube for 2 hours then I do.
I work in a way that keeps me absolutely and totally content… does 16 hours still sound like a lot?
Let’s put it this way: If money was no object and I could live the rest of my life without needing to make any, what would I be doing? I’d be sitting at my computer, trying to come up with amazing new uses for the web, meeting excellent new people and relaxing doing my favourite things in between.
Oh… wait a second…
Conclusion
If you want to get anywhere in life then you’d better be prepared to work for it. No one is going to hand you anything on a plate – but if you find a job you love, then you’ll never “work” again.
If you work for yourself, what are your hours like? If you don’t, what do you imagine they would be like if you went freelance? Am I crazy?
Photo by Professor Batty
Great article John, as always. It’s good to know I am not the only one who gets into those kinda sleeping patterns! I am a bit better these days as I work full time, however it rarely stops when I get home so I find these days that I’m doing a kind of 9am – 11pm during the week and anything up to around 3am on weekends. It is a very different story when it comes to working solely for myself working days were extending to around 18-20 hour days (I used to have serious sleep issues) and I pretty much became a hermit during the week (and totally made up for it by partying all weekend). I like to think my hours have become better, but really they’ve just been put to better use.
Interesting article John, thank you.
As always there are pros and cons to working from home, which I’m sure most people will be aware of. I have no doubt that there are many cons, which you may not have mentioned here but have in other posts. Some which will require some very strong willpower and I’m sure freelancing isn’t for everyone. But, as you say, as long as you love what you are doing, and are serious in your focus then you may well work more hours than a 9-5…..and reap the rewards for your effort (financially, emotionally, sense of achievement etc.) I believe you ‘get out what you put in!’
I would be interested to know however, if at all possible, how freelancers fit family into the mix??
With difficulty ;)
my year and a half year old lives at home (which is a big reason why I choose to work at home), which can definitely be a pro and a con as far as work goes. While I love being home with him every day, some days you’re just not going to get much (if any) work done.
I typically work about 14 – 16 hours a day as well, which I find makes up for those days where I don’t get anything done.
I’d rather work long days and be at home than work short days (for someone else) at an office!
Hey John,
Interesting article. I swear that you working my dream hours. My question back to you is really the same as what Brussels asked.
My most productive time hits me at about 7pm. I get an amazing amount of work done between 7pm -> 3am. However, I have a girlfriend who… perhaps not entirely unreasonably… expects to see me when she gets off work. This means that I work the dreaded 7am->5pm. I then have to resist the urge to go back onto my computer as the evening sets in. I work really well up to midday and then I begin to struggle and work about half speed afterwards. (I am reading and commenting on a blog post a 2:50pm. Bang in my work day)..
I was just wondering how your family / girlfriend / whatever puts up with your unusual working hours? Of course my situation may be a bit different to you. My girlfriend is a bit of a technophobe and I am pretty sure she doesn’t entirely understand how one can work on a computer. (Took me 3 years to get her off IE and use ‘the one with a fox’ :S)
Haha! I do love the one with a Fox !
In fairness, my girlfriend gets FAR less attention than she deserves, and generally puts up with it very well (though she has her moments). Long term, I hope that all of this hard work now means I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with her (and others) in the future.
I too find myself working these odd shifts, when I’m not working from the office I’ll frequently do an 11am-3am shift, or until I get to the point where I’ve been staring at the screen for an hour and done practically nothing!
The problem is you can’t constrain motivation, bag it up and say “hey I’ll use that motivation between 9 and 5″.
Some days I’ll wake up and look at my to do list, and have no interest for anything on the list. I’ll go fo a run, have some lunch and kick back for a bit. Most of the time after an hour or so, I’ll get a great idea, or some renewed enthusiasm and I’ll immerse myself in a project for not only the rest of the day but most of the night too.
I’ll challenge you to find any web freelancer that for at least part of their career haven’t fallen into this way of working.
The fact is though if you’re happy in what you do, then why try and force yourself to change how you do it, even if it seems completely crazy to everyone else!
I have very similar working patterns.
I normally start at 10am and work through until 5.30 – 6pm. I then have a few hours off in the evening to spend time with my wife before inevitability fitting 3 or 4 more hours work in later in the evening. I normally end up working until about 2am and every week I tell myself I will try to work more traditional hours but it never happens…
I think part of the reason I’ve been working like this (for several years now) is because I get so much work done in the evenings. No phone calls, fewer emails, no client “emergencies” to deal with, just pure unadulterated work!
I find it quite relaxing in a bizarre way and I find productivity is twice as high than when I work during normal office hours. Viva the graveyard shift!
I too find myself working these odd shifts, when I’m not working from the office I’ll frequently do an 11am-3am shift, or until I get to the point where I’ve been staring at the screen for an hour and done practically nothing!
The problem is you can’t constrain motivation, bag it up and say “hey I’ll use that motivation between 9 and 5”.
Some days I’ll wake up and look at my to do list, and have no interest for anything on the list. I’ll go fo a run, have some lunch and kick back for a bit. Most of the time after an hour or so, I’ll get a great idea, or some renewed enthusiasm and I’ll immerse myself in a project for not only the rest of the day but most of the night too.
I’ll challenge you to find any web freelancer that for at least part of their career haven’t fallen into this way of working.
The fact is though if you’re happy in what you do, then why try and force yourself to change how you do it, even if it seems completely crazy to everyone else!
The problem is you can’t constrain motivation, bag it up and say “hey I’ll use that motivation between 9 and 5”.
Awesome job, I loved that!
If working part time, or working on the side (of another full time job) I think an element of pent up motivation being released at a specified time is the only way you can work. Only having an hour here and there focuses you on your to-do list and helps focus your time I feel (in this situation), but yes, there will be times, in those grabbed hours, when things just wont flow. Those hours need to be as far from distraction as possible though (emails, twitter, family….) to maximise the precious time.
Great Post,
I used to work from 10am~2am, but personal life caught up with me ;) My girlfriend get’s up at six in the morning, so I shifted my working hours to start earlier. Otherwise it’s not fair to the spouse ;)
I also keep changing my schedule to balance out efficiency and fun. One of my biggest personal pitfalls is that I have too much ideas and don’t finish them all. Working less hours makes you think twice about tasks and keeps you focused.
I’s an ongoing battle: Do you accomplish more by throwing in 60~80hrs per week, or by throwing in 30hrs of highly focused and efficient work?
Great article John, it’s a perfect summarization of the way we’ve been working in our own studio for the past 2 years and it’s nice to know we are no exception.
Hahaha I bet a lot of people would think staying up late working on stuff (that you love) sounds like hell, but it actually isn’t. Plus with all the freedom you have around your home office, its rather comforting to know that you can start and stop anytime you like.
I’m glad to hear you’re succeeding at your business, I think its a worthy cause to do something you’re passionate about in life. Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man wants to do.
crazy
John, you and I are quite similar in this way which I have to say was *really* helpful in the run up to the launch of the vtravelled blog. Having someone there to provide instant answers to my stream of 2am questions was a bloody bonus! My motivation to do pretty much everything starts to kick in sometime around 10pm and I always have to force myself to go to bed in order to get up at 6.30am for the day job. One of the things I struggle with most is trying to fit the writing/creative side of my job into a standard 9-5 working day – it’s just next to impossible to force yourself to be creative during set hours, especially when you have so many other distractions around you and you’re naturally a night owl – which is why I always end up working late at night on that kind of stuff. It’s not ideal but it’s a really hard habit to break.
It was quite handy wasn’t it? hehe, it was equally handy having you right there to bounce stuff off! I think the best thing really is to just figure out what works and do it – rather than spend a whole lot of time trying to do stuff to other people’s schedules (though admittedly this is a luxury afforded to few).
Inspiring post, John.
I currently have worked myself into a comfy situation where I’ve negotiated to only work 25 hours a week doing graphic work at a business that I like and a boss whom I respect and get along with and then I have my own graphic work on the side. So I’m kind of a part-time office worker/part-time freelancer – Not ready to make the jump yet.
What you say is true, when I’m not “at work” I’m constantly working. Either doing client work or developing my own business – I love it and I want to do it full-time!
You mention being able to be at home and be on Twitter, watch movies, etc. while you work. Those are great but one thing you didn’t mention is taking your work to go. I love taking my laptop to Starbucks, the mall, or whatever hotspot and getting stuff done in those environments. It’s so freeing. Yup, it may be 16 hours (for me, it’s probably more like 4-5 hours added onto my actual job) but it is the life.
Hi Travis, thanks for your comment! I didn’t mention remote working because I do very little (none) of it at the moment. Most of my work is design based and my 13″ Macbook Pro just isn’t quite big enough for that!
I’m currently working away from home with a 10″ Asus Eee. You can just about get some design work done if you zoom in and out a lot but it’s tough!
I try to fit work & home together too. Sometimes it fails but most of the time it works. I start early as I have to be up with the kids and I do work through generally but it’s nice that I can put a load of washing on if the day brightens up (note I said “if”).
Someone asked me what I would do if I won the lottery, I replied that I would carry on with my work as I enjoy it so much and it would be even better without the pressure to earn money :-)
Absolutely can relate to working 12+ hour days and I too confess to being a night owl not a lark – perhaps its my coffee addiction but my bodyclock seems to sound its alarm at midnight and I can work till 4am – I guess doing any online media job becomes addictive and my problem is knowing when to take exercise or factoring in small walks or a swim at my local pool – also eating habits can fluctuate – I think though as long as you have a quiet room in your house where you are not disturbed and have some relaxing music and plants in the work space then this kind of adds a ‘feng shui’ effect to the proceedings……I have a ‘no clutter’ policy and do my banking online, shopping online and have also stopped buying newspapers and magazines – I use FeedDemon to subscribe to my favourite blogs or news services to stay ahead of technology and competition and RSS Feeds make this amazingly easy if you use a service like Google Reader, NetVibes, FeedLounge etc
I agree that to work for yourself you have to have a certain degree of motivation. But I also think it works differently for everyone. Certainly there are people who need to work 16 hour days to make things work.
I believe anyone can be effective and achieve their goals by working a fraction of this time. And I think work also expands to fill the time. For me, I know that although I can maybe work a 14 hour day once or twice, if I carry on doing these hours I make great progress in the short term, but it soon impacts my health and after a couple of days I start to feel seriously ill.
There’s also an argument that if you achieve balance in your life, you’re a better everything – a better friend, developer, and overall human being. I know I’m going to be stoned to death for being a heretic, but I work for myself building my dream software application and it’s my goal to work 4 productive, focussed hours a day. I’ve just launched version 1 of my product and it’s shaping up to be a success. I also know another successful entrepreneur who works 4 hours a day. So I think it can work.
For me, I’m working for myself precisely so I can decide how many hours a week I want to work. If I stuck to some crazy schedule just because I felt I should, that would totally undermine my goals.
Some people like you can handle working 16 hour days. I don’t think most people can, long term. And I think there’s an argument to say you could work many less hours than this and still get the same amount of work done, just in a more focussed way.
Thanks for sharing and I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.