Cut 2 Hours Off Your Work Day
Work smarter, not harder
Your job doesn’t love you.
You like the people at your job. You make good money. Your job makes you feel important. You are proud of the work that you do.
But when it comes down to it, if you were to leave that company or get fired, someone else would step in quite quickly.
In your job, you are replaceable.
My friend David worked at an airline for 3 decades. He woke up every day at 4 am, drove 30 minutes to the airport, and put in 12 hours of work before heading home. He eventually became a senior manager, and he made good money. He loved his job. Suddenly, one year, he died of cancer. The company did not miss a beat. He was replaced within hours of his departure. A few colleagues appeared at his funeral. Sure, there were sad faces in the hallways over the following days, but then it was back to business as usual.
In the end, his colleagues turned out to be mostly just colleagues. His job was just a job. His influence on the industry was fleeting. For all those years, he had traded away time with his family for time with his job, and it turned out, David’s job didn’t love him at all.
Learning from David, we should all probably spend less time at our jobs, and more time with our family. Believe it or not, it is possible to do this without affecting the amount of money we take home each week.
Add this to your workday
Your average workweek may appear to be 40 hours, but do you actually think that you spend just 40 hours in work mode? That is unlikely. To your workday, you should add your preparation time. You should add your commute to and from the office. You should add the work you do before and after hours.
All of this energy is spent primarily for the benefit of your company.
A 2014 study calculated the average American workweek at 47 hours. When you add in those other hours, it’s probably more. It makes sense that if we want to increase the amount of time we spend with our loved ones, we must find a way to reduce the amount of unnecessary time we spend at work.
How I cut 2 hours off my workday
I used to be like my friend David. A great portion of my day was spent at work. Even now, I still have to put in more hours at the office than I would like. For people like me, who don’t have the option to work from home, there is another solution:
I found a job that is 3 minutes away from my house.
It wasn’t easy for me, and I’m not suggesting it will be easy for you. You may have to move houses. You may have to change companies. In the end, it could be worth it as you will increase your personal time.
I am telling you now that there has been a dramatic change in the quality of my own life as a result of reducing my commute. You can have the same benefits:
- Reduction in commute to work: I saved 30 minutes
- Reduction in commute from work: I saved 30 minutes
- Reduction in time physically at work: I saved 1 hour by coming home for lunch. (Yes, I do spend my lunch hour at home. Doing this helps me to recharge for the second part of my day)
In total, my workday has been reduced by 2 hours from when I was in my previous job. It is life-changing. Not only has my time at work reduced, but the mental energy that I spend on work has reduced. My wife notices it. My kids notice it. My friends and extended family notice it.
The takeaway
In our society, we devote a lot of our time to our jobs. Maybe too much.
We sacrifice time with our family because of meetings, and presentations, and work trips.
We don’t need to do that. At some point, we have to be satisfied with the amount of money that we are taking home, and we should refocus our energy on finding ways to truly enjoy our time with the people that mean the most to us.
Change your focus away from the pursuit of more and more money. Instead, search for ways to create more time for yourself and for your loved ones.
One way to do this is to find work at a location that is very near to your home.
You can easily save hours each day by doing this. It can make a dramatic improvement to the quality of time that you spend with the people you love.
And when we, like my friend David, eventually come to the end of our lives, isn’t that the most important thing?
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