Rethinking The Workweek: Finding Your Productivity Sweet Spot

Everyone over the age of 23 knows there are always more tasks than hours in the day. If you have children or elderly parents to care for, that to-do list increases tenfold. But underlying all that are career pressures and the need to find creative novelty and fulfillment in your work. We have to pay bills today while striving for something better, building our skills and competence, with hope that it will lead to bigger and more exciting adventures.

Recently, I was thinking about Sergey Brin asking employees to clock in for 60 hours per week, citing that number as the "sweet spot" for productivity. Many people, myself included, bristled at such a ridiculous statement. Extensive research has shown that you experience diminishing returns far before hitting 60 hours. And even if you have enough energy to fill that many hours, it's often simply not realistic to show up for six ten-hour days every week without hired help to manage the chores that pile up in life.

How Much Is Enough?

For a person who values craftsmanship and enjoys creative challenges, what is the sweet spot? The 8-hour day, 5-day week became standard thanks to the early 1900s labor movement. But this baseline wasn't just a kindness to workers: Henry Ford found that 40 hours per week seemed to maximize manufacturing output.

The world has changed dramatically since manufacturing dominated the American economy—is that number still optimal? In the book Laziness Does Not Exist, the author states "Research on productivity, burnout, and mental health all suggest that the average workday is far too long, and that other commitments that we often think of as normal, such as a full course load at college or a commitment to weekly activism, are not sustainable for most people."

Similar insights appear in the book Rest, which first enlightened me to the reality that you accomplish more when you're fresh and excited about work rather than forcing yourself through a weekly death march.

So if 8 hours per day is too much, what is the right amount? Stephen King maintains his prolific output by writing 4 hours per day, 7 days a week. I'll save you some basic math: that's only 28 hours per week. Far less than Sergey Brin's "sweet spot," and I'd put King's output on par with any dedicated career-focused individual.

One difference between these two examples is that King doesn't have as many meetings as a typical corporate employee. He works alone, so the level of communication and coordination isn't the same. Accounting for additional meetings and busywork, I'd add another 2-3 hours per day as necessary to progress in the corporate world.

A New Maker's Schedule

My proposal for myself and for you is this: work no more than 7 hours per day, and ideally clock off after 5-6 hours on most days. This gives you 4 hours of dedicated deep work (the maximum you can really sustain for any challenging endeavor), and another 2-3 for meetings and necessary busywork.

Every quarter, take at least one full week off. This will help you step back and really consider whether your day-to-day tasks are actually the most fulfilling for your life.

Put the rest of your time into maintaining your health, spending time with loved ones, catching up on chores, reading a good book, and prioritizing quality sleep. You might accomplish a little less on any given day, but your output over a decade or a lifetime will be far greater.

Try this and let me know if you truly don't find a deeper sense of happiness, peace, and expanded creative output.