Does it really matter how many hours a productive person works? Have we all been taught wrong about what it means to be productive? Here’s the thing, we’ve all been taught that hours tied to active work are tied to our performance and self-worth. That the x amount of hours we work, the more valuable we become to ourselves and those around us.
But what happens when someone ventures out on their own and finds they get more done in the least amount of hours and still produce compelling results? Often this person will struggle to feel like they have achieved anything worthwhile due to the least amount of time it took to complete the task.
An example…
Blair is a baker
She works early mornings producing products for her customers. She gets up at dawn, pours herself a cup of coffee, and starts baking for the next couple of hours.
Depending on the recipe’s complexity, she usually finds herself finished with the actual application of baking her products before noon.
If she weren’t working for herself, a boss would argue that she should find other things to do with her time and continue to bake, even though her customers are satisfied and the cases are filled with delicious cakes and pastries.
Instead, Blair finds that her time is better spent in the library each day after she finishes baking. Time spent going through a stack of cookbooks, mentally cataloging forms and techniques to apply to her products.
But make no mistake Blair didn’t always see her time spent at the library as a productive use of her time. Instead, she struggled with not being in the kitchen baking her heart out.
It took time for Blair to adapt from a world where hours are tied to performance to a world where customers are satisfied as long as the product is delivered to their expectations, even if the hours were less.
“The willingness to work as many hours as necessary was an asset in starting a business but eventually it hindered the business. I think I’m more useful if I can sit and read like it’s my job, which it is now” — Blair
She had to unlearn and redefine what it meant to be a productive person, untie her performance and self-worth to hours on a clock, and instead embrace her new way of work-life balance.
Some of the most productive people put in fewer hours of active work than their counterparts
No, it’s not because they’re lazy or don’t have much to do with their time, but because they have found what works for their goals and productivity range.
Take me, for instance. I often feel conflicted when I can finish an article within an hour while others spend several hours perfecting their article.
I find doing the active part long enough to create a decent read for my readers, and then reading up for the next day’s material is better than spending several hours writing and not having material for the following article.
Productive people have learned that being effective does not mean that every task is of active creation. As long as what is learned is practically applied within a reasonable time frame, that matters more than wasting valuable time to look and seem busier than others.
President Abraham Lincoln said it best….
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
The four hours out of the six are spent sharpening the axe, while the last two are spent on active work.
Final words
Being productive does not mean spending hours on a project if it can be done in two. If the results are compelling and aligned with the outcome of your goals, that matters far more than the hours you put in.
Blair learned that her customers didn’t care how many hours went into baking her cakes as much as they cared about the delivery of the product. As long as her products meet expectations, she knows her time is spent best in the library, continuously learning new techniques to become a better baker.
The Broke College Student 
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