Give Yourself Permission to Work Fewer Hours

This article was published in Harvard Business Review, a credible and valuable source in the field of business.

Author: Elizabeth Grace Saunders

In 2007 I decided enough was enough. I had been running my own business for a couple of years, and I constantly felt stressed. I had no clear boundaries between work and personal time, and I rarely stopped working without feeling guilty. Although I enjoyed my work and was compensated well for it, the constant stress of overwork prevented me from feeling like a real success.

That year was a turning point for me. I made some changes in the way I worked, bringing down my hours from about 60 per week to 50. Over the subsequent years, I gradually reduced my hours to 40 per week. And even though I was working less, I was increasing my revenue.

Through my own experience and in my work coaching clients on time management, I’ve seen a strong correlation between poor time management, working longer hours, and feeling stressed. It’s due to the tension where, intellectually, you desire to work fewer hours but, emotionally, it just doesn’t seem appropriate. You feel as if you’re already behind, so working fewer hours would only make the situation worse.

You can revise the way you work so that you gradually cut down on your hours. It’s not easy at first, and reaching your goal may take a few months. But by managing your time differently, you can work more effectively in less time, discover a renewed passion for your job, and improve your health—especially in terms of sleep and exercise, better relationships, and overall peace of mind. Follow these steps.

What does the end of your workday look like?

Begin by evaluating how you currently decide when to stop working. People often stop when they feel too tired to continue or they observe their colleagues stop. But these signals aren’t helpful. Working to exhaustion means you’re less productive when you are working, and it can also mean you don’t have the energy to enjoy your time outside of work. Basing your hours on a colleague’s is dangerous because you’re putting your time in someone else’s hands (someone who may or may not be working effectively).

Establish a weekly hourly goal

Set a target range of hours you want to work in a given time period—for example, 45–50 hours per week—and use that number as a stopping point. If choosing a weekly range is overwhelming, start small by focusing on an incremental goal, like leaving 15 minutes earlier each day. Determine the tasks you need to accomplish on a weekly and daily basis within this schedule to feel comfortable ending your work on time.

Evaluate yourself

Once you’re aiming to meet your new target, observe how you work. If you find yourself planning your time but are still working late into the night or on weekends, identify what’s hindering you from working your preferred number of hours. Maybe you’re in meetings most of the day or get interrupted constantly, so dedicated project work only happens after everyone leaves. Or perhaps a project is understaffed and you’re working multiple jobs.

Find the root cause

Identifying the problem allows you to figure out how to overcome it. For example, if you’re faced with endless meetings, control the flow by blocking out chunks of time during the week for focused work. For many managers I’ve coached, this one simple strategy is the difference between working most nights and wrapping up on time. If in-person interruptions cause the largest delay in your work, close your office door during set times of day, work from home one day a week, or (if your company allows it) slightly stagger your hours from the norm so that you’re not in the office during peak times. If the interruptions are digital, shut down instant messages and turn off email alerts during part or all of your day so you can focus on important projects instead of being pulled into urgent tasks.

If your overload happens due to the lack of staff on a project, ask for more people or resources. There may not be enough funding for additional head count, but if you ask around, you may discover that a colleague has some excess time or there may be some budget for temporary staff. If that doesn’t work, negotiate extensions of your deadlines, table certain projects for now, or delegate projects to someone else.

Be transparent

You might have some awkward moments when someone is surprised that you declined a project or asked to extend a deadline. But being honest with people about what you can or can’t get done within the hours you have allows you to work more effectively and enjoy your work in the process.

Front-load your week—and your days

If all this fails and you still can’t find enough time, you may need to revisit your planning. Front-load your most important projects. Put in your priorities early in the day or week to make progress on them before the last minute and end work on time without feeling stressed. For example, I plan to complete all of my most important items by Thursday morning so that if anything unexpected comes up (which it usually does), I can wrap up by Friday at 5 p.m. as planned.

Practice self-care

Once you have these practical strategies in place, your emotions are the final element you need to address. You’re used to working longer hours, so even when you’ve completed your most critical items, inevitably you’ll think of other things to do. You may feel uncomfortable telling yourself to stop working. When I first decided to limit my hours, I felt as if I was having withdrawal symptoms. My thoughts would return to what needed to be done next, even though I knew it was time to clock out.

Despite this anxiety, I made myself stop. I committed to an exercise class, to meeting with friends, or to taking on a personal project so that I knew I had to leave. After a few weeks of doing this (and discovering that nothing horrible happened), I became less emotionally resistant to the reduced hours. What’s more, those personal commitments made me realize what I’d be losing if I kept working beyond those hours.

With the right strategies and commitment, you can reduce your hours and still get your work done—without the stress.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the author of How to Invest Your Time Like Money (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015), a time coach, and the founder of Real Life E Time Coaching & Training. Find out more at www.RealLifeE.com.