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My experience echoes this. I really believe there is a fixed limit to the amount of work one can do and once you cross that line, you just end up goofing off o
by mattm 16y ago
My experience echoes this. I really believe there is a fixed limit to the amount of work one can do and once you cross that line, you just end up goofing off or procrastinating. And it's nowhere near 40 hours per week. I would say it's more like 20-30.
The 40 hour work week is standard because Henry Ford's productivity studies found that for repetitive, manual labour, that was the maximum amount of hours one could work before a drastic reduction in productivity. That bar was set nearly 100 years ago and yet we still follow it even though work has drastically changed.
I never understand people who work insane hours. They may be at work for X hours per day but I really doubt they are working all that time.
- kjhgfgbhnj 16y agoIronically the 40hour week in America came about because it was MORE efficient than working 6day weeks - in fewer hours you got more done with the weekend to rest. Then somebody forgot this and decided that if 40 was good 48 must be better.
- bpyne 16y agoI saw a PBS documentary sometime in the early 90's about the Labor Movement in the US. Just after getting the 40 hour work week, they pushed for 32 hours because it was found to be optimal. Industrialists fought harder against that one so Congress felt it was a worthy compromise to leave at 40. I'd love to find the study the Labor Movement based its conclusion on. My own experience is that I'm maximally focused for 6 hours each day but it's split into 2-3 hour bursts.
- hackerblues 16y agoI have the same experience as a mathematics grad student. After two or three hours I run out of focus and need to go for a walk + food.
- bpyne 16y agoI noticed the same thing when I was a math undergrad. While working on proofs for Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis, I couldn't go more than a couple of hours.