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This is the correct answer. The number of hours you can be productive is limited. Frontload your hobbies before work. Interestingly enough you won't underperfor

This is the correct answer. The number of hours you can be productive is limited. Frontload your hobbies before work. Interestingly enough you won't underperform at work as much as you would think. For me it used to be work 100%, hobbies 0-10%. By frontloading my hobbies and doing them first, it's now work 90%, hobbies 90%. A good net gain. At the same time my happiness has increased by a good 20%, because as you know, no one feels great watching TV for 3 hours. The reason why this works is, if you work like a semi-normal human even if you are tired you will do the thing. However hobbies, being "optional" you will skip. By flipping things around you still have that push to perform well at work, so it stays relatively the same. By the way, with kids, frontloading becomes even more important. Edit: I try to have 5 main todos every day. 1 work, 4 hobbies. It averages out to about 11 hours (work being 8). I use my "hour" of lunch to play guitar, which is another hobby of mine, but it's the only time I can squeeze it in.

AstralStorm 6y ago
This is why companies enforce early morning hours so you cannot do this. It's literally physically impossible. And/or will ruin your social life since you will be sleeping when others are socializing. Any bright ideas to apply when you have to run to work early?
- kyoob 6y ago
  Pick up a hobby you can do on the train or bus. Books and learning apps like the OP mentioned are ideal for this.
- giantg2 6y ago
  I know people that wake up at 3-4am to do their farm work before heading to their day job. You will end up going to sleep earlier though. But for some people, that's what it takes.
- prohobo 6y ago
  Is there evidence for your claim? Not trying to argue against it, but it'd be interesting to know if work culture literally tries to sabotage personal development in order to squeeze out more productivity from employees.
  - blankaccount 6y ago
    It doesn't have to be framed so negatively. Companies want to buy your prime time, and the market is priced for prime time hours.
TechBro8615 6y ago
> Interestingly enough you won't underperform at work as much as you would think. I don't believe this, and I don't see how it squares with "the number of hours you can be productive is limited." If I'm paying an employee $150k, and he says "the number of hours I can be productive is limited," and then I hear he's waking up early before work to put in 3 hours on a personal project... I'm going to assume that means I'm losing somewhere approaching 3 hours of his productivity.
- adkadskhj 6y ago
  > I don't believe this, and I don't see how it squares with "the number of hours you can be productive is limited." If i had to guess, i'd say people don't perform well for 8 hours a day. A significant portion of people's butt-in-chair is just that, a butt in the chair. For sake of discussion, lets say only 5 hours of real work is done during that 8 hour stint. So i think the real question is does 2 hours of side-work before the 8 hour butt-in-chair impact the 5 hours of primary-work? Because if 3 hours are wasted in your 8 hour butt-in-chair, they _might_ not matter where the waste/mental-breaks/whatever are allocated. Ie, if you mentally need a break from the 2 hours of work, during your butt-in-chair time, perhaps that's a net-wash with other time-wasting behaviors already taking place. All hypothetical of course. I do know that i've seen numerous studies about how efficient we actually are over 8 hours of butt-in-chair. It's not pretty.
- doctorbuttes 6y ago
  Good thing what he does outside of work isn't any of your business. We should make decisions based on outcomes rather than our assumptions.
  - TechBro8615 6y ago
    Fine. Then when his performance declines it's going to be the first thing I ask him about. My point is more about the juxtaposition of saying "I have limited productive hours in a day" and "because of that, I'm going to spend them before my paid job."
    - 6y ago
sancho_panza 6y ago
I started waking up 2 hours before work for avocational activities, and that gradually became 4 hours before. I feel as sharp as a razor once I wake up. Granted, I have to be asleep by 10, but I don't stress about working on my side projects after 9 hours of work. I can fill that time with audio books, cooking and working out.

AstralStorm 6y ago

This is why companies enforce early morning hours so you cannot do this. It's literally physically impossible. And/or will ruin your social life since you will be sleeping when others are socializing. Any bright ideas to apply when you have to run to work early?

kyoob 6y ago
Pick up a hobby you can do on the train or bus. Books and learning apps like the OP mentioned are ideal for this.
giantg2 6y ago
I know people that wake up at 3-4am to do their farm work before heading to their day job. You will end up going to sleep earlier though. But for some people, that's what it takes.
prohobo 6y ago
Is there evidence for your claim? Not trying to argue against it, but it'd be interesting to know if work culture literally tries to sabotage personal development in order to squeeze out more productivity from employees.
- blankaccount 6y ago
  It doesn't have to be framed so negatively. Companies want to buy your prime time, and the market is priced for prime time hours.

TechBro8615 6y ago

> Interestingly enough you won't underperform at work as much as you would think. I don't believe this, and I don't see how it squares with "the number of hours you can be productive is limited." If I'm paying an employee $150k, and he says "the number of hours I can be productive is limited," and then I hear he's waking up early before work to put in 3 hours on a personal project... I'm going to assume that means I'm losing somewhere approaching 3 hours of his productivity.

adkadskhj 6y ago
> I don't believe this, and I don't see how it squares with "the number of hours you can be productive is limited." If i had to guess, i'd say people don't perform well for 8 hours a day. A significant portion of people's butt-in-chair is just that, a butt in the chair. For sake of discussion, lets say only 5 hours of real work is done during that 8 hour stint. So i think the real question is does 2 hours of side-work before the 8 hour butt-in-chair impact the 5 hours of primary-work? Because if 3 hours are wasted in your 8 hour butt-in-chair, they _might_ not matter where the waste/mental-breaks/whatever are allocated. Ie, if you mentally need a break from the 2 hours of work, during your butt-in-chair time, perhaps that's a net-wash with other time-wasting behaviors already taking place. All hypothetical of course. I do know that i've seen numerous studies about how efficient we actually are over 8 hours of butt-in-chair. It's not pretty.
doctorbuttes 6y ago
Good thing what he does outside of work isn't any of your business. We should make decisions based on outcomes rather than our assumptions.
- TechBro8615 6y ago
  Fine. Then when his performance declines it's going to be the first thing I ask him about. My point is more about the juxtaposition of saying "I have limited productive hours in a day" and "because of that, I'm going to spend them before my paid job."
  - 6y ago

sancho_panza 6y ago

I started waking up 2 hours before work for avocational activities, and that gradually became 4 hours before. I feel as sharp as a razor once I wake up. Granted, I have to be asleep by 10, but I don't stress about working on my side projects after 9 hours of work. I can fill that time with audio books, cooking and working out.