2021-03-07 You Can Do More Work

Track your time

Work hours don’t perfectly correlate with productivity, but if you know that you’re logging an acceptable amount of time, you’ll likely feel more confident about experimenting. So track your work hours for a week or two: Note when things are busy and when they’re quieter. Note which days you tend to work longer hours and if any are generally shorter. Add up the totals. If you work full time and you’re working anywhere near 40 hours per week, then maybe you can relax about exactly when these hours happen.

Start small

If you’re not used to taking any time off during the workday, begin with lunch. Choose one day to leave your desk for a full hour. You can use this time to eat, but also add something else: a short walk, a quick outing to somewhere like the library. When you come back to your desk after an hour, note what happened. Did everything fall apart? Did your colleagues decide that you quit? If not, you probably have more flexibility than you’ve been taking advantage of.

Make a list of adventures

Once you’ve convinced yourself of your freedom, it’s time to figure out what you’d like to do with it. What little adventures might work best between 9 and 5? What life maintenance activities would be easier to do during business hours? You could exercise outside while it’s light or visit the gym when it’s less crowded (important with Covid-19). Some houses of worship are open for during-the-day prayers. A local historic site or museum might welcome visitors between, say, 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.