Anytime I am stumped by need-to-do-more (more work), the first thought or approach is to add more hours to the day. I have found it hard to add more hours to the day because 1) It is very hard to compress the sleep time and remain productive still 2) Life chores don’t compress either easily 3) Reducing empty hours start to pinch since they only help me unwind and learn.

Also – it is the norm. Haven’t we heard so many times – “It has been hard week. We are putting 80 hr week.” I really wonder how people are able to sustain such work hours. Getting more done means putting more hours. It is the norm; talk of the town. If you aren’t putting long hours – you aren’t working hard enough. Isn’t that sound familiar?

I realized that putting more hours won’t help unless I have learnt to make best use of hours (that I am already putting). I can add 2 more hours fetching me 20-24% more productivity. but it can’t get me 2x-5x kind of productivity gain.

Yesterday, I had a bad day. I was continuously bombarded with one after another incidences that were not as expected. Everything seem to go unexpected way. I progressively got frustrated/angry with myself. Eventually towards the end of the day, I spent 4 hours and bad night sleep over an incidence which I could have resolved in 10 minutes (if I had right state of mind – or carried that little smile!). If I compare that, I was order of 24x time (10 min vs 4 hours)worse in my productivity to deal with a problem. Why? because I got “unsettled with the unexpected”.

Putting long hours can well be need of the hour at times. but it can’t be the norm to boost productivity. Remaining settled with whatever-come-may and carrying that little smile may get me 2x-5x and at times even better productivity!