The Working Day

Don’t wait to deliver bad news hoping that you might fix everything with a mad sprint to the finish. All-nighters suck. And if you lead a team, overtime is a myth.

There are times when optimism has gotten us in trouble. I’ve noticed this in a lot of freelancers. After all, we can do it all! We think, “gosh this deadline is looking tight, looks like I get to do another few all-nighters. No worries, I can pull this off.” We have all done our fair share. Some times we even glorify it like it is a badge of honor. Peter has done six all-nighters this year and not a single one of them turned out to be necessary.

I have been thinking a lot about the myth of overtime. Every time we have had our team push really hard doing “overtime”, we always have an accompanying undertime following it. I think most people only have a certain number of viable work hours in them in an given period. I find I am happier and more productive, as is our whole crew, when we are not being rushed and have time to explore ideas, make mistakes and enjoy our life. A periodic push is rewarding, but is it as necessary as modern thinking makes it out to be?
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I wake with anywhere between thirty-five to a hundred and fifty legitimate emails in my in-box. A voice-mail or two. A honey-do list (I love you babe). And my IM flashes the minute I log on. The day begins anew with the urgent constantly pulling my attention. So how do you make sure that the important is not overwhelmed by the urgent? The answer lies in an old Jewish custom.

According to Jewish law, each day begins as the sun sets below the horizon. Think about it. What makes more sense: for a new day to begin when the old day ends or at some random time in the middle of the night after you passed out? The implications are many.
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