MinuteDock MinuteDock’s Guide to

from XU Magazine - Issue 27

by XU Magazine

Sapaad Create the Restaurant

MinuteDock’s Guide to Surviving an 80+ Hour Work Week

@minutedock

Bryce Armstrong, Customer Success Manager,

MinuteDock

Bryce is dipping his toes into the cloud-based accounting ecosystem after recently partnering up with his brother Jared, founder of MinuteDock: time management software for professional services.

The team at MinuteDock offer advice for that most dreaded of circumstances, the double work week. Learn how to survive and thrive!

The 80-hour working week is a thing dreaded

by even the most dedicated of professionals. It is, after all, the equivalent of working two weeks within the space of one. While it certainly isn’t recommended as an ongoing, regular part of your work experience, a hard week of 80+ hours may allow you to catch up on your workload and keep the stress away from the rest of your month. It is important, when you decide to do something like this, to do it right – it would be all too easy to burnout and be unproductive for most of the time or to produce sub-par work. If there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s to have to backtrack later on and fix the mistakes you made while you were too tired to think straight.

7-day week would make that and make sure you are getting more like 11 or 12 hours per day. enough during your week. Not Those numbers are much more only is this important for your manageable on a day-to-day health, but also the quality of basis, but have the disadvantage your work. You need to have set of cutting into your weekend, sleeping hours and shouldn’t so the choice will be down to compromise those scheduled personal preference. hours. Doing otherwise will have you quickly But is working 80+ hours in a week healthy? Working 80 hours a week for a short period, or intermittently, “Your non-working time: in particular your sleep, is important to keep good track of and make sure you are falling out of sync with your work schedule. The importance of regular physical may well aid you in getting enough during activity on the reducing work time your week.” health of the human stress and pressure body and mind is well affecting your mental documented. Keeping state by letting you get out in physically active during your week front of big projects or catch up will have a noticeable effect on quickly when you’re behind the both the quality and efficiency of ball. Having said that, it’s vitally your work. Don’t get caught in the important to make sure you are trap of telling yourself that you getting all the physical and mental don’t have time for it: you will see stimulus you need to keep healthy that your ability to work hard and First, you will want to give a lot while you work a heavy week – be productive because of your of consideration not just to the making sure you have enough exercise regime will more than hours you will work in the sleep to feel rested, make up for the time you spend week, but also to the are eating full and actually exercising. number of days you “Taking appropriate healthy meals, and will work. Working a time to unwind and are getting enough Taking appropriate time to traditional five-day reset for your next physical exercise unwind and reset for your next week will result in task is crucial to – these are all task is crucial to maintaining your you having 16-hour maintaining your important factors to productivity. A rest period is not workdays; something productivity.” consider! only important for maintaining you might find yourself your health but also for allowing struggling to accomplish. Ensure you have a healthy you to mentally adjust when A 6-day week comprising a total sleep schedule. Your non-working switching tasks in order to of 80 hours would be between time: in particular your sleep, is maximise your work output. 13 and 14 hours a day, while a important to keep good track of You’ll quickly feel like you’re going

insane if all you fill your day with is work, work, work: get some sunshine, take a walk, listen to some of your favourite tunes. Just like with getting appropriate sleep, having some time for yourself will pay off in the long term by helping you to maintain your productivity.

Ultimately, don’t make it a habit! Working extreme hours in this way is manageable once or twice, but making it a regular feature of your work life will quickly create stress and have a strong negative impact on both health and performance. Remember, there’s more to enjoying life than just work success – don’t forget to spend time with your family and get out there to enjoy the sunshine!