In my past life, when I routinely worked 12-16 hour days, I had to occasionally stop work at 7 pm because of some contingency (e.g., doctor’s appointment).
But surprisingly, even when I worked 25% fewer hours, my work wasn’t really affected — I prioritized the critical things, focused harder, and managed expectations. And usually, nobody felt that anything was off.
I don’t know if I could have done this every day but my gut feel is that 90% people can save a couple of hours daily if they:
1. Cut out distractions and multitasking.
2. Reduce time wasted on unnecessary meetings.
3. Have task clarity, so they don’t do meaningless work.
4. Focus on real priorities.
Here is an idea: What would you do if you only had 4 hours tomorrow because of a doctor’s appointment?
Just do those things for the first 4 hours and as much as possible, avoid working on other things, which you can always do later. Then see what happens.
Constraints make us sharper. Excess makes us dull.
– Rajan