How Many Hours Should You Work on Your Business Each Day?

If you worked for someone else, they would be in charge of your schedule. But when you have your own company, the correct number of hours to work every day is certainly a legitimate question. It may not be the same for every person, even if they operate the same type of business.?

First, Some History

The eight-hour workday basically started after the factory workers of the Industrial Revolution had enough of the ten- to sixteen-hour days mandated by factory owners who wanted to keep their companies running 24/7. It wasn’t standardized in the U.S. until the 1930s. But if you asked most people today, the 9-to-5, eight-hour day has been, until recently, how they perceive a workday. I say “until recently” because we all know how the pandemic’s work-from-home arrangement opened up a new world of work for many office workers. In some companies, this practice has been maintained, and in many cases, companies have realized that it is the results, not the hours worked, that count.

Entrepreneurial Hours

Of course, when you have your own business, you may be working a lot more or a lot less than eight hours per day. It depends on what type of business you have and whether you are a sole proprietor or if you have employees. The issue is productivity, as the maximum number of hours you can work a day is highly dependent on how much mental and/or physical energy your tasks require. As a general rule, the more brainpower the work requires, the fewer hours you can expect to work each day. If your business requires a lot of focus, creativity, and lots of thinking, you may be less productive if you work longer hours. If you are lucky enough to have a role that requires little energy, you may be effective for eight hours and beyond.

Your Health is a Factor

Your physical health can play a significant factor in how many hours you work each day. Simply being dehydrated can make focusing or starting a task such a strain that you log fewer hours. This is why drinking water is so essential! You can also encounter days when you’re not feeling your best. But you need to crunch the numbers and figure out how many hours you need to work to produce the income required to be self-sustaining.? I would encourage you to find the number of hours you can consistently hit and make changes if this is insufficient to maintain the required income. ? ?

Determining the Sweet Spot

The easiest way to determine your ideal workday is to track your time for a few weeks. Reflect on how you feel at the end of each day and look for a trend. How many hours can you consistently log without feeling overly exhausted? If you are recording low numbers, you can always work on improving your productivity. But you need a starting point to track improvements and see what strategies work for you. Remember, more hours worked does not always mean you were more productive.

Having your own business isn’t always easy. Depending on the support you have and the product or service you sell, it can require many work hours each day. Finding the balance where you make the right amount of money and exert the right amount of energy in a workday will not be the same for each person.?

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Published by:

Alan Pariser?

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