When I was studying Physics at UCSD, a number of my friends and I were fond of saying that we were in Physics because we were too lazy to be engineers. We asserted that we were doing more difficult work (as documented by the struggles of engineering students who occasionally joined our classes), but in contrast to the all-night project sessions of my engineering roommates, I would solve problems during the day and go out dancing all night.

Working in the business world though, whether it be at a startup or for a larger organization, the tradeoffs are less obvious. There is no longer a simple dichotomy between working “lazier but smarter” or “harder but easier”. Instead, there seems to be a choice between “lazier but smarter” and “harder and smarter”. There’s a common thought process that follows this observation: “If you can get X units of work done in 6, why not get 1.5X units done in 9 hours?”

The issue with that line of reasoning is that productivity does not scale linearly. It may be that some people accomplish more work by stretching their hours, but it also depends on factors like the type of work, amount of sleep, and individual characteristics. This goes all the way back to the original Factory Acts in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 1800s, when hours were reduced and conditions improved to better both the lives of the workers and the quality of their output. The pace for our modern working life was set by the struggle of many labor unions and workers’ strikes, including Henry Ford’s implementation the 8-hour workday in 1914, citing increased productivity and higher quality. More recently, David Heinemeier Hansson has written about this subject as it pertains specifically to startups and the software industry.

All said, the most important factor to consider when gauging productivity is personal performance. For example, I find that some of the times I am most productive are after taking some time away from working, either on vacation or even just a weekend. Despite the stereotype, Monday mornings are often one of my most productive times. On the other hand, while spending 12-14 hours in one day on a hackathon can be exhilarating, the next day I can barely focus at all. Others on our team and around the industry have other working schedules, going all the way into the wee hours of the morning, but no single schedule works for everyone.

In the end, productivity is a very personal thing and instead of there being one best approach (“lazier but smarter” or “harder and smarter”), you need to get to know your own rhythms and work to optimize those times. For some, it will be hacking on a project far into the night; for me, it’s letting that problem stew overnight, thinking about it on my train ride, getting myself a nice cup of tea, and attacking it first thing in the morning.

Published: July 14th, 2008