(Note: “DAE” is a common Reddit abbreviation for “Does anyone else”.)
I often think about dilemmas that affect my work-life balance, like working for 32 hours a week instead of the standard 40, or taking a mini-retirement earlier in life. On the one hand, I am often reluctant to intentionally allocate less of my time to work, because the enormous good I can do with (the earnings from) each hour of work outweighs the personal benefit I get from using that time for my own enjoyment (except to the extent that not working too hard prevents burnout). On the other hand, I think there is virtue in “being the change one would like to see,”[1] i.e. one where most people have more leisure time but every hour of work is more productive. How do other members of the EA movement navigate these dilemmas?
- ^
A phrase not actually said by Mahatma Gandhi, apparently.
Yes, but at a different margin.
I live in a culture where working part-time (even among people who are healthy and are not parents, and have comfortable office jobs) is quite common. I sometimes feel that I need to justify myself that I choose to work full time. People talk about their vacations and hobbies all the time. That can trigger FOMO, but I do a lot of fun things myself too. My bar for unpaid leave is high (twice in my career a month in between jobs to find a new place and move).
Reducing my work hours from 40 to 32 would increase my happiness slightly but reduce my donation budget by a lot. I DO feel obliged to maintain my ability to work 40 hours. It is sustainable for me. Sometimes I struggle to work 40 hours and I feel bad about myself. As long as this recovers quickly, it’s fine.
I DO NOT feel obligated to work more than 40 hours on my day job. Why:
cultural reasons
overworking is discouraged by my colleagues
longer presence at work does not make pay rises and promotions more likely
I tried and failed: experienced productivity loss and other issues when I worked more.
Note: for me “being the change I want to see” is actually working 40 hours rather than 32, given the circumstances I am in. YMMV.
I solve this problem by prioritizing my own needs over doing good. This is not necessarily appealing to the scrupulous people who face this dilemma.
During my last burnout, I realised that trying to push my working hours to the breaking point was making me substantially less happy (because of the pressure of that question—‘could I be working right now?‘), and substantially less productive (because without time to breathe, I was too focused on the wrong tasks). Cutting myself slack has really, genuinely improved the volume (quantity × quality) of value I produce. I don’t think you need to accept a cop-out answer like ‘just be happy’, I believe that the conventional wisdom on knowledge and creative work is culturally over-moralised around ‘hard work’ (and particularly working hours in an American context), and isn’t optimal for productivity. Just takes some time to shake it out of your system.
I can really recommend Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (or his Waking Up course), or Rework by Jason Fried & DHH for more pointers in this direction that have helped me 😌
I think you should not only care about impact. But yes, you will achieve more professionally in 80000 hours than in 40000 hours.
I personally think it’s important to enjoy your own life on the way. No one else can do it for you.