I've been reading a book entitled Chasing Daylight, a book about an exceptionally successful executive (head of KPMG in the US) who found out during a doctor's visit that he had in all probability less than 100 days to live. I was introduced to the book through a number of sources, and wanted to read it for inspiration after the sudden death of my father in law.
Rather than treat death as the focus, the author looks at his knowledge of his upcoming death as a gift, and decides to make the most of his remaining days. It is interesting watching his thinking unfold - what becomes important now, what seemed important only a few days ago. For me, one of the most insightful things he learns was about how to measure the importance of a task. He wrote "commitment, particularly in the business world, had come to equal time. Too often, your commitment was routinely measured by how many hours you were willing to work. (break) Commitment had come to mean reliability; proving that you'd been there already and promising to be there again. If you gave away huge amounts of your time, then it followed that you had exhibited commitment. "
The author's epiphany came one day when he realized that commitment wasn't about time, it was about depth. The author writes "Commitment is about depth. It's about effort. It's about passion. It's about wanting to be in a certain place, and not somewhere else. (break) But commitment is best measured not by the time one is willing to give up, but, more accurately, by the energy one wants to put in, by how present one is."
When I started working at Arthur Andersen many years ago, we used to have the concept of "face time". This meant that even if you were done with your work, you'd hang around, looking busy, walking the halls to be seen doing things after hours. Those who were good contributors on projects and who were recognized as putting in the extra hours were always the first for promotion. The author is telling us that understanding the passion that people put into their work - the energy they invest - is what should be measured, not the time they "give up", since that's the way many people look at their jobs.
Obviously we measure people by the time they are at work, since we have this concept of an eight hour day, which is a gift to us from scientific management and the working people at the turn of the last century. To a great extent, the eight hour day is meaningless in a 24 hour globally connected world. The real measurement is about investing the time in a project or product that means something to you and strikes your passion, rather than simply putting in your hours.
I guess the author has two points - one, work on something that aligns to your passion, so you are investing your energy into what you do, and two, we all ought to worry less about how many hours we work, and more about how much energy we invest in the place we work.
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