In the middle of our international move a few years ago, we pulled our son out of school to allow him to finish online. He was leaving his 5th-grade year early for the move, but still needed to, of course, finish the credits, etc. So we signed him up for a program called Accellus.
Accellus was great. It had self-paced online modules. He could go back and rewatch them if he missed something. The notes and the lessons were clearly done. Although he will tell you today that he hated it, as parents, we thought it was a great program.
The fascinating thing here is that he could finish an entire day's worth of schoolwork in about an hour. Some days were quicker, and some days it would take up to an hour and a half.
The wild thing here is that he was just coming from a school that would take six hours and thirty minutes to complete a day, and then, online, he's finishing school in an hour.
So, where did those five plus hours end up going during a normal school day? I guess social time, transition of classes, teachers getting full lessons in, lunch, etc. Which makes sense, but when you start to compare to the fact that his days were cut down so much, it makes you question just what the hell we are doing with the allotted time, and are we allotting it just because it's something we're used to, rather than something that makes sense.
I've had times in my career where I've been able to accomplish tasks in just a few hours and have a successful week by working a true 20-25 hours. Then I've worked for companies where I had to put in 60 hours a week to feel like I was successful. It all starts with the company culture and the mindset of your co-workers to some extent.
But I have some bold things to say.
- The idea that you have to spend forty-plus hours in an office environment to be successful is a myth.
- All meetings should be 15 minutes long.
- One day per week should be dedicated to co-working time, without meetings, where you can sit and work with your peers and just engage in dialogue around the work itself to make progress.
I firmly believe the traditional way of working is outdated, and you can get an entire week's worth of work done these days in a fraction of the time, but we're so hooked on the juice of five days per week and forty-plus hours that it's hard to go backward. I even know some companies that went four days per week that are now shifting back to five days because they just are uncomfortable with the concept and can't be bold enough to withstand it today.
I think it's also such a reminder that we should be constantly evaluating how we're working and where our time is being spent. Are you just going through the motions for the forty-plus hours, or are you re-inventing yourself to ensure you're spending your time wisely? How are you leveraging AI to make yourself more effective?
Because at the end of the day, nobody is giving out trophies for time served. No one is walking around your office saying, "Wow, that person sat in a chair for nine hours straight, unbelievable performance."
What actually matters is output, clarity, and the ability to move something forward. The uncomfortable truth is that many people hide inside time. They stretch tasks, sit in meetings that don't require them, and convince themselves they're being productive simply because they're present.
Meanwhile, the people who are actually driving things forward are questioning everything. They're asking why something takes six hours instead of one. They're cutting through noise. They're finding leverage. They're not chasing busy, they're chasing impact.
So maybe the question isn't how long something should take. Maybe the better question is, what would this look like if I actually optimized it? If a fifth grader can compress a six-and-a-half-hour school day into an hour of focused effort, what are you capable of if you stopped playing by rules that were built for a different time? Where are you wasting time simply because that's how it's always been done? And more importantly, what would happen if you had the confidence to challenge it?