“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.”
– Sam Levenson
What does the most effective workweek look like? I have always been a believer that hard work and effectiveness will equal success in business. During times of great growth I found that 60 to 80-hour workweeks were commonplace and rewarding.
Having just read The 4 -Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, he challenges many of the old views of working, life balance and success. He is a believer in the ‘Pareto principle,’ as am I. What it says is that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. So by recognizing and focusing on the 20%, we can get similar results vs. being ineffective in our utilization of time.
I am different from Mr. Ferriss because I never felt that my jobs sucked the life out of me as he described in his first business experiences. For the past 25 years I have been involved in businesses that were interesting and fulfilling.
Although I could not be effective running a company on 4 hours per week, I do think that by focusing our efforts we all could accomplish much more within a 40-hour week.
My takeaways from his book are that there is probably a balance somewhere in between and that neither old school or the new way he prescribes are  the “best practice.”  The truth always lies somewhere in the middle.
Weekly Wisdom by Jerry Rollins, CEO of Sage Executive Group