When working in a corporate environment, it’s often considered the standard to work from 9 to 5. Of course, it’s useful to overlap working hours with your colleagues, especially when working in teams. But is it always the best choice to stick to these set hours, do you get most out of these hours?
Reasons why you would chose working 9 to 5
I’ve just mentioned the main reason: you do need overlap with your colleagues, your customers and your suppliers. Certain task that require direct interaction with others are usually done between 9 and 5. Going to the office when others are there makes communication easier and let’s not forget the social aspect. Having lunch together and the social interactions throughout the day will have a positive effect on your productivity and mindset as well.
Reasons why you wouldn’t work from 9 to 5
If you have ever worked from 9 to 5 for an extended amount of time, I’m sure you’ve ran into a blockage. Whether you ran out of creative energy, just a lack of any energy or you’re just not feeling it, you still feel that obligation to be as productive as you can be, which actually doesn’t help your productivity. When you get stuck, my advise would be: stop. Continue at a later moment when you are most productive.
There are also some other practical reasons why flexibility can be useful. As a developer, I sometimes agree to push certain changes in the weekend, in the evening or even at night. Why? Because the customers are mostly active between 9 and 5, so finding the most quite moment to not interfere with any customers’ journeys. Or perhaps something happened to your website and you need it to be fixed before your customers run into problems the next day. In that case, it’s useful that some developers don’t stick to 9 to 5 😉
Find your most productive time to work
What I usually do is find my most productive time. When I’m watching my show on the couch late at night and I notice my brain isn’t shutting off, I pull up my laptop to get that creativity flowing. Often the moment I wake up, I start getting great ideas. Instead of taking a shower and eating breakfast, I first grab my laptop to make use of my most productive moments. Of course, I still take the shower and get some breakfast, but often not until my first ‘stuck moment’.
Try to find your most productive moment. Notice ideas flowing through your head? Grab that laptop and see what happens. Are you stuck but you still need to do a couple of hours that day? Take a big break, play a game, listen to some music, take a walk: anything that resets your thinking. It often helps to get unstuck faster, plus there are plenty more hours in the day that you can utilize to get more done than you could have in the last couple of 9 to 5 hours if you wouldn’t have taken the break.
Talk to your lead or boss
Now don’t just do it, even though I’d applaud it 😉 There is still a boss that needs to understand it and be OK with it. Of course, if you’re your own boss, go for it! You probably already are doing it. But when working for a boss, of course you need to talk about it first. If the boss is hesitant, ask for a trial period in which you can show your productivity goes up. Finding the right balance is key, as you are probably still required to attend important meetings. As long as you can make clear ‘rules’ about flexible hours, it will be a win for both you and your boss.
