The manufacturing clock mindset

Most people I know work a steady number of hours. A fixed start time, a fixed ending time. A relic of the Industrial Revolution.

We trade time for salary. Doesn’t much matter if we’re productive in those hours. The deal is not about productivity, but about hours. We have a full-time contract, or a part-time. Our work and salary is governed by time.

This has always been so obvious, that I didn’t realise this was an assumption, until a couple years ago. It is something we take for granted.

It is also, something insanely difficult to let go.

I try to measure myself by productivity. Not by hours clocked. And moments of productivity occur at different moments in the day. Or weekend, for that matter.

I still do a bit of mental bookkeeping of the hours I’ve clocked. But mostly, I set myself (challenging) deliverables to create by the end of the week. And I trust myself to get that done. No matter the time that it requires.