Frugaling

Save more, live well, give generously

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Popular
    • Archives
  • Recommended
  • Contact
  • Save Money
    • Lifestyle Downgrade
    • Save Money with Mindfulness
    • Save at Starbucks
    • Psychological Trick To Reduce Your Online Shopping
    • Best Freebies
  • Minimalism
    • 8 TED Talks To Become A Minimalist
    • We Rent This Life
    • Everything Must Go
    • Lifestyle Downgrade
    • The Purchase Paradox: Wanting, Until You Own It
    • Nothing In My Pockets
  • Social Justice
    • Destroy The 40-Hour Workweek
    • Too Poor To Protest: Income Inequality
    • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
    • Hunter Gatherers vs. 21st Century Desk-sitters
  • Make Money
    • Make $10k in 10 Months
    • Monetize Your Blog
    • Side Hustle for Serious Cash
  • Loans
    • 5 Rules To Follow Before Accepting Student Loans
    • Would You Marry Me?
    • Should I Have a Credit Card If I’m In Debt?
    • $50k in Scholarships in 70 Minutes

How Many Hours Per Week Could You Work?

By Frugaling 16 Comments

Share This:

Finding balance on the ferris wheel of life

Reviewing the average workweek

There are 168 hours in a week (unless you live on Mars). If you sleep an average of 7 hours per day (49 hours per week), you’re left with 119. After sleeping, work usually takes the second most amount of time at 40 hours. That leaves 79 hours to shower, eat breakfast, read the news and your favorite book, travel to work, see friends, spend time with family, cook dinner, and get ready to repeat it all day after day.

Let’s take a look at my schedule, as an example. Monday I work about 8 to 9 hours, and when I come home I usually need to put in another 30 minutes. Let’s call Monday 9 hours on average. Tuesday I work about 7 hours — that’s an easy one. Wednesday is a 10-hour day. Thursday is an 8-hour day. Then, Fridays are reserved for meetings, appointments, interviews, etc. It’s a “free” day, but I tend to fill it with work. Let’s call it 5 hours. The weekends tend to be dedicated to grading assignments and working on materials for the courses I teach. That takes up about 2-3 hours. Additionally, there are often homework assignments to be completed. That ranges from about 3-6 hours a weekend. If my math is correct, that means my workweek (including weekends) equals about 45 hours.

The variable graduate school schedule

There are peaks and valleys in graduate school schedules. Over the last few weeks I was working nearly 60-70 hours per week to write my dissertation proposal and complete all the homework assignments. As I previously mentioned, that pressure and intensity felt fantastic. I was energized and passionate. I cared about the final product.

On average, I’m looking at about 74 hours of non-scheduled time. Now, a lot of that gets lost on tedious chores and cleaning. One thing I’ve noticed about living frugally is that I need to account more time for cooking and cleaning. Eating out really is more convenient from every standpoint. By eating in, I control my spending far better and usually reduce expenditures by hundreds of dollars, but there’s added time expenditures.

Then, there are the trips to the grocery store. Errands like these eat up quite a lot of time, as the stores are large and quite a distance from where I live. It’s easy to spend about 30-45 minutes per week in the store. Slowly, as these tasks add up, my schedule gets eaten away. For the most part, it works though. I have time for everything I need to do, and usually can sit back and watch a TV show every now and then.

Upping the commitments, time at work

Now, I’m contemplating adding some commitments. Over the last few weeks I’ve been pursuing, applying, and following up regarding various work opportunities. There’s a little debt left that I need to clear out to be completely clean when I graduate, and I’m eager to get rid of it. And there are some fantastic opportunities to do just that.

In the spring semester, I could potentially increase my income by $10,000 through two additional responsibilities. But I’m struggling to wrap my mind about the loss of time. One would require a full day — 12 hours, and the other could potentially be 6-8 hours per week. Together, they might add 20 hours to my current schedule. As in, my regularly scheduled routine would now be about 65 hours per week — scheduled.

Balance between life and money

To all the doctors and entrepreneurs out there, you might know these hours exceedingly well. But as I contemplate taking on these added commitments, I can’t help but think, what will be the quality of my life? Will I actually have time for those I care about? Will I be able to complete everything that’s asked of me? Will I be able to spend time on what I’m most passionate about?

The financially minded side of me relishes the prospect of extra funds. That kind of money would revolutionize my budget and jumpstart my retirement savings. Similarly, the activities could bolster my work experience, which would help for future applications. With dollar signs in my mind, I can’t help but think these are opportunities I cannot refuse. But at what cost to my sanity?

Time and money are intriguing variables. On one hand I preach the importance of fulfillment and moderation in work. I believe that life shouldn’t be all about work – it becomes somewhat empty if that’s the case. The other side makes me think money today means less work tomorrow (should I desire it). Compounding interest and savings can turn 40-year into 30-year plans for retirement. The initial time lost could be replaced by time gained in later years.

Today, I don’t have a decision to declare – only questions about the balance between work, life, and money. How many hours per week do you work? If you were faced with the opportunity to pad your wallet at the expense of your balance, would you do it? What would you consider?

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: balance, hours, Income, Life, money, time, Work, workweek

Destroy The 40-Hour Workweek

By Frugaling 57 Comments

Share This:

workweek posture picture
It’s time to destroy the 40-hour workweek. Photo: Joe Loong/Flickr

Our American economy needs you to work nothing less than 40 hours per week. The message is simple: earn more, collect belongings, and don’t stop until you retire/die. Unless you meet this expectation, be prepared to be called lazy and unproductive — stuck in the unfortunate world of lower and middle incomes. And if you’re not doing something that makes more money than your neighbor, you ought to think about changing careers.

McMansions, vehicles, and stores grow. In turn, our consumption escalates. We need more to fill our bigger homes; otherwise, they feel empty. Meanwhile, our wallets are stripped and we maintain this cycle of work and near poverty — just getting by. Despite going through a horrific “great recession” over the last few years, companies have continued to report record revenue and profits. The business world is clearly benefiting from our workweek and continued spend.

This current system is predicated on infinite growth. If you’re not continually benefiting from pay raises and getting promoted, you’re not doing it right. Since the Industrial Revolution, we haven’t stopped to seriously question what we’ve created and amassed. Like worker zombies, it’s hard not to see the countless hours we put into companies — all so that we reach financial independence.

Steel Mills Pittsburgh PA Workweek
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the steel boom. Clouds of ash engulfed the city continually.

Unfortunately, infinite growth has two awful consequences: unstable population and climate change. The world population was about 300 million in 1000 AD. The Industrial Revolution sparked atmospheric population increases. Now, the U.S. alone has around 300 million citizens. There are over 7 billion people on the planet, and that number is rapidly increasing.

As we developed more efficient means to produce and manufacture goods, fossil fuel use increased and never stopped. The delicate balance of carbon dioxide in the air shifted and it devastated our climate. We are suffering from an inescapable greenhouse gas effect where the temperature of Earth rises and natural disasters worsen. Even when faced with this dire news, we make a societal shrug and continue to pump out record amounts of oil and coal to feed growth.

The market demands this. If you watch the stock market, you’ll see investors and institutions pressure companies for constant revenue growth. Stagnation is likened to the death of a company — maintenance isn’t enough. We have a myopic economic policy of long-term instability for short-term riches. Profits over people is a rewarded mantra on Wall Street, and it leads to absurd business practices that hurt their employees and our environment further.

We live in a world where the Koch brothers are lobbying to tax alternative energy sources, Microsoft stock (MSFT) increases when they announce thousands in job cuts, and corporate executives are paid, on average, 350-to-1 for regular employees. Incontrovertible evidence suggests that we are causing irreparable harm to our environment, while we maintain this status quo.

It’s time to break out of this cyclical destruction. We need to find another method to contribute to society in a positive manner — one that doesn’t cause harm to future generations and massive environmental diaspora.

It may all start with reducing our workweek, because the 40-hour schedule is destructive:

“The eight-hour workday developed during the industrial revolution in Britain in the 19th century, as a respite for factory workers who were being exploited with 14- or 16-hour workdays.

As technologies and methods advanced, workers in all industries became able to produce much more value in a shorter amount of time. You’d think this would lead to shorter workdays.

But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.”

The idea of changing this age-old work life is gaining popularity. In Sweden, government offices are attempting a shift to a 6-hour workday:

“Municipal staff in Gothenburg will act as guinea pigs in a proposed push for six-hour workdays with full pay, with hopes that it will cut down on sick leave, boost efficiency, and ultimately save Sweden money.”

See, the Swedes understand that by cutting back, their employees will be more productive with their time and suffer from less burnout. Even in capitalistic America, the founders of Google are beginning to advocate for reductions in our workweek. In the following video, the tech titans are advocating for this change for a more productive future.

There’s a tragic irony about this whole problem: we developed technologies, vehicles, and our massive global economy to increase productivity. But who’s really benefited from these changes except a select few? Most workers are working more than ever, despite record productivity and profitability. We haven’t invented and invested in a technology that truly eased our workweeks.

The system is broken and skewed. We have an opportunity to respect our fellow humans and environment — for generations to come. Perhaps it’s time to shift forward, and evolve towards empathy and positive economic models. Perhaps it’s time to emphasize healthy companies over exorbitant profits. Infinite growth is not sustainable on a planet with finite resources. Let’s throwaway these antiquated economic ideals.

Filed Under: Social Justice Tagged With: 40-hour, climate change, Compensation, environment, Industrial Revolution, Pay, Population, Recession, Salary, Stock Market, Wall Street, Work, workweek

Hunter Gatherers vs 21st Century Desk-sitters: What A Natural History Museum Taught Me About Work

By Frugaling 19 Comments

Share This:

The Field Museum of Natural History Time is an illusion Frugality
The Field Museum of Natural History

Drop down a little rabbit hole with me. There’s a philosophical question that keeps bubbling up in my mind. Essentially, many people work in jobs they don’t care for, with increasing demands and responsibilities, all for the goal of retiring and entertaining a life of leisure. This comes at a time with tragic income inequality and painfully low social mobility.

I’m puzzled by this pattern that we are corralled into: Birth, education, working years, retirement, and then death. Why do we work as hard as we do to become financially solvent when time is an illusion and our days here are undefined? Moreover, why are we pursuing these stressful work lives that cause serious medical complications and early death (e.g., stress, heart disease, cancer, etc.)? Is there a balanced alternative?

This New Year’s Eve, I visited Chicago to celebrate with someone I care deeply about. As we walked around the city, I suggested we traipse over to the Field Museum of Natural History. That’s when some of these questions came into perspective and I found some surprising answers.

The hunter gatherer versus 21st century desk-sitter workweeks

xkcd computer problems 21st century desksitter
Photo: xkcd

As we strolled through the museum, I began to see how work and life changed for people. Where once we foraged and hunted, travelled in groups and visited a variety of places, we now hunker down and settle. Questions of food scarcity, shelter, and life expectancy abound when you’re a hunter gatherer. But you’d be wrong to assume that hunter gatherers were working all the time to survive.

Anthropologists have long known that the life of a hunter gatherer included far more leisure time than our traditional, 21st century desk-sitter. In fact, the average working day was less than 5 hours. Here in the United States and much of the working world, there’s a 40 to 44 hour workweek, and far less leisure time.

Is it worth the time? xkcd productivity tips 21st century desksitter
Photo: xkcd

Popular productivity tips and organizational oracles flood major content websites. There are entire swaths of the Internet dedicated to tackling your work, life, and beyond. Admittedly, I frequent websites such as Lifehacker and the Reddit “lifehack” subreddit. I read The 4-Hour Workweek with great vigor, and promptly failed at utilizing most of the productivity skills it contained.

When I return to books and sites like these, I feel like I’ve admitted defeat and accepted that my lifestyle and workweek just go with the territory (a full-time grad student and employee with a monetary budget equal to a few packets of ramen). Each of these self-proclaimed productivity solutions seem to be getting at the same thing: less work and more play.

The 21st century desk-sitters’ kryptonite: Heart disease and early death

Despite evolving into bipeds – made for walking, running, and moving – we are more sedentary than ever before. At the museum, the curators boldly outlined a significant problem with our current lifestyle: heart and health-related early death.

21st century desksitter picture
Photo: victor1558/flickr

The shift to 21st century desk-sitters and the productivity movement caused a sudden increase in heart and health-related diseases. Increased duration and pressure in the work environment is associated with depression, obesity, cancer, sleep deficits, cardiovascular complications, stress, and eye strain. Here’s what we know about working beyond 7 hours (aka, overtime):

The research shows a 60% increase in heart-related illness such as non-fatal heart attacks and angina in those who work for three hours or more longer than a normal seven-hour day.

“Employers and patients need to be aware of all of the risk factors for coronary heart disease – and should consider overtime as one factor that may lead to a number of medical conditions.” (The Guardian)

Despite these risks and loss of enjoyment, we continue to pursue these workweeks that perpetuate and encourage the trouble. The solution and ontology are simple: move and find time to relax more.

The hunter gatherers were really good at one thing: Minimalism

While we fight mightily to carve out more time for leisure via productivity, we’re failing and the paradigm needs to shift. There are systemic, governmental factors that limit our ability to engage in more leisure time. But more interestingly, there seems to be a cultural appreciation for those that work two or three jobs, and fight to make a living. This may hold us back more than any federal legalese.

Hunter gatherer societies seemed to understand that life was held in a delicate balance. Time versus effort was carefully calculated. Needs were different, as many just needed to feed, cloth, and find shelter. These people weren’t squabbling over cloud-piercing skyscrapers, or debating between iPad and Google Nexus tablets. They carried and traveled with little more than their necessities, and the urge to consume was much less. They were minimalists to the fullest extent – out of pure necessity.

Fortunately, some countries are wisening up to these consequences and reducing the normal workweek schedule. Germany, the Netherlands, and France top the list of countries with the fewest average work hours. Germans work an average 25.6 hours per week, make $35.33 an hour, and only have a 6% unemployment rate.

My night at the museum opened my eyes to this simple change in our workweek, lifestyles, and health complications. There’s an alternative to the work, work, die lifestyle and it starts with your schedule.

Would you be able to reduce your work hours? What consequences would you see, positively or negatively?

Filed Under: Minimalism, Social Justice Tagged With: 21st century, balance, desksitter, employee, employer, heart disease, Hunter gatherer, jobs, lifehacker, Minimalism, museum, reddit, Work, work life, workweek

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe

Best Of

  • 5 Tricks To Save Money At Starbucks (Updated)
    5 Tricks To Save Money At Starbucks (Updated)
  • Was Albert Einstein A Minimalist?
    Was Albert Einstein A Minimalist?
  • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
    The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
  • Living In A Van To Becoming A Pornstar: Crazy Ways Students Pay Tuition
    Living In A Van To Becoming A Pornstar: Crazy Ways Students Pay Tuition
  • I have $37,718.68 in debt. Would you marry me?
    I have $37,718.68 in debt. Would you marry me?
  • My Costly Battle With Indigestion
    My Costly Battle With Indigestion

Recent Posts

  • How to Eat Healthy on a Budget
  • How To Live Stream Your Art
  • 5 Fun Summer Activities on a Budget
  • How to Pay Off Medical Debt
  • 5 Ways to Save Money Before a New Baby

Search

Archives

  • June 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (2)
  • January 2023 (1)
  • March 2022 (3)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (4)
  • July 2021 (5)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • May 2021 (2)
  • January 2021 (2)
  • December 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (2)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (3)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (5)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (3)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (5)
  • March 2018 (6)
  • February 2018 (4)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (10)
  • November 2017 (3)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (5)
  • May 2017 (2)
  • April 2017 (8)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (2)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (3)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (5)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (5)
  • October 2015 (5)
  • September 2015 (4)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (8)
  • June 2015 (6)
  • May 2015 (14)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (13)
  • February 2015 (12)
  • January 2015 (15)
  • December 2014 (10)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (6)
  • September 2014 (7)
  • August 2014 (12)
  • July 2014 (11)
  • June 2014 (12)
  • May 2014 (16)
  • April 2014 (13)
  • March 2014 (13)
  • February 2014 (9)
  • January 2014 (20)
  • December 2013 (9)
  • November 2013 (18)
  • October 2013 (15)
  • September 2013 (11)
  • August 2013 (11)
  • July 2013 (27)
  • June 2013 (18)
  • May 2013 (16)

Best Of

  • 5 Tricks To Save Money At Starbucks (Updated)
  • Was Albert Einstein A Minimalist?
  • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class

Recent Posts

  • How to Eat Healthy on a Budget
  • How To Live Stream Your Art
  • 5 Fun Summer Activities on a Budget

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 · Modern Studio Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in