Want to Get More Done? Work by Task, Not by Hour

People often ask how I get so much done, given all I'm juggling. Part of the answer is clock flexibility: Instead of trying to be uniformly productive from the prescribed hours of 9-5 (or 7-6 or whatever it is that day), I try to orient my days around how to maximize myself given whatever time of day it is.

That is, I work by task and temperament, not by hour.

Here’s what that looks like

Example: Whenever I'm writing a podcast script, I’ll clear the entire morning out to do it. I did the same when I was working on my book. That’s because I write best in the morning; the early hours are when my brain is sharpest and I think fastest. So no matter how many other tasks are waiting for me, I push them aside to align my meatiest task with my highest capacity.

The very end of the day is when I do my admin stuff — filing invoices, approving this or that, inputting fact check changes into layout in the magazine, taking planning meetings, whatever.

Sometimes, frankly, I push this stuff until LATE. I'll spend an hour at 9 pm catching up on mindless but important tasks, which I’m frankly happy to do, since at that point in the day I’m not wishing I was using my brain on anything else.

Isn’t that kind of a lot?

I can hear you clapping back at me: Jason, are you sure you’re happy filing invoices at 9?

Unequivocally, yes. I am a happy worker, and that’s because I get to do so many things I love, and retain control over my time and my life, and that's all possible PRECISELY BECAUSE I am not beholden to the clock.

Being editor in chief at Entrepreneur is a full-time job, but I do not do Entrepreneur work on a full-time schedule. I might work on a personal project from 9 - 12, then Entrepreneur from 12 - 4, then a personal project from 4 - 6, then spend time with my kids and put them to bed, and then catch up on the rest of the Entrepreneur stuff from 8 - 10. Or I’ll spend weekends working on Entrepreneur stuff; just this past weekend, there was a pile of things waiting for my review that I cranked through while my kid napped on Sunday afternoon.

To be clear, whenever I email people on off hours, I always preface with, I DO NOT EXPECT A REPLY RIGHT NOW. I want to be super clear that I'm working on my schedule, but I am not demanding that you also work on my schedule. You work on your schedule.

This way, I fit it all in where I can.

How can this fly in a structured work environment?

I know my life has its own particular circumstances, as yours does. But I want you to know that, not only is this flexible schedule workable in an office; I find it’s actively helpful in recruiting talent.

I recently hired someone for an important role. When we first started talking, this person wasn't sure she wanted to pursue the job because she had a big personal project she was working on, and she'd been doing her prior role for long enough that she knew how to balance work and this other project. Now she was worried if she could juggle the two in a new role.

I said: Ah-hah, this is actually the PERFECT place for you! Because I do not care when you work; I just care that you get it done. Then I told her the example above, about how I often use the morning hours for personal projects. Do that yourself, I said. She thought about it. She agreed. She was the perfect candidate. We hired her. It's been wonderful.

Of course, we all must make ourselves available for meetings and appointments at certain times, but I think we’re more capable of organizing our own time than traditional office environments have allowed for.

Frankly, I WANT the kind of people who juggle multiple things, think entrepreneurially, and prefer to manage their own clock. Those people are going to be bigger thinkers. They're going to bring fresh ideas. And as a result of hiring those kinds of people on this kind of schedule, Entrepreneur is the kind of place where people have both jobs and lives, and that provides its own kind of richness to our office and to our product.

So go on: Ditch your 9-5 and let the people around you ditch theirs, too. Each of us has our own rhythms. Why strain against them?

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Cover credit: Getty Images / Peter Dazeley