Life Should Be More than Work for Business Owners

In 2006, before the recession came like a landslide across the United States, the average American worked 25 hours a week according to the Forbes May 23, 2006 article “Why Europeans Work Less Than Americans.” This includes the amount of time put in by part-time and full-time workers. The 25 hours a week is higher than the average amount of time employees in Europeans countries log. Even with layoffs, as of 2009 Americans continued to average 8.7 hours a day working. 

Perhaps we American workers (or is it our employers?) don’t see much relevance in the saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In fact, time spent working and completing work related activities increases for adults between the ages of 25 and 54, people who often care for one or more children 18 years of age or younger. In fact, employed adults with children spent 8.7 hours working and another 1.3 hours caring for their children for a total of 10 hours. Bake in 8 hours of sleep and adults are left with only 6 hours to engage in relaxing and leisure activities. But not so fast. Even that time gets chewed away with household chores and dining (gotta eat sometime).  

Creative Business Leaders Learning to Take a Real Vacation

The British, on the other hand, work an average of 21.5 hours a week. Adults working in France and Italy log an average of 18 and 16 hours a week respectively. As noted in the Forbes article, the disparity might be due, in part, to the fact that European unions encourage workers to log reasonable amounts of work time each week.  

Long hours worked by Americans might also be due to the fact that we take less vacation time, and even when we U.S. based workers do take vacation, we don’t “really vacation.” Instead, we take our electronic communication devices (e.g. Blackberries, iPads) with us to the beach or hotel. We even try to get out cell phones to work on cruise ships so we can check in with colleagues back at the office and see if there’s any urgent work for us to tend to. 

Play and Relaxation Rewards for Creative Business Leaders

Creative business leaders who own and operate their own companies generally log even more hours than other workers. The one positive is that these leaders often perform work they’re passionate about and enjoy performing. Even so, stepping away from work has its benefits. It’s important to recharge and enjoy “doing nothing.” Benefits of doing so might include sleeping better at night (especially if you get in the habit of stepping away from work one to two hours before you retire to bed), decreased stress levels and the ability to receive innovative insights that may help improve your personal and work lives.  

If relaxing is somewhat of a challenge for you, consider creating a mental or written list of three to four activities you’ll engage in everyday, activities you thoroughly enjoy. For example, you could slip on your headphones for an hour a day and listen to smooth jazz, opera, gospel, country or another favorite music genre. You could also go for a walk outside for at least an hour a day. If you’re a pet lover, your pet will likely savor this time spent with you. You can also curl up with a juicy, page-turning novel or pop in a DVD of your favorite TV sitcom and catch a few laughs.  So, what fun and relaxing activity is on your plate after you finish working today? 

Get into Spiral online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000841/Spiral.html

Check out Long Walk Up online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000531/Long-Walk-Up.html 

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/steven-landsburg-labor_cx_sl_06work_0523landsburg.html (Forbes: Why Europeans Work Less Than Americans)

http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: American Time Use Survey)