How many hours focused work are possible?

[Vali2003]

How many hours of focused work are possible per day?

It’s definitely like a muscle that you can train. When you notice you’re tired and you think you need a break, you can push through until a second wind comes. But I wonder where that limit is. 

Currently, I can do about 4-5 hours of focused work per day. Focused work means no distractions at all, and actually doing work. I’m trying to build a business now and noticed that I’m gonna need to do a lot more than that per day if I want to get somewhere. 

The question also depends on the context. If I had to do 12 hours of focused work today or else I‘d die tomorrow, then I could easily do it. But of course that wouldn’t be sustainable. 

It also depends on how old you are and how your genetics are. 

i think the max I can get to is somewhere around 7-8 hours maybe. Let‘s find out. 

What’s the maximum amount of focused work you can sustainably do per day? 

[Sandroew]

I think it is more productive to do small brakes like 15 minutes every hour or so. It depends on the situation as well of course.

 

What business are you building?

[Sandroew]

Ah i see what you mean, its not that you are not taking breaks for 4-5 hours, but thats the total amount you can spend on high quality work in a day.

[Basman]

I've heard that people on average only do focused work for 3-5 hours a day. That's about the human norm, I believe.

[MarkKol]

Recently, I found out that to successfully build a business, or in other words to have the best chances at succeeding, you're supposed to have a hyper-focused time in your life where you decide that all you're going to do is do the work required, show up everyday, and do nothing else, and you do this until it starts working and it slowly gets easier each step after that (I'm guessing this part!)

So what does that look like? Probably something like getting a part-time job to support you while you do it, maybe using your savings to move to a country with a low cost of living for months or years. I'm assuming this process takes a minimum of 6 months.

Full-time job + building a business? Probably not the best bet.

You might be walking a fine line, living with your parents or family can make it easier. Especially if your parents are supportive, this is a gift that not many have. Many parents envision their kids being wage slaves for life out of pure ignorance. Especially as a man, trying to make it in something can feel like life or death, make or break. You need focus, and that comes from fewer things on your plate.

[Vali2003]

15 hours ago, Sandroew said:

Ah i see what you mean, its not that you are not taking breaks for 4-5 hours, but thats the total amount you can spend on high quality work in a day.

Yes.

I usually take a ~1 hour break after 2 hours of focused work. And then do 2 more hours. 

I’m trying to build a ghostwriting business. I’m not sure if it’s a great idea, but an online service has the lowest barrier and risk to start and some people seem to make good money in ghostwriting. Specifically I focus on writing e-mail courses that can be used as a lead magnet to get more newsletter sign ups.

I used to do something similar as you. I did 50 minutes of work, and then 10 break minutes and repeat. I like to do longer periods now, because you build more momentum. Also, after every break, I got the urge to procrastinate again, which costs energy to overcome.

How many hours of focused work do you get done? 

Edited August 25 by Vali2003

[Vali2003]

11 hours ago, Basman said:

I've heard that people on average only do focused work for 3-5 hours a day. That's about the human norm, I believe.

Yeah, I think that’s probably true for highly demanding tasks, where you’re stretching your abilities. Like practicing the violin, learning calculus or something like that.

 

 

[Vali2003]

11 hours ago, MarkKol said:

Recently, I found out that to successfully build a business, or in other words to have the best chances at succeeding, you're supposed to have a hyper-focused time in your life where you decide that all you're going to do is do the work required, show up everyday, and do nothing else, and you do this until it starts working and it slowly gets easier each step after that (I'm guessing this part!)

So what does that look like? Probably something like getting a part-time job to support you while you do it, maybe using your savings to move to a country with a low cost of living for months or years. I'm assuming this process takes a minimum of 6 months.

Full-time job + building a business? Probably not the best bet.

You might be walking a fine line, living with your parents or family can make it easier. Especially if your parents are supportive, this is a gift that not many have. Many parents envision their kids being wage slaves for life out of pure ignorance. Especially as a man, trying to make it in something can feel like life or death, make or break. You need focus, and that comes from fewer things on your plate.

You’re on point with hyper-focused time being the most important thing. I’ve also started time-blocking the tasks I want to get done prior to starting the day. I basically allot a time I think is realistic to my tasks, then put on a timer for that time and try to get it done within that frame. It puts a little pressure on you to really concentrate which is nice. Also it enables some deliberate practice, because you can try to set the timer a little bit lower than you think it would normally take you. However, this also runs the danger of doing a sloppy job just to get it done in time. 

Also, yeah, full-time job while building a business is unrealistic for most people. Especially in the beginning, it will take much more than  free 4-hours per day which you may have maximally, if you work a 9-5.

I’m in university right now, so I’ll have to see how much high quality work I’ll be able to get done consistently. But my degree isn’t very time-intensive so I think it’ll be fine. 

[Sandroew]

10 hours ago, Vali2003 said:

How many hours of focused work do you get done? 

If im not stressed out i can probably do 4 hours of focused mental work as well. It never occurred to me to measure how much of my work is high quality, im just trying to do the best i can and if i notice that im getting too distracted or something i take a break or do something else.

I dont know anything about your line of work, but it seems like you know what you are doing. Good luck!