Ask HN: How to Work Fewer Hours? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Work Fewer Hours?

3 pointsarmagon6 comments

The gist of this question is, what can I do differently so as to work fewer hours and have more time for enjoying life?

I'm the sole income earner and need to provide for my family. I find it difficult to put in all the hours I need to in a day. (Theoretically, I'm a salaried employee, but I also need to account for eight hours five days a week).

I want to be there for my family. My son built a game and would like to put it up on the internet. My wife has written a novel and it needs proof-reading, and so on.

I go to bed tired and wake up the same way. I am actively looking into improving my health. I did just get back from a vacation, but, well, needed a vacation from my vacation.

What can I do?

I haven't talked to HR where I work. Would that accomplish anything? (I am a programmer, and am in demand; maybe there isn't too much downside). Maybe I could ask to work fewer hours in a day -- but I fear that might mean I lose benefits. [I would expect to be paid less; I would have to weight the pros and cons].

Starting my own business -- I tried; it went nowhere. (I did learn a fair bit, high among it being that I can't stand marketing). And I don't have the oomph for a side-gig right now.

Looking for other jobs -- maybe. Suppose I did; are other employers likely to, say, let me work six hour days?

I did look into taking a stress leave. Here in Alberta, Canada, I could do that for a few weeks, and get something like half my income from the government, which honestly is great, but even though I wouldn't say money is tight, it would be a struggle to get by.

Regarding sleep I found a great tip in Matt Mochary’s book The CEO Within.

The idea is that you want to sleep in multiple of 1.5 hours. This is the length of one sleep cycle.

When I started doing this I woke up fully rested. I find myself rested even after 6 hours and definitely after 7.5 hours. I find that if I wake inside a cycle, I’m tired, even if I’ve slept 8 hours.

Contact me through my profile if you have questions or need more information.

Have you had a sleep study done to see if you have sleep apnea?

The real indicator for me, in your post, is that you're objectively working 'normal' 8hr days, and yet still go to sleep and wake up tired. It's the exhaustion that's the issue, not the work-day (if truly constrained to 8-9hrs or less).

Thank you for the reply. I think the area of my health most out of whack is my mental health, although I did recently learn that I have a number of allergies and food aversions.

Some nights I'd like to go to bed earlier (and often I do get to bed at a decent time), but my wife likes to stay up late because the house is finally quiet with the kids asleep, and sometimes that keeps me up.

I'll make a mental note to look into sleep apnea.

I entirely understand where you're coming from. I've always been the one to fall asleep hours before my partner, and it causes friction.

I had a bunch of other words here that can really be boiled down to ; there's a very very good chance that something health/physical related is causing or amplifying those mental health balance struggles. I speak from experience, not just rando internet advice :)

> I entirely understand where you're coming from. I've always been the one to fall asleep hours before my partner, and it causes friction.

Nice to hear I'm not alone here.

> I had a bunch of other words here that can really be boiled down to ; there's a very very good chance that something health/physical related is causing or amplifying those mental health balance struggles. I speak from experience, not just rando internet advice :)

I believe it.

I'm actively trying to improve my health, but results come in the medium-/long-term, and I'm feeling the struggle in the day-to-day.

It's the process of identifying it that takes time. If it were sleep apnea, especially severe, a few days to a week of change would be enough to elicit a mental health shift.

The same generalities probably apply to other subtle health issues that can have 2nd order mental health effects.

edit - you're in AB, right next door to me. Go to your GP (and/or find a GP via walk-in by asking for a blood panel / urine test). Have them check for diabetes risks, acth (cortisol) levels re: apnea, and probably a fair few other things that you can at least then check off as invalid.

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