Eight Days

The average person works 8 hours a day, five days a week. 

That means the average person spends 8 hours awake not on his or her career, and 8 hours asleep. 

That also means the average person spends 48 hours every weekend not working on their careers. 

Eight days every month are spent recharging on weekends. Add an extra seven days minus sleep if you count the fact it’s an 8-hour day. 

That’s 15 vacation days per month! 

I don’t do this. I’ve never done this. I was working on weekends by the time I hit double digits. 

I’m from hardworking, farm-bred Indiana stock. Our work ethic is high. 

But I see why people take their time off. 

Even if you are completely full of passion for your work, people build in that free time to recharge or to spend it doing other fulfilling things. 

But I recently have been putting every waking movement of my life into the body of work. A few months goes by, and I take a weekend off. 

One. 

That’s dramatically falling short of the norm. 

So, I left on April 18 for a teaching stint in the West Indies. 

As an experiment, I promised myself to work only the typical work week. 

I spent four hours max a day teaching, with the rest of the eight-hour day working on my projects.

That gave me eight extra hours per day. 

I was left with time. 

The first few days, I just stared out into the ocean.

I processed the last month I spent, working at full throttle. 

I processed the end of a relationship and the end of a separate friendship. 

I processed the changes and challenges of a difficult four months. 

And I realized something huge. 

By working full throttle, I was always on to the next subject, the next patient, or the next student to help. 

My reflection time was spent on a subway, writing these blogs. 

After 12 days on this island, I realized two things:

1. I certainly don’t need 8 days a month away from the work I love. 

2. I certainly don’t need to work 7 days a week at full throttle. 

3. I don’t need (or particularly like) whole weekends off. But a less rigid weekend schedule is restorative. 

Today is Grenadian Labor Day. 

We all were given the day off.

I spent my morning with 20 of the most dedicated medical students I’ve met, who were willing to talk anatomy on their national holiday. 

Had I worked the norm, I would have missed out on an amazing morning of learning, laughter, and engaging with future doctors. 

While we don’t fit the norm, we are a dedicated few on a mission. 

But in the attempt at balance, I will stare deep into the ocean a bit longer than usual today. 

You can work the norm. 

You can work to excess. 

But a productive, balanced life may lay somewhere in between the two. 

As always, it’s your call. 

– Dr. Kathy Dooley