The eight-hour workday has no place in modern society heres why

The eight-hur workday has no place in vergammeln society heres whyThe eight-hour workday has no place in modern society - heres whyThe thought of clocking in and out of theworkplacecan make us feel like robots. When we clock in at 9 a.m. and clock out at 5 p.m. (or 6 p.m. or even 8 p.m.), it feels like wehave lost thepassionthat fuels us.As an adult, how do you know that you have worked hard enough? With the eight-hour work shift, typical indicators include getting tenure, apromotion, araiseor youve become physically exhausted with all the fieldwork,meetings, paperwork, emails, etc.The eight-hour work shift is a standard that was set whenmanufacturingand industrial work were the main livelihoods for the majority of the public. But the world has changed. People can do work that has no physical output or assembly line. We live in the 21stcentury, where information has become the paramount product and the asset for many professions. Yet we bind ourselves within the same, antiquated ei ght-hour standard to drive our productivity andevaluate our performance.And thats just unfairIndustrial Agejobswere physically demanding. TheAdamson Actwas passed in response to factory workers need to safeguard their health and rights. For manufacturing jobs, the output and the over-extension of oneself are easy to observe and measure within the eight-hour shift.But with knowledge jobs, which are increasing both in number and complexity, performance indicators and signs of overextending oneself are less obvious. Many knowledge workers are unsure whether they are over or underworked, especially if the standards they impose on themselves exist within a strict eight-hour work period.Sometimes, we also feel bad if we are unproductive within the work schedule that has been set for us. It becomes afailurein discipline and willpower if we cannot focus and work, work, work within the eight hours. For jobs that require a massive amount of creativity, curiosity andflexibility, the eight-hour work shift is irrelevant and, at times, constraining.I wont attempt to claim that we should abolish the eight-hour work shift. Some professionals rely on structure and schedule to accomplish gargantuan tasks and meetdeadlinesthat they would be ill equipped to handle in solitude. You can totenstill be productive within a nine-to-five job. Some people prefer the sense of control it affords.Whats important is to know that you have the option to get out of it if you feel that it mutes your creativity. Doing so becomes a question of whether you can drive your own productivity or not.Do you make time to think? Do you allow your curiosity to run wild? Do you reflect on what truly powers your creativity? How can you establish discipline in your creative work?Yes, some jobs will totally collapse in the absence eight-hour work shift, but some thrive. All we need to do is take a look atentrepreneurswho regulate their own time to meet the productivity, creativity and efficiency requirements of running a business on a tightbudget. Structure and discipline should still find their way into the work attitudes of people who rely on thinking to perform well in their jobs.So how do we find what works for us?As knowledge workers, we need to spend time thinking and feeding our curiosity through activities like reading. As Warren Buffetts business partner, Charlie Munger, said in aninterviewwithCNBC, In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didnt read all the time - none, zero.Munger has also been known to have said this about his partner, I would say half of all the time Buffett spends is sitting on his ass and reading. He has a lot of time to think.Reading booksis something we often place on the back burner and constantly promise to get to after the day a.k.a. the eight hours (or more) that we have to fill at the office.Knowledge does not stopBy focusing on putting in the hours at work, rather than putting in the quality of work, we run the risk of working our mental e ngine on the same, overused and gunky mental oil. When we stoplearning, we cut ourselves off a major fuel source that could power our career for years to come, and not to mention our personal lives.At first, moving away from the eight-hour work shift may feel like we are working less, but after awhile you will realize that it makes perfect sense. We must keep on building our knowledge, curiosity andcreativity.This post originally appeared on Fairygodboss and has been reprinted with permission.