There are many open questions in science — Are we alone in the universe? What’s at the bottom of a black hole? When will I finally get my jetpack? — but according to Rest
Decades of science and a whole host of historical luminaries have all come to the same conclusion: if your work involves your brain, then the right answer is just four hours.
Don’t believe me? Then maybe this short Guardian article from consistently fascinating journalist Oliver Burkeman will convince you. In it, he boils down the impressively persuasive case for not trying to wring more than four hours of creative work out of your brain each day. It consists, essentially of three types of evidence.
Science
First, formal research backs up Pang’s assertion. Have you heard of the 10,000 rule? You’d think the need for so much practice would run counter to the idea that four hours of intellectual work a day […]
If a person is a farmer or even just have a large garden such as I do, you have to go with nature in your decision about how many hours to work. Most farmers I know who happen to be mostly Amish, have to work at least as many as 12 hours during this time of year. I find myself working 12 hour days just to keep up with the tomato processing and other chores such as pear processing. We have already gotten well over 200 pounds of pears off our 1 pear tree this year and they won’t wait for us. If we do not process them quickly, they just rot. The same is true of the tomatoes which we are processing today. We start at 8 in the morning on tomato processing day and finish at about 11-12 PM. That is a hard 15-16 hours of work which must be done. Nature forces us to this demanding schedule, and we have no choice if we want to survive the winter. We also spend many hours processing other foods for freezing, which require less time, but for people in our 70’s is quite strenuous. Nature takes no slackers, only dedicated, hard working people.