Forty hour work week? [30-June-25]

Is it time for an update?

Hello there!

It’s a slightly late newsletter this week—and you’ll soon see why!

How have you been? Hit “reply” and let me know! Housekeeping stuff below as usual!

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How many hours is too many?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself this week.

I’ve worked about 50 hours clinically so far —including an on-call shift that, while not busy all night, still knocks my sleep around quite significantly. (Side note: I’m counting the 10-ish hours during the day, since I only had to physically go in for about 45 minutes overnight. But honestly—how do you count the rest? Open to suggestions.)

By Friday and Saturday, I was toast. I came home and... face planted. No creative urge, no errands, no energy. Just the couch, early sleep, or both. So much so that even on Sunday when I had the chance to sleep in, things were more sluggish than normal (and I couldn’t even articulate what I wanted to say in the newsletter, hence the slight delay).

Depending on how you count the on-call hours, that decline in energy hit somewhere around 30–35 hours in. Which got me thinking: is the 40-hour work week even a useful benchmark anymore?

We know the 40-hour week was born during the industrial revolution as a hard-won limit—intended as a cap, not a baseline. Yet today it’s treated as a default, even a minimum. If you’re not working at least 40, are you even trying?

But what if 40 is too much? At least for some of us, some weeks?

This isn’t just about personal preference—there’s plenty of evidence that performance improves when people are well-rested. This is why in critical industries like aviation, pilots have strict maximum hours that they’re allowed to fly. The rest of the working world clearly missed that memo…

Of course, questioning the 40-hour standard is a kind of luxury—especially in a time of cost-of-living pressure, where many people are forced to work more just to get by. But maybe that’s all the more reason to ask: what would a humane work culture look like? One that doesn’t just measure hours, but honors the invisible cost of disrupted sleep, night shifts, or on-call stress. One that lets us find our own limits and rhythms, rather than contort ourselves to old norms.

This week reminded me that my own ideal might be under 40, maybe even 30-35. That recovery takes time. And that there’s wisdom in noticing when your body says: enough.

Have you ever tried to find your optimal number?

In the meantime, here’s Luna keeping me company as I veg out

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Interesting finds + creative updates

I really had no time this week to even read/create. Instead, here are some things from the past and also some interesting news/products that didn’t make the cut in previous newsletters or I haven’t had a chance to actually try myself…

Creative

• Youtube - Riding a Waymo in SF - with Tesla release the RoboTaxi, here’s a look at my experience riding a driverless car in SF last year

• randInt - Burnout recovery - an old episode on the podcast but one that’s relevant to todays topic of the newsletter

Read/Listen

• 3D printed recyclable “glass bricks” - new materials for a recyclable future

• Your brain on ChatGPT - MIT study that looks at the effects of using AI on our brains

Gadgets

• Self-warming jacket* - it’s winter in Melbourne and this is something I’ve been meaning to try. Essentially uses something like a powerbank to keep the jacket interior warm.

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Weekly Update

I won’t bore you with the work updates, so here’s some of the more interesting things I did in the past week:

• While waiting to head to my next workplace, I pulled into Chadstone Shopping Centre, pulled into Chadstone Shopping Centre which is hosting an exhibit by the artist CJ Hendry - it’s a maze full of locks you try to open

• Was given tickets to the EV car show that happened over the weekend. Found an hour to go and check out some of the up-and-coming models.

• Took my mum to the newest park in Melbourne’s CBD. The nearby apartment building also runs as a hotel, and the concierge kindly gave us a tour of the stunning interior.

Photos and a bit more over on the blog.

That’s all for this week! Hopefully, I can reveal some exciting travel plans in the next edition. For those paid supporters, quote of the week coming up for you to ponder…

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Quote of the week

This week it’s from an author and a quote that I need to keep in mind most days…