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I Took Control of My Time. I Still Work More.
And I know I’m not alone in this.
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Looking back over my eight years of corporate IT, I’ve noticed I’ve never really worked a 40-hour week — not in the traditional way. Work has expanded beyond the usual 8-to-5 boundaries. And I’m sure I’m not alone on this. The only difference? I chose it (at least for the bulk part of it). Since work took up so much of my life, I have asked myself how it had gotten that way. Had I chosen to do this or had work quietly taken over my calendar?
I’ve tried different ways to manage my time over the years like turning off notifications, blocking out focus time, and even telling myself “No work after 6 PM, no matter what.” These boundaries worked…for a while. I also chose to view the many extra hours as “learning & development time” that would benefit me in the long run. This way of thinking worked pretty well for me in the beginning.
As I took on new roles and more complex responsibilities, I found myself more and more conscious of tracking my time. I started logging my calendar like a journal — at first, just to track meetings and deadlines. But over time, it became a visual record of how I was spending my time.
