It is customary for people to refer to jobs as “9 to 6 jobs” or “9 to 5” jobs. Well it sounds odd, does it not? Why should anybody work from 9 in the morning to 5pm? and then for some more time? Are we productive for 8/10 hours a day? Really in all jobs?

Let us say you are a fund manager or even just a Research guy hoping to become a fund manager – can you really work 9 hours a day? You got to be joking. You cannot. Surely not for 6 days a week and an occasional Sunday.

WE actually have no clue how a brain worker has to work. This 8 hour a day for 6 days a week was for the railroad worker. He was supposed to work till he got exhausted. And on Sunday he was supposed to go to the church. Ha, now call me communal !!

If we go to the gurukul days of yore, the kids woke up at 3.30 am (Brahma Muhurtha), did meditation at that hour, then learnt some things from their guru, cooked food and washed clothes. In the afternoon they SLEPT, in the evening they went to the forest to pick firewood, they played and slept off at sunset. It is obvious that if you have to get up at 3.30 am you need to sleep at say 8pm at least!

So how does a schedule like this look:

3.30 wake up, Meditation.

4.30 to 6am Write research reports

6 to 8am Exercise, breakfast, etc.

8 to 8.30 : sleep

8.30 to 11.30: read balance sheets or MDA

11.30 to 12.30 write research reports

12.30 to 13 Lunch

13 to 15   sleep

15 to 17 talk to clients

17 to 19 THINKING time

19 Dinner

20 long stroll…meet or talk to friends, relatives, clients,…generally unstructured..read some generic stuff

23 sleep

Maybe this is how the ‘brain’ worker is supposed to work? Why should a research guy work like a rail road unionised worker? you got to be joking, right?

We have no clue what is ‘mentally exhausting’. Physically exhausting is what we captured during the Industrial revolution. Maybe a Math professor creates tools for personal finance because that is his hobby. Maybe a bond trader does a violin performance for 2 hours for his whole team at 5pm? Or a doctor does a triathlon?

Do we know how one activity rubs off on the other? Do we not get up in the morning with a very clear solution of a problem that our subconscious mind solved? So why not go for a long walk with 2 juniors? Or even better play some football with kids in the nearby ground? Or go swimming at 4pm? None of us are anyway able to switch off completely except when we are sleeping OR doing something else which needs concentration. You might be better off taking two hours in the after noon to stay at home thinking about some difficult problem. Or go for a mid-day swim to think why something isn’t working. Or have a 6am Joggers meeting for designing a new strategy for a client who has some fresh competition?

What about deciding that Fridays will be kept aside for meeting friends and relatives, Saturday for household chores, and Sunday for spending time with the family in the neighborhood part (no tv or phone day)? Maybe on Monday you are ready for some good research work? And all this helps you to work till your age of 69 instead of 55 – at present?

There are many times when I am thinking of some problems while I am mechanically cycling or running. AT this stage am I cycling or working from a ‘non-office’ office?

Take time off and think of these things instead of wondering why is this guy up at 2am to post some incoherent thoughts? That is my prerogative. At 8am I will be sleeping in an Indigo flight to Bengaluru where I meet a bunch of smart and sharp doctors.