How to stop working at 5 pm (or whatever time you prefer)

Plus references to three television shows across six decades. But no chocolate or cats, just to mix things up.

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here. 

When I was a kid, a local TV station played The Flintstones reruns at noon. I have strong memories of eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, watching the characters walk past repeating backgrounds and wondering why they had cars but no shoes. I particularly loved the title sequence, in which the foreman pulls the ‘quitting time’ whistle and off Fred goes to his life.

Imagine that: a quitting time. Yabba dabba do indeed.

The flexibility of academic work is a great privilege. Outside of scheduled class times, laboratory hours, and meetings, many people working in academia have the discretion to set their own schedules and work remotely. Many of us can work our schedules to be able to attend a child’s mid-afternoon school event or plan for a 4 pm tennis game. We can organize much of our work lives around our natural early bird or night owl tendencies if we so choose.

But because academic work time does not have strict time and space boundaries, it can expand quickly. The flexibility to work in the wee hours of the morning and in the evenings and on weekends and from the bleachers while ‘watching’ a child’s basketball game can morph into working such hours on top of normal work hours. 

For some people, this is fine, or even ideal. If you enjoy working long hours and long weeks, have at it. 

But for many others, this is not feasible nor desirable. You may have family responsibilities. A desire to contribute to your community. A goal to complete a half-marathon. A passion for reading, art, or sports. You may, like me, have health reasons to limit your work hours.

In the absence of a prehistoric cartoon foreman pulling the quitting time whistle, you need to do it yourself. Here is one way to do so.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Establish a Quitting Time

Establishing a quitting time puts a boundary on the end of your workday. Some people have this already in place due to transit schedules or the need to pick up a child from daycare. For the rest of us, it requires some planning. Try these three steps.

1. Decide. What is a realistic time for you to finish your workday?  You may not have complete freedom to set a time, but within the degrees of freedom you do have, when do you want to be done? Consider your personal factors (commute, caregiving responsibilities, and so forth) and job responsibilities (such as class schedules, required office or laboratory hours) and then set a time. 

As you do so, decide as well what ‘quitting time’ means to you. 

• Will you do any work before the next workday? If so, what and for how long? Some people turn off work email, other people check it consistently. Many parents like to work a split shift - that is, working fewer hours during the traditional 9-5 workday and then working for a set period of time after their children go to bed. 

• Under what circumstances will you make exceptions to your set quitting time? There will be times you need to be flexible, so decide what those will be. You may wish to create if/then rules: If it is a request from [specific individual, committee, or project] or a time-sensitive matter, then I will make an exception and work past quitting time. 

2. Put your quitting time in your calendar - and set up calendar reminders. Every Monday through Friday, I receive a calendar alert at the end of the day that reads “Yabba dubba do: It’s QUITTING TIME!” I set this up years ago and it still makes me smile. I set up alert reminders for 15 minutes before my quitting time (to remind me to start wrapping up my day) and then the actual time (when I turn off my computer). 

Be sure to select a reminder that you will be happy to receive. When The Office had a scene in which Andy used the song ‘Closing Time’ as an end-of-day tradition, I briefly considered setting a timer with that song. But I wisely thought better of this idea. That song is annoying.

3. Maintain your quitting time. A quitting time is a boundary on your time. Boundaries need to be communicated at times, so plan for this. (“I need to be done with all meetings by 5:30 pm.” “I am not available after 5 pm.”) The greater challenge can be self-control in the face of the urge to respond to ‘just one more’ email. Plan for this as well (“when I get my 15 minutes to quitting time alert, I will begin winding down my day.”)

To be sure, there will days when you choose or need to work longer. Such is life. Having a quitting time allows these days to be the exception. In my experience, this is a nice thing. Yabba dubba do. 

Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To

A quick update on some of my own activities since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:

• I have started a new workout program. While I have been a runner for decades (and aspire to be a runner for decades more), my strength training over the years has been hit or miss. Part of my issue has been starting off with much enthusiasm and overdoing it. After years (um, decades) of repeating this pattern, this time I have decided to start a program that is a bit too easy and focus just on the habit goal. I am one week in and haven’t quit yet, so it is a start.

• My most recent read: Deborah Copaken’s Ladyparts: A Memoir. Her tale made me grateful yet again to live in a country with a public healthcare system. She also gave me a new phrase: “ducking from turds in an endless shitstorm”. I anticipate using this regularly.

• Our family has been watching the detective series show Bosch. While I am less into it than other family members, I am a huge fan of the “Get off your ass and go knock on doors” sign over his desk. I think my equivalent for this is “Close your email and write something.” What is yours? Please hit comment and let me know!

Until next time…

If you enjoy reading Academia Made Easier, please be sure to sign up for the email list. Already on the list? Please forward this to three people who you like. As always, I appreciate your assistance to help build my readership.

Stay well, my colleagues. 

P.S. A fun random Flintstones tidbit: The Flintstones was one of the first TV shows to have a married couple sharing a bed (gasp!). Separate beds for couples was evidently a common thing from the 1850s to the 1950s, and seen as healthier: “Victorian doctors warn[ed] that sharing a bed would allow the weaker sleeper to drain the vitality of the stronger.” The article I read quoted a doctor arguing that “[y]oung females married to very old men suffer” from this theft of vitality. 

No doubt.

Loleen Berdahl, PhD: I am a twin mother, wife, runner, cat lover, and chocolate enthusiast. I spend far too much time on Twitter and binge-watching television, and my house could be a lot cleaner. During the work hours, I am the Executive Director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. I am the author of University Affair’s Skills Agenda column and my most recent books are Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD and Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science.