How hard do you think you work?

Hard.

This question is hard.

It’s already 9:54pm my time and really, I should be settling down and getting on with my freelance work. But I’ve written draft after draft of this blog post, and I can’t get something out that is anywhere remotely satisfying to me.

I started out writing about my work ethic. And then I moved on to wanting to embed a video of a beautiful comedy sketch I just saw by comedien Michael Workman – partly because his name has the word “Work” in it… but mostly because I wanted to get out of answering this prompt.

Ask me this question when I was working full time as my company’s web bunny, and I think this post would have been a lot simpler. But now that I have a job and a half… then it’s not so straightforward. On the one hand, I’m exhausted by the day’s end before I even get to the freelance work because I’d just spent 12 hours simultaneously cleaning the house, cooking 3 meals, and engaging with a curious toddler. But on the other hand, the mental stimulation, the brain work only truly starts from 8pm every night.

What is the measure of effort? Is it time spent? Or is it how spent you feel when time runs out? Lately in my case, I fulfill both descriptions quite easily. I’m not sure if it qualifies me as a hard worker or an inefficient one. But ironically, I can’t dwell on the subject any longer because I need to get on with actual work instead of just talking about it.