As we start out in the month of May, it is beneficial to reflect on what May Day means to many countries. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. marched in support of the eight-hour workday. From that date, It actually took 54 years of struggle before we legislated the 40-hour week/8-hour workday.

We often take that 40-hour work week for granted, but it took a lot of sacrifice and determination on the part of our ancestors to bring this about. Yet now many of us seem to have switched back, voluntarily, to 60- or 80-hour weeks.

The question is, “Are you more productive?” When you work longer hours, are you actually getting more done, or do you find yourself bogging down later in the day and taking longer to accomplish things?

I have found that when I have clients specify a certain amount of time to do something, such as process email, and they know they cannot go over those scheduled minutes, they end up more focused and actually get more done because they have to prioritize and react. Without an end point, email can consume hours of your day. To test this process, set a timer for 20 minutes and see how productive you can be when you know that is all the time you will have.

The most common lament I hear is that we no longer have enough time for ourselves. It seems a shame that in our current situation we may be turning back the hands of time, echoing the workers over 120 years ago.