This is Steva Robbins. Welcome to the get it done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

I've been brainwashed, and it's probably cost me the better part of a decade of my life.

Seriously, it's entirely possible that you have been brainwashed too.

Usually my tips are things that I've tried and can vouch for.

Today, you're going to get to hear a tip that's still untried.

It's an attempt to unbrainwash myself and not make the same tragic, horrid mistake again.

For the last decade, I've been self-employed.

Oh, goody, people say when they hear that.

You have complete control over your time.

You get to take time off and travel the world in your private jet,

with minions standing by to give you shoulder massages. And every time you lean back,

they drizzle chocolate sauce onto your waiting tongue for your enduring pleasure. Alas,

that's a slightly mistaken impression. While I may only spend eight to ten hours a day in the office proper, I'm usually thinking about work for most of my waking hours.

Even on holiday, there's a back of the brain feeling that the time away from work is letting

something drop, and everything will explode at a moment's notice. If you count the time and attention

that work occupies in my brain, it's probably 12 hours a day, every weekday and most weekends.

That's somewhere between 60 and 84 hours every single week. That's one

heck of a work ethic, right? Now, in corporations, it's different. You actually work 40 to 50

hours a week, and the more hours you work, the more you build up vacation time and sick time

and benefits. And then finally, you can use a certain number of those days to rest and relax.

And therein lies the problem.

They say in business school that what gets measured gets managed. They also say time for a beer

...