10 hours a week...

I spent some time hanging with a Mister Suddard this past weekend without the usual time pressures, and he came out with what I'm going to call the 10 hour rule. He said that you shouldn't take a car apart unless you're willing to spend 10 hours a week putting it back together. That's an attainable but not inconsequential amount of time. Say, two hours a couple of nights a week, plus a Saturday afternoon. 

He's a good guy to listen to, because he manages to take cars like that junk Elan and turns them into legitimate vehicles in a reasonable timeframe while still putting out a magazine every three weeks and running a small publishing empire.

It's an interesting thought. I'm certainly not spending 10 hours a week working on cars right now, but when I think back there have been periods when I've been hitting those numbers reasonably well and coincidentally making good progress. I have a few projects that need to be finished so I'm going to see if I can adopt this practice again.

What things do you purposefully do in your life - besides work and general life maintenance like cooking - for 10 hours per week?

Put another way:

It has been postulated that you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become world class at something. (Think earning a PhD)

10 hours a week gets you there in 20 years.

10hrs is a lot.  If I have a very good video game on my hands I might play it for 10 hours per week.

Homeowner projects will hit in that range depending on motivation.

Exercise can exceed that from time to time, but most weeks it does not.

I don't know of anything I do that consistently exceeds 10h/week besides general life stuff & work.

My dad had his own business installing garage doors, and i grew up helping. I say that to illustrate the fact that i have been in a LOT  of different peoples garages. You would be amazed how many cool old cars go into the garage, get torn apart, then.....nothing. 

Care for/play with our sugar gliders(and other pets), but that’s closer to 18-hours/week. 

I spend close to 10-hours/week playing bass, but that sort of waxes & wanes. 

There are people who complete aircraft from a pile of parts or a rolled up set of plans in a year. 2,000 hours to airborne. That's a full time job, yet it's not uncommon in the world of homebuilt aviation.

They said that in the 914 articles back in the day. If you don't have the time to put it together, don't take it apart, and if you don't have 10 hours a week, you don't have the time to put it together. 

Sounds like a pretty decent guideline. I’ve recently decided to scale back on the DIY house projects and step up my eBay sales and pay for more house labor. I’d say my eBay stuff has been 10 hours a week for the last few weeks and it’s starting to pay off. (There’s some delay between gearing up listings and sales.) I’m aiming for 5-10 hours a week once things are geared up. All evenings; my days are packed. 

I've been spending 10 hours every week just organizing my garage so that I can work 10 hours per week on the car.  Then there's setting up the new house...

mazdeuce - Seth said:

They said that in the 914 articles back in the day. If you don't have the time to put it together, don't take it apart, and if you don't have 10 hours a week, you don't have the time to put it together. 

Well, this is probably the guy who wrote those articles, so he's not changed his mind 

He wrote something similar in one of his recent columns, and it struck a chord with me too.

In my head I've been calling it Tim's Law.

And I agree that following that guideline usually means I get a lot done.

I am so failing at this.  I'm really good at taking things apart. 

I don't even have the time to take things apart :-)

Why rush things ?  Who says there is a schedule around a recreational endeavor ?  Maybe I enjoy taking my time, as other commitments allow, to putz around with MY project ...

Robbie said:

It has been postulated that you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become world class at something. (Think earning a PhD)

Interesting- my son just spent 5 years in grad school x 40/45 hour weeks to earn a PhD in Chemistry.  He worked year round and put in his 10,000 hours.  

Now he’s putting in 2 more years doing post grad research - another 4,000 hours?  

I spend 10 hours a week exercising the dog.  I have a Weimaraner.  

If I waited until I could commit 10 hrs per week to a project it would never get started.  

My rule for the great white north is don’t take more apart than you can get back together by spring.  

I may get two hours per week on a project, some weeks none at all.  Maybe I need to work on my time management skills or get rid of the kids and dogs.

This weekend’s wedding has been taking more and more recently, but dad’s rule has certainly rang true for me. It takes 10 to move forward on a project. 

Congrats, Tom!

Interesting rule and one I wish I could stick to. Im more of the 20 hours once a month kinda thing.

Tom Suddard said:

This weekend’s wedding has been taking more and more recently, but dad’s rule has certainly rang true for me. It takes 10 to move forward on a project. 

I think you’re allowed to skip a couple of hours on the week you get married. Maybe even the one after. But then it’s back to work!

What a coincidence...same time goal I shoot for. And I usually figure 5 years to finish the project.

Pete

einy said:

Why rush things ?  Who says there is a schedule around a recreational endeavor ?  Maybe I enjoy taking my time, as other commitments allow, to putz around with MY project ...

The older I get, the more I am okay with projects taking longer. In my youth I wanted to get everything started and finished the same day or weekend. If I tried that now, my back wouldn't forgive me. Sometimes it's fine to slow down and spread the work out, especially if you're just doing it for fun and not trying to meet any deadline, self-imposed or otherwise.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

If you don't have the time to put it together, don't take it apart, and if you don't have 10 hours a week, you don't have the time to put it together. 

I dont think it's as much to do with time, but dedication. I LS swapped a not very commonly swapped car by only working on it 1-3 hours a week, total time was about 8 months. Obviously it would have gotten done a lot faster having put in more time, but in the end it actually go done. I think it's less dependent on your time you're able to dedicate to a project but how much drive you have to actually finish it. In my book if you are at least constantly chipping away at it then the time it takes to get done is irrelevant

Most folks spend way more than 10 hours per week watching TV or on the internet.