Last week, I had an interesting conversation with my young associate attorney/marketing manager, Jamie Smith, about the necessity of work-life balance and the impact that rest has on productivity and job performance. We discussed a podcast she’d listened to recently, describing how performance in the modern workplace is often measured by how many hours an employee works as opposed to the employee’s actual production, causing employees to sacrifice vacations, family commitments, or personal interests in order to log more time at work. This trend has resulted in an unanticipated—albeit unsurprising—paradox: people who work less are generally more productive and perform better than individuals who work around the clock.

Afterward, Jamie thanked me for assessing performance based on work product instead of work hours and for cultivating a working environment that promotes a balanced lifestyle. But the truth is, I have subscribed to the notion that she described for many years now—working hours, like most anything, are governed by the law of diminishing returns. Back in the earlier days of my practice, I generally worked seven days a week, day and night—I distinctly remember being in my office every Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon for many years. It was only after I realized the toll that my constant working had on my personal life that I took measures to achieve a more reasonable balance between work and play.