The 8/8/8 Rule Saved Me From Burnout and Improved My Mood
I was 30 minutes into a negative thought spiral on my hot girl walk when I first heard about the 8/8/8 rule. The spiral in question? A classic “I have no free time, life is slipping away from me, I’ll never have deep meaningful relationships the way I did as an adolescent”—you know the vibes. That’s when I heard Karena Dawn (founder of Tone it Up) on The Everygirl Podcast, sharing the simple way she organizes her day, and her explanation of The 8/8/8 Rule altered my brain chemistry. If you, too, are a workaholic who struggles regularly with work-life balance, I am here to pass on the wisdom of The 8/8/8 Rule for improving mood, stress levels, and feelings of burnout.
Disclaimer: I am by no means saying that this arbitrary numbered method is the way that humans were meant to live; sitting at a desk indoors with artificial light is arguably not the healthiest way to spend eight hours a day. However, corporate structures persist, and as long as I exist within them, I find this simple rule to be a helpful framework for organizing my day. Take what works for you, and leave the rest. Here’s everything you need to know about The 8/8/8 Rule: what it is, why it’s helpful, and how to incorporate it into your life.
In this article
What Is The 8/8/8 Rule?
The 8/8/8 formula centers around the idea of dividing your day into three eight-hour blocks, so you’re looking at your 24 hours in three separate categories instead of as a whole: Eight hours for sleep, eight hours for work, and eight hours for you. The “you” eight hours may look like three hours in the morning before work and five hours at night. Perhaps you prefer to take an hour in the middle of your day or start your workday a little later. Whatever your schedule and constraints, you can flex time to fit into this framework.
Why Is It Helpful?
It’s no secret that many of us struggle with finding balance in our daily lives. If you love a rubric like me, this method can be a helpful guide for organizing your life with balance. It’s a way to structure both your free time and work time to ensure you’re making the most of it. Most of us think of work as the majority of our days: any time before we start work is just time to set up our day for work, and any time after work is spent unwinding from work before bed. Those eight hours are dictating all 24 hours of our day. But if you work the standard eight hours a day, work is not the majority of your awake hours; it’s only half of them. This reframe can help us be a lot more intentional about how we’re spending that time.
Looking at 24-hour days in three different blocks also avoids letting one block dictate others. When you look at your day as a whole, it’s easy to want to lay on the couch until bedtime and then get to bed late because you want to keep bingeing Netflix after a stressful workday. But if you look at your day like three separate blocks, your stressful work day does not have to affect the eight hours you spend not working or the eight hours you spend sleeping. “When you look at [your day] this way instead of time running you, the anxiety about time will go down,” Dawn said on The Everygirl Podcast. I can attest that this is true—once your day is structured around this method, all of that “I don’t have enough time stress” really dwindles.
Breaking Down The 8/8/8 Rule
The First Eight Hours: Sleep
Sleep might just be the most underrated wellness hack. It’s not as sexy as your supplements, it doesn’t photograph as well for your vision board, but it truly is step one for a healthy life. If you aren’t sleeping, all the other stuff you’re trying to optimize is kind of like pouring water into a cracked glass. But how much sleep do we really need? An average of eight hours of sleep has been shown to improve cognitive function, energy levels, emotional regulation, and more. Age, genetics, lifestyle, and activity can mean this number looks a little different for everyone (if you’re more of a 10-hour girl, more power to you!), but eight is a good rule of thumb.
The Middle Eight Hours: Work
This one can get a little dicey for the entrepreneurial types or go-getters with a 14-hour workday mindset. On the flip side, eight hours might seem daunting for those who desire a life of frolicking and leisure. If you (like me) tend to flip-flop between these two modes, the eight hours of work is a great place to start setting work-life boundaries and optimizing productivity.
If you have more of a grindset and think that eight hours isn’t enough for your goals, it may be worth taking a closer look at how you’re spending that time. Are there tasks that you could streamline? Are there meetings that could be emails? Evidence suggests that as we decrease our working hours, we become more productive. Maybe setting boundaries around when you’re logging on and off for the day can help you maximize the time you are at work.
For those working outside of the “9-5” structure, this can be a helpful guide for setting up your work-life balance too. If you find you’re most creative in the morning, maybe you set aside three hours for work, take some leisure time in the middle of the day, and finish those five hours later. If you have a five-hour shift, maybe you’re blocking out three hours to work on a side hustle or taking a course to further your skills. Those eight hours don’t necessarily have to be spent in a formal workplace but are meant to be time dedicated to your professional life.
The Final Eight Hours: Time For Yourself
Thinking about my time outside of work in this way was a seismic shift for me. I realized that I viewed my time outside of work in the context of work. My morning routine was time to get ready for it; my evening routine was spent recovering for the next day. Applying The 8/8/8 Rule made me realize that this time I was qualifying as peripheral is actually a third of my life. Thinking about those eight hours as being dedicated to personal joy helped me be more intentional with that time. What do I want to do? What will fill my cup? What things do I want to check off my list?
I’ve been spurred to commit to weeknight activities: something to force me to clock out, log off, and get away from a screen. Reclaiming this time (and not being afraid to make plans) has helped me show up to work with more energy. I am a rot-on-the-couch gal to my core, and it was tough to force myself out of that routine. Turns out, when you make the plans, you may actually leave more energized afterward. If you’re finding yourself creeping toward burnout, remember that it’s not your job to spend precious eight free hours solely preparing to take on the next eight hours of work again. How often do we let our workday stress bleed into our post-work plans? If your life outside work means you need more caffeine when you clock in the next day, that’s OK, too.
These eight hours are so essential. Be intentional with them. Do things that light you up, do things that rejuvenate you, and consider them to be just as important as any work commitment you have. We know that hobbies are critical to our well-being, and we know that community is essential for our health. This time block should be dedicated to exploring those things and creating your best, most balanced life.
Final Thoughts
This is not a one-size-fits-all method. Many factors, including your profession, your commute, and your particular sleep needs might shift these hours around a bit. Even if the particulars of The 8/8/8 Rule aren’t for you, you can still benefit from committing equal energy and intention to these three areas of your life. It’s kind of like “work hard, play hard,” except you also get a solid eight hours of sleep. Now that’s the kind of work-life balance we all deserve.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Abigail Moseman, Social Media Assistant
As the Social Media Assistant at The Everygirl, Abi works with the Social Media Editors to ideate and create content, and build community across all of The Everygirl’s social channels. When she’s not working diligently on The Everygirl’s TikTok, she coaches group fitness classes at Equinox. More
