What does Out of Hours really mean? And why does it matter?
New: Bonus Podcast Episode live!
Hello everyone!
The next season of Out of Hours is in the works - and the first episode will drop in a few weeks time.
This project is seasonal. I always want it to come from the heart, and sometimes you need fallow seasons to regroup, and I am so grateful for those of you who continue to support and listen to the show.
In the meantime, I wanted to take this moment to remind you what this podcast is all about, and why it’s called Out of Hours, and the slight changes for this next season.
In an unusual move, I’ve released a BONUS EPISODE that discusses all of this!
Out of Hours has always been a podcast about human potential. Originally it was focused on one way of achieving that potential - side projects, run outside of your main working hours. I think some of the coolest things in the world have started as side projects - many of which have been featured on this show:
Non-profits like Prison Yoga Project (which brings healing to prisons)
Homeboy Industries (the largest gang rehabilitation in the world)
Non-profits that helped thousands of vulnerable people during Covid, or helped bring mindfulness to cancer patients and busy parents, or aid to women in Nigeria.
Authors - studying happiness, the mind-body connection.
Comedians, newsletter writers like Polina from The Profile, Tim Urban from WaitButWhy, and founders of businesses like Deliciously Ella, Seedlip, Pizza Pilgrims, UsTwo, Allbirds, and Cafe Du Cycliste.
Thinkers like Benedict Evans, David Heinemeier Hanson and even interviewed the real life lawyer behind Dark Waters, the legend who unearthed the Teflons scandal and got thousands of people paid for the DuPont cover up.
But… what really links these people?
It’s not really that they have a side project. Lots of people have side projects that don’t impact the world.
What links these people is a sense of ‘If I don’t do this, who will?’ and ‘if one person is helped by this, it will have been worth doing’. it is this sense of these ideas being something we need to do.
Bronnie Ware, a hospice nurse, wrote a famous book which captured the top regrets she heard from the dying. This was the top one:
“I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me”
The true meaning of ‘out of hours’ is not just people working on things outside of work, and growing them into something bigger than you ever thought possible, but actually people following this rule: living lives true to themselves.
So this is what Out of Hours is all about. Doing more things that light you up, and living a life that is true to you.
On this show, we’ll talk about how to do the things you want to do, how to take your ideas seriously, and why you should be courageous. I’ll still speak to plenty of people with side projects that have grown into something huge, as well as academic experts on everything from time, motivation and creativity. Together we’ll understand the decisions people made that allowed them to live a life they want before they ran out of hours, and how you can do the same.
Episode 1 of the new season coming at the end of November.