Many Gen Z say they want a life outside of work. To firmly shut their laptops at 5 p.m.—and a significant chunk will even quit their jobs if their boss messages them after hours. But Arianna Huffington has a reality check for them: No one with an “interesting job” can do that.
Despite having well-earned flexibility—she’s built a $100 million net worth after co-founding The Huffington Post in 2005, selling it to AOL for $315 million, and now running her next venture, the wellness startup Thrive Global—she still doesn’t have a hard cut-off time.
“I don’t think there is anybody with an interesting job who can do that,” Huffington tells Fortune. “For you, or me, or most people with interesting jobs, there is never a time when you have a natural ending to the day.” Essentially, the work never really ends.
It’s why she can’t say what time she finishes the workday. It’s not static. Huffington says she stops when all the “important things” are done, and nearly always has work left over for the next morning.
And actually, she argues, if you can tick off everything on your to-do list and finish up on time every day, then it’s perhaps a sign you’re not challenged enough in your current job.
“I tell people that if you can finish everything before you go to sleep, you don’t have an interesting enough job,” she cautions. “You should change jobs, because any interesting job means that things are not complete day by day.”
Arianna Huffington says it doesn’t actually matter how many hours you work, as long as you get the right amount of sleep first
Huffington knows the dangers of overwork better than most. While pulling 18-hour days to build Huffington Post in 2007, she passed out in her home office from sheer exhaustion. She hit her head on her desk on the way down, broke her cheekbone, and woke up in a pool of blood.
But she still hates the word “balance“—and says long hours aren’t the problem. The answer isn’t doing less. It’s doing more: more sleep, more nutrition, more recovery to support that level of intense work.
“It’s important not to think in terms of hours, but in terms of fuel for yourself,” Huffington says. “Have you given yourself the fuel to renew yourself, to recharge yourself, and start again?”
For most people, that starts with sleep. Unless you’re one of the rare people with a genetic mutation that makes you a true “short sleeper,” she says most adults should be aiming for seven to nine hours a night. “If you get your optimal number, that’s critical for how effective you are at work,” Huffington insists.
What’s key is starting from a full tank rather than trying to run on empty.
“As long as people get the sleep they need, the exercise they need—whatever that is, walking or strength training, or both—that’s also important,” she explains. “It’s not about how many hours, it’s about how much are you feeding your body and your soul.”
And work, she says, can play a part in that: “Work is also incredibly fulfilling. I love my work. I actually don’t really separate my work from the rest of my life. I’m very blessed to be doing something I love, with people I love, so as long as I take enough time to recharge—be with my family and friends, work out and have time to eat healthy—then I love what I do the rest of the time, working.”
