My last job at a startup was good craic. I am generally one of the more chatty + whimsical people in an office. But, though goofing around with my colleagues was alright its not my ideal way of spending my time.

I just thought that work was sucking away my life! I will try and explain it using numbers in a very ad-hoc manner...

Lets say the desirability of spending time working really hard and focusing on interesting (but not your own work) is 50%. Working less efficiently on interesting (but not your own work) in an atmosphere of bonhomie and craic with your colleagues is 60%. Doing exactly what you want(hobbies, working on your own ideas ,time with friends etc) is 100% Also just for reference the desirability of spending time cleaning the house and paying bills and crap is 0%.

In my last job I was spending 8 hours per day (out of 16 waking hours) at work at 60%, another few hours at 0% (lets say 4) and only a few at 100% (lets say the remaining 4) That leads to an average of about 55% for the day.

Contrast this to working intensely and without distraction for 4 hours, the same 4 hours of chores, and then the remaining 8 hours of doing whatever you want. This leads to a daily average of 62.5%

This is all made up and incredibly rough but the 2nd scenario will yield a higher average unless you greatly desire work with craic over intense focused work, or you desire work with craic almost as much as doing whatever you want.