Difference between Duration and Work

Work and duration are major parts of our daily life and we often use the two words in place of each other although that is not right. The two words duration and work are different to each other and we will discuss some major differences between the two in the following article.

Duration is the measure of the time taken to complete a work or a time during which something continues. Work, in contrast, is the measure of how much work has been done in a period of time or the measure of the activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result. Another difference is that duration can be measured in seconds, hours or days but work is measured in amount for example 1, 2, 3; we normally say that two out of three tasks or works have been completed and so on.

The way in which we use the two words also differs. Note that a very important difference is that although we use both the words to make conclusions regarding tasks completed or not; it must be noted that whereas work can be done, duration is not something that can be done or physically performed. For example if Jack is making a cake and it took him 5 hours to make it, then his work will be that he is making a cake and the time ‘duration’ is 5 hours or if Adam is watching TV since 2 hours then his work will be that Adam is watching TV and his duration will be 2 hours. These examples from our daily lives help to explain how it is possible to define the same thing by using either of work or duration.

We commonly use the word work without understanding the implications and connotations of its use. In fact, to be precise, there are 7 types of work: Work as in project management; this type of work defines the efforts that we put to complete a task; Job; in this work we put in our efforts and in exchange we our paid. Then comes paid work in which an employer hires a worker to work or perform a task and the worker gets paid for giving his/her time and energy. The next in the list is manual work which is the work that we normally do; it refers to any work in which we use our energy to do it by our hands and not just resort to an automated machine. House Work is the work of the house that we all know about; it includes all sorts of house chores such as dusting, cleaning, washing of dishes, clothes and other such domestic activities. Another type of work that is quite interesting is Creative Work which defines creative efforts put in by the worker. This type of work has great value in today’s world as the creativity and innovations decide the fate of many products in certain industries. Last but not the least is Work life-this is the group work between two parties.

Similarly, there are different types of durations as well, that we commonly use or refer to in our daily lives. Some of the examples are: Duration (Music); this duration is utilized for music; Duration (Philosophy); a time in consciousness that was set up by Henri Bergson; Duration (project management); a time given to complete a project; and the last is Bond Duration; it is the duration of a bond.

Another difference is that we can’t see duration but we can see work being done physically. Moreover, duration is more to do more with time and hence never stops; work, however, depends on the worker who determines whether the work will continue or it will stop.

Summary Points

1. Duration is a time in which something continues and work is a physical or mental effort to achieve a goal.

2. There are 7 types of duration: Work (project management), Job, Paid work, Manual work, House work, Creative work and Work life. There are 4 types of duration: Duration (music), Duration (Philosophy), Duration (project management) and Bond duration

3. Work done can be seen physically but duration cannot be seen physically.

4. Duration cannot always be determined by the person performing the task; work done is determined by the worker

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