4 Hour Life / 4HL

About

4 Hour Life, often abbreviated as 4HL, is a neologism referring to the amount of personal time someone has left in a 24-hour period after working for eight hours, sleeping for eight hours, commuting, and spending time with family. The term was popularized by technology lawyer and Twitter personality Paul Skallas and is commonly associated with Lindy.

Origin

On November 27th, 2018, Twitter user @PaulSkallas posted the earliest known tweet to use the phrase "4 Hour Life." The tweet^[2] gathered over 40 likes in over four years (seen below, left). In the following months, Skallas continued to discuss the "4 Hour Life," sometimes abbreviated to "4HL." Skallas also opines on the differences between the "12-hour class" (as in hierarchical social class) and the "4 hour class," where things such as politics, philosophy, climate change, and pop culture are best relegated to those with 12 whole hours of freedom. This includes politicians, business owners, academics, and the wealthy. A December 18th tweet^[3] by Skallas discusses the same (seen below, right).

On February 29th, 2020, Paul Skallas published a post titled "4 Hour Life Glossary" to his Medium^[1] blog, discussing the psychological differences between "4Hlers" and those living 12 Hour Lives.

Spread

Friday in the 4HL

On February 7th, 2020, Skallas posted the earliest known tweet^[4] to reference a phrase now popularly attributed to him; "Friday in the HL, you can really feel the pull of the weekend." The tweet gathered over 20 likes in over two years (seen below, left). On April 2nd, 2021, Skallas posted a Wojack he often associates with the 4HLer, and a simple graphic to illustrate the "pull" from the weekend. The tweet^[5] gathered over 100 likes (seen below, right).

The phrase "Friday in the 4HL and you can really feel the pull of the weekend" is also often used as a joke copypasta template on Twitter paired with various images and photographs. Twitter user @ElectionLegal often posts the phrase accompanied by photographs of Red Scare cohost Dasha Nekrasova.

On October 28th, 2022, @ElectionLegal tweeted^[6] the earliest known tweet from him containing a photo of Dasha alongside the copypasta, gathering over 400 likes in three months (seen below, left). On January 20th, 2023, Dasha tweeted^[7] a photo of Pericles with the same caption, gathering over 600 likes in nearly two week (seen below, right).

Twitter account @coldhealing, who often posts screenshots or videos from Day In The Life / Adult Daycare style TikToks, also often uses the phrase "Friday in the 4HL." On December 2nd, 2022, @coldhealing posted one such tweet^[8] gathering over 800 likes in two months (seen below, left). On January 24th, 2023, @coldhealing tweeted^[9] a TikTok screenshot alongside a caption that read, "so true queen enjoy your post-4HL lindywalk," gathering over 2,000 likes in a week (seen below, right). Lindywalk is in reference to Skallas's theory on "walking" being "Lindy."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References