A 60-Hour Work Week is Not a Badge of Honour

Does 60 hours mean you're doing work the whole time, or is 1/2 of it browsing the Internet?

I like a 60 hour work week. There are several projects or even different "jobs" in that 60 hours. I like getting a lot done because I like the money it gets me.

I like the momentum of those 50 - 60 hour weeks. More importantly, makes it easier for those weeks I want to do a 20 hour or a 0 hours work week.

I can only draw from anecdotes, but those align with your suspicion: where overtime was mandatory (where management was largely about maximizing suffering ^1, as if suffering has any value by itself), everyone simply compensated by doing less real work per work hour. It does seem like many people have a fixed quantity of productive output, and the decision is simply about how much to spread it out.

This isn't true for all people. I've had weeks where I've worked 100+ hours productively because I was working on my own projects and initiatives, for my own company and enrichment, and had hit a stride. But I would never brag about that effort, because the effort itself is meaningless. Only the results of the effort mattered, and of those I am very proud. Too many brag about the effort regardless of what is often a lack of results.

^1 - http://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2013/03/05/mediocre-manager...

If you're not averaging 60/week then you're not really doing the "60-hour work week" thing.

I am doing do a degree and paying the bills by freelancing. So 50-60hr/wk, combined education and work, is something regular.

It is possible to sustain it, if you are an introvert like me. It's just important not to do the same thing all the time. My degree is focused on low level programming and hardware, and I mainly do AngularJS development for living. So this kind of switch definitely helps.

Other thing which is important, at least personally, is that when you take a break, you must do something that counts. Browsing internet just drains more energy, personally. But I find playing an action packed video game (if you can't bother to go outside - or if you live in North England like I do) quite recharging. [0]

[0] I wrote more about that in my blog http://blog.gedrap.me/blog/2014/02/09/its-all-about-the-shor...