How to work 60h/week and not burn out

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I was scrolling through r/productivity on reddit earlier, looking at what questions people were asking there in the hopes of finding some inspiration for this newsletter. It delivered.

I came across a post from an 18-year-old guy who was asking for advice on how he could strive to become emotionally addicted to work so that he could get himself to put in 60 hours per week consistently for a year.

At 18, he explained that he wasn’t concerned about burnout or the negative consequences of overworking because he already went through it once before and, yes it took him months to recover, but he was still ready to go another round.

He went on to also say that he already did away with the goal of having any friends (which would take up some of his time), and his family lives hundreds of miles away so he’d be safe from them too.

He is convinced that that is what he needs to do in order to reach his financial goals and pay for his education.

His post really reminded me of myself in my early twenties. I had similarly terrible convictions but, thankfully, I now have the benefit of hindsight.

I remember working 50+ hour weeks for upwards of a year, having no time or energy for anything else. And I remember all too well the toll that that took, and how silly and avoidable it all was.

There are too many people online nowadays telling us, or most importantly, young adults, that working yourself to death is the way to succeed at life.

It most certainly isn’t.

And because hindsight is 20/20, it’s easy for me to see that this 18-year-old guy on reddit has easier options available that will get him just as far or further in life.

I replied to him in detail, but for the purpose of this newsletter, I’ll keep it more concise and focus on the following…

Here’s the thing about productivity: we are at our best, at our most productive, when we are well rested and happy.

Cutting out fundamentally important things such as family, friends and rest from your life is anything but a recipe for success.

We think more clearly, we make better decisions and we get work done faster when we are in a good place. Being busy is decidedly not the same as being productive.

To quote Tim Ferriss, (who I quote often in this newsletter for good reason), “being busy is a form of laziness”.

Almost nobody is productive for 60 hours a week. Working 60 hours means that you will probably be exhausted and stressed throughout most of that time, clouding your own judgement, your ability to make sound decisions and the energy required to put in the work. Maybe you can squeeze out 30 hours of actual productive work out of those 60.

Alternatively, you can aim to work 40 hours, make time for things that contribute to your mental and physical health, and keep that up for much longer, without having to worry about burnout or irreversible harm to your long-term wellbeing.

Now, to avoid any misunderstanding from some of my hard-working peers who might be reading this newsletter (or people who know me personally and know that I still have times when I work more than 40 hours a week), I’ll say this too for clarity:

I know that 40 hours can’t always be the cutoff point. Some people just don’t have that option. I get it.

We all go through pivotal moments in life that demand more from us. Periods of time when things go wrong and on top of the day-to-day, we also have to figure out how to put broken things back together. Times when we need to work harder than normal and push ourselves to overcome a difficult situation. But that’s not the same as trying to make a lifestyle of working 60-hour weeks.

That approach to life and career is not healthy and we really should stop telling impressionable young adults otherwise.

Until next week,

Cata