Working 80 hours a weekor more can affect your health and productivity. However, there are legitimate reasons you may have to work that long. This is especially true if you want to be at the forefront of your job, career, or industry.
Is It Possible to Work for Extremely Long Hours?
Leading entrepreneurs and businesspeople have a culture of working several hours every week. They have little or no time to sleep, have fun, or do other things most of us indulge.
For example, Elon Musk, the famous CEO of Tesla, works for120 hours per week. Also, Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, worked for about 80 hours a week when he first started his company. There are more examples of people who work for unimaginable hours to stay on top of the competition.
Note that these successful people also create time for fun, sleep, and other relaxing activities. They can do this despite working 80 hours or more each week. Moreover, they also spend ample time with their family and loved ones.
How Can I Work for 80 Hours a Week?
Would you like to know how successful people working a lot of overtime still lead normal lives?
We will teach you the top productivity strategies these successful people have imbibed, which has helped them enjoy the best of living.
Quick Analysis of How to Work 80 Hours a Week
Before we show you how to work 80 hours per week, let’s do the math.
If you love to work during weekdays (Monday to Friday) alone, you have five days to reach the 80-hour target.
That is, 80 hours/5 days = 16 hours each day.
16 hours every day is a lot, but some people flow well with the pattern. This option helps create more time over the weekend. You can sleep for as long as you want, have fun with family,and do the other things you love doing.
If you prefer to work every day, including weekends, you have seven days to reach your target. Therefore, the time you’ll spend while working is roughly 12 hours.
That is, 80 hours/7 days = 12 hours each day.
With the second option, you’ll still have theopportunity to sleep, rest, watch movies, play with family, and visit your favorite places every day.
What Is at Stake While Working 80+ Hours a Week?
There are 168 hours in a week. If you cut out 80 hours, you have less than 88 left for the rest of the week.
The recommended duration for sleeping is about six to eight hours if you want to live a long and healthy life. That cuts out another 42-56 hours, leaving only 32-46 hours for other unavoidable activities, such as commuting, cleaning, planning, and socializing.
It’s even harder for people who work about 100 hours a week. They get less time to sleep, play, socialize, and do other essential things. Even so, some people still manage it well.
It takes tremendous discipline to work for 80 hours a week without negatively affecting your health, productivity, and relationships. However, it is possible to balance long hours of work with other aspects of your life.
We will show you how to imbibe this culture in your work and personal life. This way, you can begin to achieve all your goals, without bringing harm to yourself and your relationships.
Actionable Tips for Staying Productive While Working 80 Hours a Week
The stress of working an 80-hour work week can make you burn out quickly. So, it’s essential that you still get enough rest, eat good food, maintain social relationships, and regularly check up on your health.
Let’s start with how to manage your meals while working 80 hours a week.
How Should I Plan My Meals?
With minimal time you have to do other things, it will be hard to cook food. That’s why you have to plan your meals ahead.
Here are our best tips that may suit you while you work for long hours:
1. Practice Healthy Snacking
Thinking about food can make you lose concentration while working. On the other hand, the right food will keep your focus and boost your brain power.It will help if you have low-carb snacks that can make you feel full and ready to work longer.However, make sure you still indulge on pastries occasionally to lower your stress levels.
2. Cook Before Starting Your Day
It’s better to prepare your meals yourself because it’s cheaper and often more nutritious. However, you should probably wake up earlier so that cooking doesn’t eat into your work time.
Alternatively, you can cook your meal in the night and storeit. So, you won’t have to bother about food when working the next day. You may also prepare and freezedishes that may suffice for a week.
3. Subscribe to a Healthy Meal Plan
If you’re not the type that enjoys cooking, subscribe toa healthy meal plan. Since food will be delivered to you on schedule, you can even use the time for cooking to do other things. You can still have free time for resting, watching TV shows, and meeting your friends.
4. Drink Plenty Water
Try as much as possible to stay hydrated all day. Drink water first thing after waking up in the morning, after each meal, and whenever you feel dehydrated or tired. Staying hydrated will keep you active and also prevent diseases.
How Can I Maximize Sleep?
Sleeping six to eight hours every day may not be realistic if you have to meet up with an 80-hours-a-week work target. However, you should take advantage of any free time to catch a good sleep.
Good sleep helps to boost activity, mental alertness, cognition, and productivity. On the flip side, poor sleep affects retention, activity, concentration, and productivity. Add rest to your must-do list so that your 80 hours will be worth the sacrifice.
Here are some useful tips to catch up on sleep while still focusing on work.
1. Nap When You Can
While commuting from your home to your workplace, taking a five- to ten-minute nap can refresh you, making you feel energized and ready for more work.
If you want to nap, avoid staying on excessively comfortable surfaces, such as a sofa or a bed – you will likely sleep for longer than you planned that way.
2. Take Sleep Seriously
You probably have less than six hours to enjoy sound sleep. So, it’s essential you make this block of time count. Otherwise, you’ll wake up the next day, not feeling motivated to work.
Some of the things you should avoid if you want to enjoy sound sleep are as follows:
- Avoidthe distractions such as social media, TV shows, video games or other things that may eat into your time.
- Don’t overeat before sleeping as it can make you wake up feeling tired and unmotivated.
- Don’t fall asleep on the couch or any uncomfortable place. Instead, use your bed so blood can circulate in your body correctly.
- Avoid foods and drugs that are high in caffeine and nicotine. Also, avoid alcohol when you want to sleep.
It would be best if you slept well so that your body can be ready for work the next day.
How Can I Be Productive with Work?
Being productive with work is not rocket science. We’ll help you see that in this section.
First, you have to create a priority list. Many people often fall into the trap of doing the least important tasks first while executing the most important ones last. It sounds logical to clear up the simpler ones first, but it’s much better to do it the other way.
We recommend using the following strategies to boost your productivity. This way, you would have a genuine value from the 80 hours you have devoted to work per week.
1. Prioritize Your Tasks
You’ll keep receiving more responsibilities than you can ever complete – it’s the way life works. Your ability to prioritize your tasks and resist the urge to take on others, no matter how interesting, is necessary to be productive.
Even if someone assigned a new but important task to you, add it to your list. Assessits significance and determine whether it should be prioritized above the others.
2. StayFocused on Your Goals
Working 80 hours a week is not easy, and you will tend to burn out. However, reminding yourself about why you started will motivate you to continue.It’s vital to stay focused on your goals, whatever they may be.
We recommend using note-taking software or even sticky notes to write down your goals and read them every day. Doing this consistently will help your mind be conscious of your goals, and you will be naturally energized to keep striving.
3. Create a Proper Plan
Most people create daily plans alone, which helps a lot. However, creating a more detailed outline helps you to have clarity on how to execute the tasks for each week. Fuzzy mindedness is one of the biggest demotivators.
You could build a comprehensive schedule for an entire week or month. Ensure that no other thing takes your attention unless it is necessary. Doing this will help you keep the results you expect on your mind while working hard 12-16 hours a day.
Is It Okay to Take Breaks?
You will often feel unmotivated, or you may run out of creative ideas to execute your tasks. That’s when you need to take a break, instead of forcing yourself to keep working.
You can take out five to ten minutes to do something other than work. Taking a stroll or napping within that period helps too. Eating and jesting with friends and colleagues may also help, mainly because happiness improves productivity.
Can I Monitor How I Spend 80 Hours Each Week?
Traqq is a time-tracking software that helps users monitor their activities over a period. The real-time event logging is specially designed to give a rundown of your events while working 80 hours a week. You can also monitor all the websites and apps to know how much time you spend on them. This way, you can identify and address productivity leaks.
