How To Work 80-Hour Weeks And Not Burn Out

June 16, 2014 Leave a comment

How To Work 80-Hour Weeks And Not Burn Out​

MAGGIE ZHANG STRATEGY  JUN. 11, 2014, 10:55 AM

Have you ever wondered how Wall Street professionals and management consultants somehow work 80-hour weeks without ever seeming to need a break?

In a recent Quora thread, “How do people work 80-100 hours a week and not get burnt out?”, users shared their best tips for balancing a hectic workweek with the rest of their lives.

We pulled out some the best and highlighted them below:

Understand your priorities. If you make the decision to spend most of your time working, then take responsibility for your choices. Acknowledge that you will not have as much free time to work with and then try to adjust accordingly. —Serena Bian
Schedule time for your loved ones. Use your calendar to carve out time to call your parents or have coffee with your friends. Otherwise, meetings and conferences can quickly fill up your schedule, and you can very easily lose touch with the important people in your life. —Serena Bian
Maintain healthy habits. Every day, you should eat a nutritious breakfast, drink a lot of water, and make sure you get plenty of exercise so you don’t easily lose energy or focus throughout the day. If you work late hours in the office, try not to eat pizza and fries every day, or you’ll probably suffer later. —Jared Broad

Don’t over-rely on caffeine. Some people rely on energy drinks to keep them awake, but this is an unhealthy choice. Try to reduce your caffeine intake so that when you’re really tired and truly need it, it will actually be effective. —Serena Bian

Change your sleep schedule. Instead of sleeping seven to eight hours in one go, try to recharge your body more efficiently. Some people use bi-phasic sleep schedules, where they sleep for six hours and then take a 25-minute nap later in the day. —Jared Broad

Wake up early. Morning hours are often the most productive. You can take advantage of these extra hours of the day to get even more done. Waking up early will also allow you to work out in the morning, so you don’t have to disrupt your day by exercising in the middle of it. —Stephen Steinberg

Follow a strict, disciplined schedule. Set a regimented routine for waking up, taking naps, going on runs, cooking, and spending time with loved ones. Even your coffee breaks should be taken on a strict schedule. —Jared Broad

Have some quiet time. Many great leaders meditate first thing in the morning. It only takes 15 minutes, and it’s a great way to find some peace in a busy day. —Stephen Steinberg

Take advantage of vacations. With such a hectic workweek, don’t feel guilty when you take vacations. While you are away, recharge as much as you can and enjoy the present moment. Try going somewhere entirely different from your work environment, such as a beach, mountain, or desert. —Serena Bian

Get really organized. Clean surroundings make for a clean mind. Try to minimize wasted time by getting rid of clutter on a daily basis. —Joseph Gi

Be more effective with your time. Try to work smarter, not harder. Use the 80/20 productivity rule — focus on the 20% of your activities that produce 80% of the results you want — to get more done in less time. Try reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss or “The Power of Less” by Leo Babauta. —Dimiter Stefanov

Communicate with your coworkers. You will be spending a lot of time with your team and your boss, so make sure you have a good relationship with them. Having good communication will also increase efficiency, so you won’t waste time doing something your boss or team doesn’t want. —Serena Bian

Love what you do. If you’re spending 80-100 hours a week doing something you don’t care about, you are probably going to be miserable. If you truly love something, the small stresses and difficulties that inevitably arise will be easier to handle. —April Gunn

Be grateful. Remind yourself there are countless people around the world who would trade for your life of “hard work” in a minute. Even having the opportunity to work can be considered a luxury. —Mathew Georghiou

 

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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