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Comment by assblaster | Hacker News Reader

I function by trying to work 7 days a week, without taking time off for vacation. What I've found is that I'm in general much happier having to wake up at a specific time every day with specific work goals.

I feel like I'm in a sweet equilibrium with fewer disruptions from going on and off vacation. I make more money, I'm happier at home and work, and I feel better all around.

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Don't take this the wrong way, but do you have like doing other things apart from programming? I couldn't imagine going in to work 7 days a week for the entire year which would mean i won't be able to go ski, travel, play soccer league, go camping, hiking etc..

I'm not a programmer. My job has different hour requirements than a typical salaried position.. Sometimes I work 4 hours one day, sometimes 20+ hours. The variability is exciting, almost like a slot machine, some days I get lucky and have a lot of work all day which means more money to spend, other days the work isn't there and I go home by noon (which I consider also being lucky) to play with the kids, work on home projects, go shopping, hang out with wife, watch Netflix/YouTube.

I have gotten so much enjoyment from work and the income it generates that I have decided to put my major hobbies/travel on hold. Maybe if tax law changes in the future punish me for high productivity, then I might cut back and do more non job activities.

I would imagine it is hard for a programmer to maintain this schedule because the pay isn't on the same basis as mine (eat what you kill versus salary). However, certain other aspects of a 7 day workweek apply to being a programmer: if you get tired and don't want to continue working, you can just go home and work on it the next day. No Friday crunch time. No pre vacation crunch time. Every day is more relaxed because you just took two major deadlines off your schedule: Fridays and vacations.

Weirdly enough, I prefer the same (as a freelancer). 6 or 7 days a week with gently sloping down hours each day (long Monday, shorter Tuesday, even shorter Wednesday, etc) feels awesome. I get the hard work out of the way early in the week and arrive into the weekend relaxed, while still staying disciplined with my sleep schedule over the weekend (get up, do a couple hours of work, then go have fun).

Plus, vacations feel less necessary.

I'm sorry what? To me, and probably most people, that sounds like workaholism. No vacation? How do you maintain your sanity? Don't you feel the need to disconnect every once in a while?

Don't you get the feeling on vacation that you dread coming back to work? Do you dread the time you're on vacation that you know you're losing on potential income (or not taking care of chores at home)?

I used to take 8+ weeks of vacation, and honestly those years dragged on and on, and my time on vacation was less and less enjoyable because of the dread of coming back to work and the lost income. Now? I'm happy, every single day. I find much more enjoyment every night when I'm home from work because I'm earning good money and I can cherish the respite from the daily work.

1-2 weeks off at a time is just too much time away from work. I think the desire to get away from work is there only because the 5 day on, 2 day off weekly grind is so jarring to the psyche that you absolutely need the extra week off to recover. I'm copacetic working 7/365.

That probably makes you quite an outlier.

The question I have is... Why am I an outlier? What if this could work at a corporate level where employees are happier because they can work more hours some days and fewer hours on other days?

Instead of 8 hour work days each week with 6 weeks of vacation, wouldn't it be nicer to work just 5 hours a day for 365? Or maybe a few days with 3 hour days and a few days with 8 hours? This seems so much more relaxing than crunching 8 hour days every work day.

If I'm hiring super creative or deep planning or design roles i want "bursty" people who can do super intense periods, more common lower intensity cycles and then recharge for a planned period of time.

If the workload dictates requirements I'd love to find anyone who wanted a constant queue of variable days but I've never met them aside from contractors who want a minimum and will bill extra, but they still seem term-based and want vacation.

At a managerial level i can plan around predictable days off, but not variable days when i need to coordinate more than a few people.

When you factor in the commute many of us have, 7 days a week would be horrible. Of the many refliefs the weekend brings, one of them is not having to waste 1.5+ hours in a car.

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