I work about 100 a week, with probably 20% of that spent in semi-down-time (i.e. reading news.YC and other tech news, editing Wikipedia, etc.).
100 really is doable if you like what you're doing. I don't really get the "you can only be productive 40 hours a week" people. Really? You can only be productive with less than a quarter of your time? Seems suspect. I can see it being a fair limit for work an employer, but when it's your own baby, if I'm not working, I'd probably rather be. You end up wearing such a variety of hats as a founder that it certainly lacks monotony.
I do try to take at least one decent block of time a week to unplug and go out, usually dancing. :-)
Whoa. Someone who needs 8 hours of sleep a day has 16 hours left. Considering that just the basics of eating 3-4 somewhat healthy meals a day and some hygiene can easily eat up 1-2 hours a day, your daily average of 14.3 hours is almost unbeatable. I take it you don't allow for that much sleep to be able to sustain your 100 hours. Envy! :)
Hey Phil -- I minimize stuff like shopping and eating -- I basically know exactly what I want from the store and live on simple, healthy stuff like sandwiches and müsli. I maybe spend 15 minutes a day messing with food. I sleep about 6 hours a night. So that still leaves like 24 hours a week for meeting up with my friends, etc. It's really not that grueling.
Tonight however is an exception to the cooking rule. Tonight I will be cooking Tex-Mex (fajitas, I think) for about 5-8 people from the local startup scene. You're welcome to drop by if you're in Berlin at the moment. :-)
100 really is doable if you like what you're doing. I don't really get the "you can only be productive 40 hours a week" people. Really? You can only be productive with less than a quarter of your time? Seems suspect. I can see it being a fair limit for work an employer, but when it's your own baby, if I'm not working, I'd probably rather be. You end up wearing such a variety of hats as a founder that it certainly lacks monotony.
I do try to take at least one decent block of time a week to unplug and go out, usually dancing. :-)