When I was younger I routinely worked late nights (I’d work normal business hours, then go grab a subway and come back to the office and work until 10-12. I enjoy working alone at night, and I wasn’t using that free time productively, so I figured why not. It did help my career trajectory significantly.
As I’ve gotten older and have better uses for my time I find myself working a ~40hr week and checking out. Occasionally if I have a challenging problem that requires deep focus I’ll log on at night, but only because I like the satisfaction of “the grind” every now and then.
Out of curiosity, what better uses for your time did you find as you grew older?
I may be an outlier, as I'm a bachelor (not much family/relationship time allocated), but I've found myself diving hard into work again as I come into my 40s, after really taking it easy in my 30s.
Not the OP. I used to work hard at night in my early 20s, but now ( approaching 30s), I find it hard to even think about work when the day’s over. I play games sometimes, I have a backlog of movies I want to watch — I have a nice system — and I have various things on my plate to learn. Reading books — fiction — can take a huge chunk of my personal time, and I enjoy spending an hour or two listening to music albums in my collection.
For me, “better uses” of my time include spending afternoons with my family.
But in the evening once they’re all settled, I do frequently work. I don’t enjoy TV and social media is cancer. I’ll play the occasional video game with mates.
As I’ve gotten older and have better uses for my time I find myself working a ~40hr week and checking out. Occasionally if I have a challenging problem that requires deep focus I’ll log on at night, but only because I like the satisfaction of “the grind” every now and then.