How I Work 60+ Hours A Week Without Losing My Mind

In this episode of Making It Work, one woman tells us her tips for managing a time-consuming side hustle on top of her full-time job.

Through weekly video essays, "Making It Work" showcases how *real* people have upgraded their personal or financial lives in some meaningful way. Making your life work for you doesn't mean getting rich just for the sake of it. It means making the most of what you have to build a life you love, both in your present and in your future. And while managing money is a crucial life skill for everyone, there's no one "right way" to go about it — you have to figure out what works best for *you,* full stop.

Video narration by Leslieann Powell

Video by Grace Lee

The Financial Diet site:

[tigersstrike]

1. accept you may be working 60+ hours a week and work out what that means
2. give yourself a cut off time everyday
3. allot specific time to side hustle everyday
4. be efficient with your time
5. avoid staying up late
6. carve out a space for work
7. ask for help
8. find ways for legitimate self care

[LoganAllec]

4:46 Even going broader than this, this kind of hustle just isn't possible with kids. It just won't work. You'll feel incredibly guilty for spending so little time with them. So yes, do it now, make that crazy coin while you have the time to do so and invest it as much as you can now while you can still work 60, 70, 80 hours a week. I worked a schedule like this before having a family and it was fine, but soon I had to pick two between my family, my full-time job, and my side hustle. I picked my family and my side hustle and now I couldn't be happier. Financial and time freedom just isn't offered in modern day corporate America.

[sor]

I also vouch for the cut off time. If I was particularly unproductive that day I tell myself "too bad try again tomorrow".

[lolojack]

These tips really help. It’s how I’ve been managing an 80+ hr work week. I’m currently working a full time job and have 3 side hustles. I can kind of make it work because they’re all remote work, I stay with my parents and because of Covid, I’m cautious about having too crazy a social life. So work keeps me occupied and I don’t mind working to 2am in the morning. I know it’s not sustainable long term so I’m only continuing this until the end of the year by which I’ll be able to put a nice deposit on an apartment and having a very nice investment portfolio in place.
I practice self care by sleeping in on Saturdays and going out to see a friend or just take a walk. Or I spend time with my family in between work breaks. I’ve also relegated some easier tasks to my sister who can then earn some extra money and ease the burden on me.
I haven’t yet found the perfect balance yet but I know this is temporary and since I don’t really have anything else to do, I might as well give my financial portfolio a nice boost.

[KarateSHOES]

I like the voice of the narrator and her pacing.

[kimmontenegro]

I used to work over 60 hrs a week. I was able to take multiple vacations during those years due to good time management. It took me years to burn out but I still burned out. I realize that I pushed so hard not necessarily for financial reasons (no complaints on making more money) but for my ego boost. It felt hellagood to be sought after during that time. Towards the end, I prayed for the program that I was teaching, to end. Jumped for joy when I got the text from my boss delivering the news to me while I was on vacation🤣🌏✈🛩

[JenJayBanks]

I can’t see how 60 + work week is healthy. Even if these tips are followed I can’t imagine how long someone can go on like this without a damaging consequence.

[SpookyGhostHands]

I am in my early twenties, so I am trying to "hustle" now. I am working full time and currently trying to grow my youtube channel with regular posts. I don't think I could do this much beyond my 20s or early 30s. I want to be able to give the time I spend now doing extra work to my family and myself down the road.

[wintrygarden]

I work 60+ hours a week for 9 weeks a year (in the Before Times) because I work as a seamstress at my local renaissance festival. Honestly, I'm glad that the faire was cancelled this year, because I'm working as a solution architect now, which has me pulling 45-60 hours a week on incredibly technical work.

I meet with clients for 8 hours a day sometimes, and still have work to do outside of meetings. I'm leading 7 projects when most of my coworkers are on 1-4 (and 4 is seen as too many!). When I'm not in meetings, I'm writing documentation, testing functionality, preparing for demos, reviewing data, working with product support ... it's a lot on my brain.

All of this advice is really helpful for people who just work a demanding job, as well. Side hustles are such a challenging thing to balance, but also, working long hours at a single job presents its own challenge. And this contributor has some fantastic tips for both sets of challenges!!

[MichiruEll]

Do we not think that there a problem with our culture if people have to work this much? Like 60 hours just does not seem reasonable. I get that if you have to do it, you have to do it, but to me it means the system is broken.

[onionwarrior]

The cut off time advice is the most important one for me (and lot of others as well I'm sure). Back when I freelanced full time, I literally worked from the moment I woke up to the moment I slept (and I only sleep maybe 5 hours on a GOOD day), seven days a week. No days off. No holidays. No after work hours. No AFTER work, period. It burnt me out. It gave me a slew of mental health problems I still carry to this day. If there's nothing else you take from this video, please take the cut off time seriously. THAT's the best and most effective way to avoid burn out.

[jenh]

yeah, helps to have someone cook & clean for you... try doing 40-60 hours as a single with a yard to work on... it's tough... even working from home, with no commute.

[Tashas_Travels]

I am actually working 15hrs a day with no overtime pay. If we mention it to my employers well they say we can quit and they can hire other staff as there are people desperate our jobs.

My body is tired, I'm physically exhausted and I'm always in a bad mood. I'm literally tired of spending 15hrs of my life with co-workers I now dislike because of their character and they just annoy me. And I'm earning peanuts, still living paycheck to paycheck because of covid and me using my savings when we stayed at home for 3 months.

I want to quit my job but then I'll have nothing to do and will go back to being broke.
I hate my job, I'm unhappy and I want to cry everyday.

I don't have anyone to talk to and it breaks my heart.

This video made me feel better

[lilfun]

I work 2 jobs 11 hour days 5 days a week so 55hours a week. I keep weekends free for myself and give my self time in the evenings just to relax and unwind before bed even though I wake up at 4am I will go to bed around 9:30/10pm. I personally think its important to give yourself the time to wind down and relax before you sleep whilst still keeping a healthy sleep schedule. I also think is important that you give yourself a day or two off so you can do things you can't when you are working long days. Also if your job is very physically demanding you need to make sure you are eating well and taking a break if needed and possible the same does apply for less active work aswell

[bernadettemary]

“Find a safe space” and “set a cut off time” was very helpful to me.

[KateeAngel]

I work 20 hours a week, and I am very tired most of the time 🤷

[SparklesNJazz]

during college i took 18 credit hrs average every semester, which included evenings, worked around 10-12 hrs per week, volunteered at my church on weekends, and somehow managed to have time for friends and get almost a 4.0 GPA. it was great but it was hell at times, especially when my anxiety was out of control. now i’ve been graduated for a year, and i’m finding myself faced with the fact that i’m going to be working 40 hrs a week with multiple side hustles. but i did this to myself. :/ it’s ingrained in my brain that i have to be doing something, always, then i hate myself for it. *sigh*

[cesbi]

I mean this in the most empathetic and non-judgemental way possible, but man, learning about American work-life "balance" gives me anxiety.
How is anyone even gonna reach retirement age that way?

[ViviFriend]

I’m trying so hard to do the same just now, right after I finish work I start editing videos for youtube, writing articles and I do find it really strange living in this constant hustle culture where I think everyone is doing more than me. It’s so easy to feel guilty about not doing more and better, i don’t have an answer but I wanted to put this out there for anyone feeling overwhelmed.💕

[IMakeupStuff]

Isn't the quote, "work smarter, not harder"? Which would imply that it's not about not working hard, but not working harder than you need to to get the same results.