| First, everyone's different. There's no single optimal workload that applies to everyone. That said, 8 hours of real, intense, mentally challenging work per day probably is more than enough for most people. The problem is that when talking about work in terms of time spent this often includes stuff that isn't really work at all but mindless busywork like writing emails, attending pointless meetings or idle water cooler talk. This is particularly prevalent with those 'vaunted' 60+ hour weeks (also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law). The point being: Your 40 hour work week might very well be equivalent to somebody else's 60 hour work week in terms of workload and mental energy required. You seem to have already found a viable solution by working remotely and splitting your day in 2 halves. If that works for you you should try to optimise your work in a way that you can do this more frequently. There are fully remote companies with employees across multiple timezones. So, this is definitely achievable. It just requires a little more effort than the default 9-5 kind of work organisation. It should be in your employer's interest to ensure the long-term happiness and effectiveness of employees. So, why not talk with your employer about this and try to make the necessary changes in work organisation? |