[tachyonbeam]

Right. When I was a graduate student, I had the freedom to work on my thesis project whenever I wanted. The only weekly obligation I had was an afternoon meeting with my advisor. That meant I often slept in late, stayed up late. I did my groceries mid-afternoon because I liked that the grocery store was not crowded. Some days I wasn't motivated and did not work. The compromise was that I often worked evenings, sometimes until 11PM, and I did work most weekends as well. I could organize my schedule however I wanted, but no time was "sacred". It didn't feel unhealthy though, it actually felt pretty natural.

Now, I'm a salaried employee, and I feel annoyed if someone expects me to work past 6PM or on weekends. I feel like I need that time to rest and get my mind off of work-related stuff. I probably need that time in part because I'm expected to get to work in the morning, and deliver a largely uninterrupted work day. As a grad student, I worked from home, and if I was working on a difficult problem, I could just take a break and go lie down on my couch for 15 minutes if I needed to. This isn't an option now, and not being able to take breaks when tired or unmotivated feels pretty unnatural.

[finolex1]

How do you decide how much to work in a week, or when to stop working each day?

Personally, it feels like having unstructured work hours leads to an implicit competition between everyone to do the most work humanly possible, and any leisure hours begin to feel almost sinful.

[mreome]

Goals. You work with management to define what needs to be done by when, then set your schedule to maximize your personal productivity to meet those goals. You generally can't really have that kind of flexible schedule without organized/effective management. But it can be a win for Management because the idea is that each employee is maximizing their own productivity, potentially letting the employee have more free time (while still meeting goals) which makes them happier, more well rested, and thus even more productive. In the long-term your more productive employee will get more done.

[tachyonbeam]

I guess I was lucky because in my field I was able to do well without overworking myself. I enjoyed my project and how much I worked was based on how motivated I was. I did leisure activities when I felt the need to. I know people who are grad students in deep learning though, and it really seems way more competitive than what I'm used to.