Ask Founders: What does your work schedule look like?

From pg&#x27;s <i>Maker&#x27;s Schedule, Manager&#x27;s Schedule</i>:<p>When we were working on our own startup, back in the 90s, I evolved another trick for partitioning the day. I used to program from dinner till about 3 am every day, because at night no one could interrupt me. Then I&#x27;d sleep till about 11 am, and come in and work until dinner on what I called &quot;business stuff.&quot;

I tried all sorts of schedules, time blocking, pomodoro, late, early, long hours, short hours, seven days a week, five days a week, etc.<p>Seven years in, I ended up here: working each day, working ONLY when I feel motivated, studying quite a bit, and not worrying about the hours. I instead focus on deliverables, being happy&#x2F;healthy, etc. Oddly enough, I end up getting more done than when I forced 10&#x2F;12 hour days of solid work. When I would force 70+ hour weeks, for years at a time, it was terribly draining. When I only work when I want, I actually still end up working roughly 60 hours (I like it, it is fun). However, each day seems like a vacation. Want to do some open source? Do it. Want to goof off for a while? Do it. Want to get some work done? Do it.<p>Works for me at least. I&#x27;ll do the same routine when I am &quot;retired&quot;. :)

I have two alternating schedules because I work an Industry Job in addition to my Project(s). The first half of the week (3-4 days alternating) is dedicated to my Project(s). I work 10 Hour Days from Home, Lunch Break and all. The last half of the week (3-4 days alternating) I work my Industry Job, 12 Hour Shifts (Network Engineer) from 6am to 6pm. I&#x27;ll usually work an additional 2 Hours on my Project(s) when I get home. So I&#x27;m looking at around 82-86 Hours a Week. Pretty wild schedule. I&#x27;m moving to San Jose soon so this will all change (finding a new Industry Job and hopefully finding success with some of these Projects)

For me, it is 6 days per week, starting promptly at 7, ending between 6pm and 11 pm. I found that getting in early I can get organized and drive through priorities easier. The first two hours are golden, where I am fresh and focused. I also found after my first startup that regular, patterned, reliable sleep is incredibly important for your brain and mood. Mood being the biggest surprise, it matters a lot to the people you work with and customers that you&#x27;re not a jerk. Go figure.

I try to work no more than 9 hours per day 5 days per week. I schedule blocks of time on Google calendar and try to be super productive during those blocks and track the results week to week. (Pomodoro technique, phone won&#x27;t ring before 11, etc.)<p>Usually this means 8-5 with a &quot;go to bed&quot; alarm set 9 hours before I want to wake up.<p>It&#x27;s a daily struggle, but I feel like keeping the balance of time on projects is key. It&#x27;s easy for me to fall into a rut and work on one area and neglect others.

For me, I cannot yet quit my day job. So everything is done through Basecamp. There are three people in the team. I am the developer. We have discussions, work out a to-do and post it on the calendar. When I come home from work I work on the to-do. I do this from ~6pm to ~10pm, 4 days a week. I work as a developer at my day job up to 10 hours a day. When I get home I can barely look at the screen I am so tired. This start-up thing is no fun.

I try to keep a normal 9-5 work schedule since keeping such a schedule is overall more productive for me. Sometimes I work on the weekend but usually just one day unless there is some big deadline. I sometimes go in early like 7am too (I am a morning person).

7 days a week, 12 hours a day. Every other I take a trip (but still bring along needed tech)