Ideal amount of time is as long as it takes for a meaningful task to be completed. That’s the natural way.

Hundreds of years ago, people used to work for as long as necessary to finish a project - the artisan approach.

Then the industrial revolution spoiled all that by creating a time-based approach to work, which suits the mechanized form of work that was required.

I’m self-employed and I don’t have a fixed time schedule - though I’m very organized (if you know what I mean).

I have worked as assortment of jobs over the years, and I think anything past 6-7 hours a day becomes overly draining. In my 20’s I did retail, and I was fine at 6 hours/ 25-30 hours a week. Got hours increased and found it hard to be decent at home. Paperwork is similar, but if I mixed in some on site / driving around I could stretch it a little. Only job I could work 40 fairly consistently was forklift in warehouse work. Sitting, consistent breaks, mental focus that was fairly diverse with downtime. Staying on a single task for 8 hours, day after day, is torture, especially if it involves mental or emotional stress.

I joined my present employer to do a project and got to set my preferred hours, which I set at 4 days of 6 hours per week. That was lovely! They later took me on full time, whereupon I started working 5 days but was able to keep the 6 hour workday and that has been the norm since. Pretty much ideal IMO.

For me, 40 hours (legally 37.5) was too much. I got home drained every day and neglected my personal life.

I’m not sure what my true sweet spot is. Right now I’m part time with multiple jobs and it changes week to week.

<40h

But considering my hobby is essentially also my job it feels a bit lile a 50 atm.

For me, it depends how those hours are grouped. I currently work five 8-hour days and hate it. I miss working three 12’s. I only work a few more hours per week doing 8’s than I did with 12’s, but I have two thirds more commute time, and never have a weekday off, so it feels like I work almost twice as much. And it’s a pain trying to schedule appointments for anything, since I work the same hours as doctors, banks, etc.

I switched from 40 to 30 (6h @ 5 days) two years ago and it’s been magical. I get the same shit done in 6 vs 8 hours (because realistically I can’t concentrate for 8 hours straight, so there is some empty time in there anyway) and have more time in the day for myself. And I still make good money even with the pay cut.

It depends so much on the work but I think 25-35 is a healthy work life balance. I for one would rather have a well rested surgeon that’s on a 30 hour a week schedule than one that’s been pulling back to back to back 12 hour shifts

For me 32h/week is fine. Sweet spot would be at 24h/week but that’s pretty unrealistic if you want to pay your bills.

32

My first full time job job out in the wild was as a retail manager. I was expected to work 54 hours and during the Christmas season I basically was at the store if it was open, period. My record at that job was 80 hours in one week.

That was between the ages of 21 to 24. By the time I was 23 I was already completely burned out. Unable to enjoy life, making next to no money to boot. Seemed like every year there was some excuse why my bonus sucked, even though I ran the most profitable store, by percentage and dollars, in the entire region. It culminated in my regional manager forcing my district manager to demote me to another store because I didn’t run the sales gain numbers he thought I should… Even though my store was both profitable and I ran sales gains every month. They handed my clean, well sorted store to a god damn thief who they ended up pressing charges against within the next year. But hey, he ran big sales gain numbers. The regional manager was an absolute prick and he later got fired for stealing carpet…

The company is out of business now and good riddance.

40 hours is more than enough time to devote to making a paycheck. Honestly, 32 hours is enough too, especially since these employers expect you to commute. Concepts like “Rush Hour” only exist because of the insanity of making a buck.

I left retail to enter the IT industry, which can have some crazy hours too. I did my stint being on call and doing changes at 3am on Sunday mornings, working outages that lasted for days. Those days are behind me too. Today I work from home and my boss only cares if my work is done and that I’m available to answer emails.

0! Every second you spend making someone else money is time not spent enriching your own life or building your own wealth. It wears on the soul. You can ignore this fact all they want, but that also takes some amount of energy. When you get to the point where you can be your own boss or charge your own rate for the service you provide, that’s when you will find the real number.

I’d be happiest if full time was 6 hour shifts, 3 days a week, with enough pay to actually have money left over for groceries and vacations after the bills are paid. Any more hours than that, and I’m miserable.

I do more than 40 most weeks and don’t burn out because I have help at home, take time to exercise, take my PTO.

I read once “more than 4 hours a day of work is not conducive to spiritual development” and think they have a point. My ideal workday really would be 4 hours. Probably noon to 4 so that I could manage to be productive.

Was working 32 for a bit. It was amazing. Now we got bumped to 36, not bad, but I do miss the extra time off.

I have worked 40 for most of my life which is tolderable but not ideal. A few years ago, it was 45-50. I really, really don’t ever want to be over 40 again.