60 Hours a Week is How Many Hours a Day?
Working 60 hours a week means people are working 12-hour a day and take two days off from their job.
Pros of Working 60 Hours a Week
Make more money. Typically, you’re going to make a lot more money working 60-hour weeks versus 40-hour weeks – especially if you’re working on an hourly rate, or you’re earning commissions on deals. This could be enough to build up your savings, accelerate your retirement investing, or even set yourself up to retire early. Get ahead in your career. When you work 60 hours per week, you typically are able to get more done, earn the respect of your boss, gain experience, and build more connections. This leads to a much faster climb in your career. Greater productivity. What are you going to do if you don’t work 60 hours per week? Most people think they’ll do constructive things with their time, but they typically end up watching Netflix, sleeping in, and spending more money than they should.
Cons of Working 60 Hours Per Week
Hurts your social life. Between working 12 hours per day and getting seven or eight hours of sleep, there isn’t much time left over for having a social life. This can hurt your relationships and limit your happiness. Leads to burnout. You need balance in your life. Working 60 hours a week might be good for your bank account, but it puts a strain on your emotional health and may lead to excessive stress, anxiety, and even depression. In other words, you’re prone to burnout. Impacts physical health. You might not feel it right away, but sitting at your desk for 12 hours per day isn’t good for your health. It can lead to a host of negative health issues, including high blood pressure, obesity, and even an increased risk of a heart attack. You might even start to lose your hair or go bald.
Is 60 hours a week a lot? How to survive while following a 60-hour work week?
5 Ways to Survive Working 60 Hours a Week
When there’s limited time in the day, you have to be very intentional about your physical and mental health. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a downward spiral that not only prevents you from doing your job, but also compromises your long-term well-being. With this in mind, here are several suggestions that you should be able to squeeze into your 60-hour work week schedule:
Do Weekly Meal Planning
You can significantly improve your health by cutting out fast food and eating freshly prepared meals with healthy ingredients. And while you probably don’t have time to cook every meal every day, a little weekly meal planning and prep once per week can set you up for the next seven days. If you work a traditional Monday-Friday schedule, try taking two hours on a Sunday afternoon to cook all of your meals for the week. Use versatile ingredients to keep things fresh and cost-effective. Go ahead and portion everything out into individual containers that you can just grab each morning on the way out the door.
Try 30-Minute Workouts
Most people who spend an hour in the gym are only working out for 30 minutes anyway. They often spend the other time standing around, chatting, or resting in between sets. But if you’re determined, you can get an entire workout in 30 minutes or less. (That’s short enough to conquer on a lunch break). Here are several good options, including cardio, yoga, gym workouts, and at-home workouts.
Make Sleep a Priority
Most people make the mistake of cutting out sleep when they’re busy. But this is a huge mistake. Your body needs sleep to recover and stay healthy. Whatever you do, carve out at least seven to eight hours per night. Treat this like a work obligation that can’t be erased.
Snack Healthy
Avoid running for the vending machine when you’re hungry. While a bag of potato chips or a candy bar might taste great, it’s going to leave you feeling bleh later on. It’s also going to negatively impact your health in the long run while working 70 hours a week. Try healthy and filling snacks like almonds, fruit, crunchy vegetables, or a fresh smoothie.
Avoid Bad Habits
You have very little margin right now. As constricted as your 60-hour work week schedule is, you can’t afford to be doing things that are hurting your health. So in addition to adopting good habits, you also need to avoid bad habits. This includes:
Smoking. There’s no excuse for smoking. If you have an addiction, address it at the source as soon as possible. Working crazy hours and smoking is like having a fast pass to serious and chronic health issues. Drinking. There’s nothing wrong with having an occasional glass of wine or cocktail, but too much drinking (as a form of stress relief) will negatively impact your sleep health and overall health. Toxic relationships. If you’re in a bad relationship, it’s probably increasing your stress and wrecking your emotional health (which is already fragile when working 60-plus hour weeks).
Is Working 60 Hours a Week Too Much?
You might not have a lot of time, but you have time to implement these suggestions. Whether you’re working 60, 70, or even 80 hours a week, there’s always time to prioritize your health – sometimes you just have to make it! But don’t stop here. Once you fit these into your routine, begin looking for ways to implement even more healthy (but efficient) habits.
