How many hours do you work?

[Brian Turner]

Days have been very tiring recently - I've had to stay up until 1am a few times, and yet I still feel behind on work.

I guess that's the problem when you try and take some part of the weekend off.

Generally, I'm starting at 9:30am, and finish around 11pm-ish Mon-Fri, but with breaks in the afternoon, such as for shopping - though I try to take Sat and Sun afternoons off especially.

Was a full day working yesterday, and has been again today - will try not to finish after 12am.

Now I'm sat here trying to take a breather on the day, what hours are you working?

[KGP]

i usually work around 18 hours per day for the past couple of months as i am in a startup phaze therefore a lot of things need to take care...thankfully i have postmaster comming on msn for a nice relaxing chat hehehehehe

[JaneOwen]

Well in theory I work 20 hours a week - part time to fit around home educating the kiddies and all the other joys of life. But then there are some weeks when it's been busy and sleep has had to take a bit of a back seat in the grand scheme of things.

The plan was to start my business and get it ticking along nicely ready for when I am able to commit to full time and I'm hoping I don't get too busy before then :-)
Fortunately (I think) a large proportion of my clients seem to need me more during evenings and weekends than during normal working hours - which makes sense as that's just when those crises hit don't they? So it's all going to plan (mostly) so far. Any other part timers around?

[JamesSmith]

I could get away with 2 hours a day. Once you're on top of any work, keeping on top of it is easy.

Since being with my partner and having to take her to work every week day, I find I do alot more work. Unless I go back and sleep (ok ok, I do this a few times when knackered) I get to my office around 8-10AM, depending on how early she needs to be in work and finish between 4-7PM.

[Craig B]

I'd go with what James says.

When I started out I was doing crazy hours, probably between 12 and 18 hours on week days and atleast 6 on a weekend.

Once you get ontop of things and you "push" through the startup phase I found it started to ease and I was finding ways of automating or finding faster ways of doing things.

Now I work between 8 and 9 hours weekdays and probably between 2 and 3 hours a day on weekends.

Saying that we've got a few servers to upgrade next weekend when the factories shutdown so it will be close on 20 or 22 hours days next Saturday, Sunday & Monday.

Craig.

[JamesSmith]

Originally Posted by Craig B

I'd go with what James says.

When I started out I was doing crazy hours, probably between 12 and 18 hours on week days and atleast 6 on a weekend.

Once you get ontop of things and you "push" through the startup phase I found it started to ease and I was finding ways of automating or finding faster ways of doing things.

Now I work between 8 and 9 hours weekdays and probably between 2 and 3 hours a day on weekends.

Saying that we've got a few servers to upgrade next weekend when the factories shutdown so it will be close on 20 or 22 hours days next Saturday, Sunday & Monday.

Craig.

I'm always looking at ways to automate certain tasks. E-mailing clients regarding failed payments etc (95% ignore the e-mail WorldPay send), is a major chore, but I've been able to automate a great deal of it.

When it comes to resolving any problems on a server, these days it will only take 10 minutes of troubleshooting before the resolution is found. We know the software we use and how to fix it, this comes from experience.

[Craig B]

Yep,

The only two problems we currently get which throw spanners in the work for us is:

1) major upgrades, like this weekend we've got a couple of clients switching from SUSE to Redhat and then a one from Microsoft/UNIX to Linux.

and the more common nightmare,

2) Firefighting new clients problems, like when we a call comes in from a business / organisation wanting a completely failed system working again (usually for yesterday), and then on top of that it usually turns out they are at the other end of the country just to top it off.

Still, about a year ago it was 10 times worse than it is now, and we can manage the first aspect reasonably well but the second can quickly through any other plans made well out the windows...

Craig

[stoner3221]

I cut mine back due to health and never being with my family. I only work 5:30 AM to 4:30 PM 7 days a week. If the works not done it will be there the next day.

[Angelis]

I'm literally working all day every day.

Take time out in the day to watch a DVD etc, but even then I'm thinking or reading a reference book of some kind.

Over worked and pissed off to be honest.

[Steve-H]

Between 10 and 12 hours a day for me. Fortunately there is little point working weekends as the phones and email goes dead for these two days. I agree with stoner3221, if the work is not done it will still be there tomorrow.