We think of productivity as "how much can you get done in an hour" * "how many hours you work." Unfortunately, as humans, we need recharge time. If I code 80 h

We think of productivity as "how much can you get done in an hour" * "how many hours you work." Unfortunately, as humans, we need recharge time. If I code 80 hours this week, the first twenty hours will be very productive, the next 20 will be slightly less productive, the next 20 will be significantly less productive, and the last 20 might be hurting more than helping. After a day of rest, I might be back at the same productivity as I was for the middle 40 last week, and degrade from there. The irony is that the more hours I work, the less I get done, the less difficult problems I can tackle. Meetings take less out of people, be we still make poorer decisions by tiring our brains rather than taking passive time to rest, and using spare cycles to reflect on how we can squeeze more productivity out of the time we can work. This, of course, ignores that some people burn out easier than others, and some have higher peaks than others. Working a truly focused 20 hours is more exhausting than 50 hours of semi-focused work for many people, and isn't rewarded in many corporate cultures. Find your own personal style.