I was listening to 5by5’s Back to Work’s latest “Expectational Debt” episode. One great way to get a lot of expectational debt? Work 60 hour weeks for 8-10 weeks straight.

And this expectational debt, in my case, involves stupid stuff that I’d be able to do with a normal 40 hour week. Like “hang out with my wife more”, or “answer personal email better”. It’s not expectational debt like “start and finish this project I told people I was going to do”.

I’m used to intense schedules - one of the reasons why I went to RIT was because of their 10 week quarter system. (My thought? “WTF are you going to do in 15 weeks?”) But I feel the expectational debt creep back into my life

Since January, my normal schedule: up at 9:00 check email etc, start work at 9:30. Work until noonish, an hour (sometimes) for lunch. Work until 5:30 or 6. Back at 8:00 or 8:30, work until midnight, 12:30, or 1:00 AM.. essentially until I collapse…. and all this work is for the same project.

Which is insanity that we’re expected to work this hard. This isn’t motivation, it’s slave-driving.

Let me reiterate that point: it’s all for the same project. When I make myself busy with too many side projects at the same time, that’s my fault, my own bad management. When it’s on project taking up all that time, it’s bad project management.