Just recently moved to New York for a new role and i'm finding that I'm tired as shit most days of the week. Between morning workouts, picking up new things on the job, studying for the CFA, and chasing girls, it seems like there's hardly any time to get some solid sleep in...
I know I'm not working crazy banking hours here (typically ~55/week), but how do you guys do it? Granted I've been lazy and have eaten out most days of the week thus far so my diet isn't really in check... but some days it just seems like I'm in zombie mode until I load up on caffeine. Thoughts?
I would kill for 55 hours a week averages. KILL.
You don't have to kill, there are plenty of jobs out there you can apply to that only work 40-55 hours a week.
Not with the same pay / career advancement given my skillset though lol.
everybody found this helpful Lmao
LMAO! BOM! Get back to trade reconciliation.
Not sure why you're getting monkey shit. Stop going out during the week.
Realistically, the weekends suck for going out in NY.
Seriously.... 55 hours a week leaves 113 for everything else or 16 hours a day. 1 hour travel means 15 hours a day leaving 7 hours for whatever you want and 8 hours for sleep. Having a job which takes 11 hours a day is absolutely no reason for you to ever feel tired.
Go to bed at a certain time and get up at a certain time every single day. Don't use a phone or iPad or watch tv in bed - read a book or listen to podcasts/audiobooks instead. Drink more water, don't have caffeine after lunchtime, don't eat processed or packaged crap.
People in NY have 55 hour work weeks?
Stop drinking coffee. No matter how many (or few) hours you work, it's easy to become dependent on it.
Ignore the MS. 55h a week + studying for CFA on the side (I am guessing 15h a week) is quite exhausting. Give yourself some time to adjust to the new standard, try to do day-to-day chores efficiently and let the girls chase you (not vice versa).
When you start to get tired. Remember one thing.
China wants to eat your lunch.
People on this forum like to exaggerate how many hours they work. You'll frequently hear about 100+ hour weeks! when they're really putting in 60-65 hours of actual work.
To answer your question, we're all tired.
Nothing like a nice healthy dose of fear to use as motivation
Not sure why you're being so gentle...China wants to eat his face
Despite what others here might tell you (no,working 65+ hour weeks is not something to brag about), 55 hour weeks are still a b*tch.
Especially if you're waking up at 6, gym from 645-745, get back shower+breakfast, in the office from 9am-10pm, get back by around 11 depending on your commute. By the time you are actually asleep, you might only be getting 5.5-6 hours of sleep per night which is not enough. This doesn't even include CFA studying.
So it makes sense that you are tired. My only recommendation is to cut out some activity (ie. maybe only gym twice per week, or only go out once per week) until you are done CFA. Sleep is super important, more so that getting a swole sesh in, or trying to chase some rando 6/10 chick.
Always remember - time is the most valuable commodity.
Would agree with @Asatar that you have more than enough time to sleep. Seems like an more of an energy problem with the workout, work, studying, then going out.
This problem simplifies when you are working longer hours since the only time you have outside of work is either to relax or hit the gym then crashing.
I hate to say it dude, but if you can't handle that kind of schedule without being exhausted, you suck at time management. Cut out the bullshit. Do you really need to chase girls? During the week? No. Give yourself one night a weekend to cut loose a bit. Spend less time at the gym and eat salads instead. There, I just saved you two hours a night and at least 30 minutes of cardio a day. There's 2.5 hrs of sleep. Unless you're really spending 6 hours a night studying for CFA in which case..... Not effective. Burnout never helped anyone.
Learn how to manage your time better, 55 hour weeks what we dream about. I'm in RE, in a southeast market, and I put in 12 hrs during the week, plus some extra time on the weekends for my personal investments, Call it 70hrs? And that's not in Manhattan. And I have kids. Totally possible.
I'm assuming you spend 21 hours a week chasing girls. Cut that down to 7 and you'll find life more enjoyable. We live in the tech age - leverage your resources.
lol.
I was visiting a friend at Stanford last year and he said something that stuck with me, "if you get into this school it doesn't mean you're smart. It means you've found a certain efficiency in your life".
The little schedule tweaks and "life hacks" really add up. Examine your schedule carefully. Be very deliberate. Have you mapped out your morning routine? I have the first 2-3 hours of the day mapped out to the minute and have gone through it many times like an efficiency expert. Same for the last hour.
And definitely wake up at the same time every day. Try using water to get up before the alarm. By keeping a journal I know exactly how many ML of water to drink before bed to get up 2 hours, 1 hour, or 30 min before my alarm.
People telling him to cut down the gym to 2 days per week = no wonder the majority of wall street are scrawny guys who can't even bench their own bodyweight.
To the OP, just go out less during the week. Maybe meal prep on sundays so you don't waste time cooking/looking for a meal during the week. 55/wk does get tiring but it's manageable.
Start cutting out of work early and showing up late. Those extra hours gotta come from somewhere.
This is the last place where you want to complain about working 55 hours a week. Most here put in 65-70 actual hours of work, and 15-30 hours of sitting around waiting for an MD's wife to find out he's cheating, and then doing meaningless tasks till 4 in he morning.
55 hours a week is really not that much dude-- that's like 8-6:30 or 9-7:30, x5. That said, here's the thing guys. Obviously you can talk about efficiency and time management and all of that, but I think you are all missing one critical point: nobody wants to micromanage their life down to the very last second. It's as consuming and draining a task as anything, to monitor your every waking moment. Not to mention this is impractical in practice. Not to mention things do pop up -- last minute meetings, personal emergencies, laziness to do certain activities (gym), that sabotage "master plans". I'm not saying that time management isn't a thing, but we are humans not robots. And lol to the guy who times his sleep cycles by drinking measured amounts of water before bed.
55 hours a week is 9 - 8pm 5 days a week. It's actually a lot and all the jokers in banking claiming to work 80 hours a week are typically full of shit. They spend 9 hours a day just sitting on their ass waiting for a turn.
Maybe if you work at a bank with no deals...
OP, how long have you been doing this? First thing - it is almost always tiring at the start. You will get used to it and adapt if you're new.
Solid diet, exercise - intense/ getting your heart rate up, not just 9 sets of heavy weight in an hour kind of workouts, etc. goes a long way, as will cutting out alcohol during the week if that's an issue. I also highly recommend waking up at same time every day - your body gets used to it and it helps a lot.
iggs99988 - 8-6:30 is 10.5 hours per day, that is 52.5 hours per week, not 55.
Asatar as well - "55 hours a week leaves 113 for everything else or 16 hours a day". You do realise hes working 11 hours for 5 days, not 7.8 hours for 7 days?
Why does everyone's math suck so bad?
I'm getting about 5-6 hours of sleep a night during the week, spend about 55-60 hours total Mon-Fri at work/commuting. I find 5-6 hours of sleep a night for me is perfect, anything less than 4 and I will suffer the next day.
First thing is, get on a consistent workout routine. Since I have started consistently working out Mon-Thur night, I have a lot more energy.
Next thing is, be more mindful of what and when you eat during the day. If you eat a meal at work, you will have a huge drop-off in productivity as your body works to digest the food.
Along with my new workout schedule I started intermittent fasting (IF). Basically you only eat in an 8 hour window of the day. Besides a banana on an empty stomach (and a coffee) in the morning I am eating two meals a day and my eating window is 2-10PM. Basically, without eating my first meal until 2PM I find I am much more productive during the bulk of the day. As soon as you eat that meal, the struggle starts. Especially if you are eating poorly and in large quantities.
I'm in the gym by 7PM and home by 9PM. Have my second meal done by 10PM. And then stay up an extra couple hours to use my workout high to be productive in other areas of my life that I want to pursue outside of work.
In bed usually by 12 up by 6.
I think what's huge for me, is I eat a meal a couple hours before I go to bed. This means I need to spend less time while awake fighting through trying to be productive while my body digests a meal. I only need to deal with this once a day towards the end of my day.
Overall, I think it comes down to diet/exercise and getting yourself into a consistent schedule. If you can consistently get 5-6 hours of sleep a night (going to bed and waking up around the same time every day) you should not be struggling at all with the right diet and workout routine (working out around the same time of the day during the week as well).
OP, you get used to it, you learn to manage your time and you learn to prioritize some things over others. When you're young it's easier because your body's a lot more resilient and in your case you're probably overwhelmed with NYC (in a good way-lots of fun shit to do) so that will wear off a little. If you don't want one leg of the the table to fall off you learn how you can personally balance all the shit that life throws at you and it's different for everyone. Lots of good strategies above but it'll come down to figuring out what works for you. Like @BEAST MODE TRADER" I don't need a ton of sleep, 4-6 hours/night and then catch up with 8 every 7-10 days (as I get older, it's closer to 7, when I was younger, it was more like 14) but that would leave some people in a sleep deprived haze, and that's not a brag on my part just what my body needs. Timing the size of your bladder and consuming water to the ML to get a good night's sleep is a pretty interesting strategy that I've never heard of before but you figure out what works for you and how to fit everything into a day/week/month and drop the extraneous shit that you figure out isn't that important.
There are tons of books about time and life management out there and some are worth a read but you really just need to figure out what works for you through trial and error and apply it.
Just like school bud except now it's social, work/CFA, and sleep..pick 2 ;)
"Chasing Girls" your tone makes it sound that you are spending a lot of time doinf this.
Don't get me wrong, but with girls less is more! Let them chase you!
Haha not quite sure about that. Men hunt for girls (it's even been called courting because explicit hunting vocabulary's not that popular) and unless they get a big stop they continue - subtly. Women doing the first move only want men to take over (if they're interested). So rather than the amount of time you put into it, the approach you take will be best correlated with success.
You can cut out all of your time wasted chasing "girls" by simply making sure you're on your Grinder account during any bits of downtime at work.
Other things that are not spelled "Grinder": OP, with his 55-hour work week
I did this when I started working, days during earnings season looked like this.
Work: 6:30AM - 6:30 PM, take a 30 minute coffee/snack/walk break CFA Study 7-9 Gym 9-10 10-12: shower, food, crush a beer or two, sleep
Outside of earnings season I could sleep more and was working more like 8AM-6PM. I would go out most Friday and Saturday nights, but force myself to get up relatively early. Hitting the gym hard is the best way to sweat out a hangover, I would get some food and coffee and try to be studying by noon on Saturday/Sundays.
The thing with CFA studying is that if you half ass it is huge waste of time. 100 hours of studying and not passing is way, way worse than 200 hours of studying and passing. Maybe you can get by on 150 hours, but think about it like pot odds in poker.
Also, dating apps weren't a thing then but would have made life so much easier when it came to chasing girls. Gray Fox is retired on that front, but I have friends who swear by it. They literally spend 15-20 minutes swiping through options once a week, chat up the 2-3 hottest ones, and set up a date or two a week. It may not be romantic, but trust me getting sloshed 3 nights a week at wilfie and nell and slaying your way through the west village isn't exactly a Jane Austen novel.
Surprised people hadn't heard of the drinking water thing. The idea is you will wake up naturally at a good point in your REM cycle.
Thank you to all of those who threw me MS. I'm picturing you all as the guys who walk around in vests at the office or tote your bank-branded gym bags everywhere you go.
I digress...
Asatar solid advice with the no phone etc. in bed. I'm guilty of texting/swiping late at night and it's a waste of time. That stuff can be done during free time the following day. Started meal prepping earlier this week and am starting to get back into a routine.
LiamNeeson Looking to limit the caffeine strictly to pre-workout on certain mornings of the week.
TopChedder definitely realizing that time is a priceless commodity in this city.
thexaspect cardio is for girls. Agreed though, nut up or shut up.
capratecompression #swiperight
LongandShortofit mirroring some other comments, I commend you on your strict adherence to hydration but there's no way I'm going to be able to get that serious with managing my bladder. Thanks tho.
Grayhairs crockpots with disposable liners are a godsend. Makes cooking chicken a painless activity.
worklikeamachine iggs99988 etc. I commend you guys for toughing out the banking life. Don't think I have it in me... Just think about what lies ahead after you've sold your soul for a year or two.
@BEAST MODE TRADER" I've tried IF but I really don't have much energy in the mornings. Plus, BCAAs prior to working out on an empty stomach didn't really help much. Finally, I thought it would be easy but powering through 2K+ calories of somewhat "clean" food at the end of the night before bed became more of a chore than anything. I wasn't enjoying the food and it just became a time sucker before passing out.
notthehospitalER new to the role, all I'll share. Focusing on getting into a solid routine starting monday.
Dingdong08 thanks, I'll figure it out. Honestly think I caught the flu from a coworker which is why I've been feeling like shit recently. See some of my responses above/below.
NakedCalls 100% agree (unfortunately).
trader_timmy Gray Fox the swiping apps are unreal in the City. If you're a decent looking dude you (I'm looking at you WSO community) should have no problems setting up a few dates. Re the CFA studying, I've been hitting the books hard Sat and Sun for Level II. Using the CFAI material rather than Schweser has been a bit much but I'm finding that I understand the concepts a lot better. Completely different ballgame compared to Level I. Definitely not trying to repeat this again next year.
I'll figure it out guys. Appreciate the responses.
Use Schweser for all 3 levels. CFAI material is dryer than the Sahara. Only go back to it if you really don't understand a key concept (and I mean key as in assessed heavily, not random throwaway paragraphs).
I don't think 55 hours is so bad. I spend 11-12 hrs/day working, 2 hours commuting (round trip), and get 8 hours of sleep. I study for CFA 4 hours on sat and 4 hours on sun. I also have a wife who I get to spend time with. It's all doable, just time management.
I only work out 10 mins a day on the weekends and 20 mins a day on the weekend because I'm just trying to be healthy and not be hulk hogan, so that may be a difference.
We do all our weekly cooking on sunday so we have relatively fresh food in the week.
Between commuting and working I do a 7am-7pm x 5, take care of my dogs(my wife helps), and study 10-20 hours for the CFA per week. I still sleep 7 hours but I can do 6 sometimes.
Add in the basic stuff like cleaning and cooking and time dries up quickly so I don't waste it.
Right now life is pretty stressful but that will subside. Regardless it all pays off and you learn to manage your time.
You get used to it. I am pulling anywhere between 50 and 85 hours per week, have been doing this almost for a decade. and have no problem with it. This also wasn't really overwhelming out of school but I've always worked pretty hard in school and next to it. At the end of the day, really, it's both (1) the feeling to do challenging and exciting work and (2) the crazy amount of money you make that will help you do this for a long time (you need both drivers for this to be sustainable).
You just can't spend 4 hours on Netflix per day anymore, or you can, but then literally have no time for anything else.
I respect you guys for all working +60hrs a week, but I would never trade riding my road bike 2 hours a day for CFA studying, promotion or even financial benefit. Workout > Job
P.S Maybe thts reason I Am still unemployed as gradute lol :P
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