How to get through 16 hour days ?

Make sure you are getting quality sleep. Diet on point. & get an exercise in every day - push ups, jumping jacks, air squats, runs, anything, etc

Being "on" for 16 hours of every day is really bad for you. Why not wind your shit down a little? Do some delegating? Read a book, drink some tea and shit...

Once you learn to play the guitar and the flute and banjo and drums and piano at the same time with your nose,

you will be well trained to work heavy days and manage people's money, badly.

There are a select group of people who can consistently produce stellar quality with a high quantity workload. The first who comes to mind is Michael Milken. Also, that vampire MD on the other IB thread. If you read his bio (M&M's), you begin to see how many hats he was wearing and how he did so well ... before he went to jail. Ethics aside, he was a super high performer.

Typically, I like to start with 1 routine, add another and another and the 16 hour days are seamless, a habit. But, nutrition and sleep and working out are key.

Everyone is different. Some are smarter or more efficient than others. Personally, I am in one club, work 25 hours a week (3-4 hour daily commute) and take classes full time. Mixed with trying to see friends/girls and hit the gym, I feel like Im drowning most of the time. Discipline and structure help, but other than that, no idea. Curious what others say as well

Exercise is incredibly important, so try to do that 3-5 days a week at a minimum. Mainly gives you a little time to de-stress and reset your mind for the rest of the day. I think that is something a lot of people know, but one thing I think people overlook is meal prep.

I know exactly what I am eating every day for 7 days at a time. This is because I make all or most of my food every Sunday. For me, it helps me eliminate one more thing to think about. If I know what I am eating 3-4 times a day, it's just a matter of grabbing it and I don't have to spend the time during the week to cook or walk down the street and decide which place to get food from today. This creates less noise in my life and allows me to focus on prioritizing more important things. I try to give myself one lunch a week where I go out and meet a colleague, but only to keep in touch with people. This saves me time, money, it's healthier, and it's one less thing to think about. If I didn't do it, I would probably spend at least 1-2 hours extra each day cooking dinner or ordering food.

If you have a work schedule, class schedule and gym schedule all set, all your food prepared, whatever else you have going on can just fill in the gaps and there is a lot less thinking involved. Use a daily planner or the calendar app on your phone to visualize it at first, but once you get into the swing of it you won't need to.

Planning your schedule is part of the equation, but being regimented and diciplined is the major key here.

Creating the perfect schedule is easy, it requires an hour of your time and a calendar, but if you don't stick to it... it doesn't matter much.

Every time you blow past your timeline, drop what you're doing and shift gears. By being strict to deadlines you'll train yourself to maximize each hour and stay focused (less instagram and internet exploring... more productivity). The people I saw excel at college were strictly regimented (machine like).

Pro tip: With outside responsibilities find people to delegate to wherever possible (The president has his cabinet, and the CEO his employees).

I ran D1 track, president of a a major club, and had a serious+clingy gf in university myself

The way I handled it was to let go of the GF similarly to putting down an aging dog.

Juul in between activities. It’s a great stress reliever.

Part of it is in planning - loads of time can be saved and corners cut (without sacrificing quality) if you think intelligently about your process on a meta level and design it to maximize efficiency.

Part of it (a bigger part, I think), is just whether you're the type of person that's well suited to crunch time. Starting in about 6th grade, I made a habit of writing all my papers the night before they were due. Often read the books the papers were about in one sitting right before writing the paper, too, and outlined the whole book with the paper in mind. Long nights have always been my preferred method.

I understand that most people probably think "what a madman", or "how unprepared", or "how unhealthy". All I can say is that this is what worked naturally for me, and I nearly always outshined my peers with the quality of my work - that fact persists today in my professional life. Pressure just makes me perform in a way that nothing else does - for better and worse.

I think this is what people really need to consider when asked "is this life really for you". I think the high-achieving, goal-oriented readership of WSO tend to think that this question is a veiled insult, synonymous with "are you sure you are man/woman enough to handle this life?" But really, there's more to it than that. Being in banking and certain related fields means that you will be subjected to a certain breadth and depth of stress and frequent "fire drills". You have to consider whether you are the type of individual that thrives in this environment, or whether you are the type of person that is drained by it. Why hit your head against a wall for something you don't really thrive at?

Consider this - do you think Muhammad Ali stuck with boxing and became the greatest because he had figured out some magical way for the punches and training to hurt less for him than for anyone else? No - in fact he made statements to the contrary. I think he handled the rigors of his career so well because deep down he as a man was well aligned with what the rigors of his career demanded. He "knew he would be the greatest, even before he was". He was "resolved to suffer now, and be the greatest forever". It's not that he had it figured out better than anyone else - it's that he thrived on the challenges before him because they fit with his view of himself and his dreams.

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You kids remind me of myself only a few short years ago.

Let me tell you this: Running around from activity to activity where you are successful, top of the dominance hierarchy in nearly every social encounter, and have nothing but time to dedicate to your future success... you are going to miss that around hour 12.

Hour 16 you are going to forget it ever happened, and hours 24 - 36 you are going to remember again, but wish you had killed yourself when you still had the time to figure out the best way to do it.

A few years ago I was in university on the track team, president of my business school, worked as a TA, in a fraternity, etc. and can hands down tell you it comes down to (1) keeping a detailed calendar, (2) to-do list, and (3) prioritizing what will actually help you succeed in each area.

I used Evernote (used to be free for almost full access, now a small monthly payment) for all my note taking and homework assignments, Wunderlist (free version works great) to keep track of my to-do list, and the iPhone Calendar app to keep all my calendar invites. It was great keeping all of my notes in one easy-to-access place for studying, Wunderlist was a dream for jotting down quick to-do on different projects/clubs, and the Calendar app allowed me to plan study sessions or meetings with other students.

Every Sunday I'd spend time looking ahead at the week so that I wouldn't be surprised with what kind of time I'd have to complete everything. Everyone's system is different, but hope this helps.

I work full time 8:30-5 Monday-Friday, have classes from 6-10PM Monday-Thursday, and I'm VP of two clubs in my college. Not to mention my commute from home to work/school is an hour each way. I usually just get a workout in Tues/Thurs mornings and Friday after work/Saturday/Sunday. Definitely spend my Sundays studying and catching up on homework.

Time-management is key, definitely stay organized and maintain a routine, it's tough but it all pays off in the long run.