I've been putting in a whole mess of hours for about the last two months, basically ever since I cut the corporate umbilical cord and went solo. I figured working 60-80 hour weeks should be the norm and even a good indicator that I'm doing well. After reading this....

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040301/trends.html

... I've determined that 80 hours a week isn't an idicator of success, it's an indicator that I'm a sucker. For the longest time I've put off learning to use tools such as CodeSmith or NUnit or CruiseControl or any one of the other effiiciency boosting tools out there. And why? Part of it was because I viewed tools such as CodeSmith something that would prevent me from learning the things I get from coding it all by hand (I've determined the opposite is true) or I've just been too lazy to spend time learning NAnt, etc... I've finally decided that I need to stop paying lip service to “work smarter, not harder” and really get more utility out of my time.

For anybody else in my shoes, a person that puts in an obscene amount of time at work and think they are at least on track to long term success, put yourself in the position of a more junior programmer (or whatever you happen to do). Now ask yourself, do I want to be like him? I did and right now I don't.