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I'm sure the readers of this post, are skewed towards the work-life balance believers. I don't. Most of the best entrepreneurs I know, don't. Apple. Facebook. Microsoft. Paul Graham as well.

A few posts I like about this subject:

http://blog.asmartbear.com/sacrifice-your-health-for-your-st... http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/07/calacanis-fires-people-... http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/11/20/european-startups-need-t...

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Despite how much you might want to succeed, consistently working beyond 40 or 60 hours a week is going to degrade your productivity below the level you would achieve with 40 hours a week.

There are several factors

- You make more mistakes - You have trouble applying yourself - You loose the ability to think creatively, so you don't see solutions - You don't make the intuitive leaps that used to save so much time - You stop coming up with as many great ideas

The best way I know to reduce this effect is to make sure you spend your leisure time doing productive business stuff. Network, discuss business plans, email, twitter, blog, research - just don't expect to do any one thing (code for example) 60-80 hours a week for months and not get bitten on the ass by your own exhaustion.

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