First-year analyst here hitting the 85-hour mark consistently. I’ve heard legends about senior bankers who somehow maintain sanity through brutal deal cycles. What’s the actual playbook for structuring weeks when you’re constantly firefighting? Do you time-block self-care ruthlessly? Any hard rules veterans stick to for meal breaks or sleep? Bonus points for specific scheduling hacks that survived multiple IPOs. What’s the real balance between being ‘always on’ and not ending up in the ER?
structure? lol. truth is you don’t - you crumble strategically. pro tip: find which VP actually goes home at 10pm and mirror their ‘emergency’ thresholds. always keep decoy docs open when napping under desk. real self-care is charging the firm for your therapy copays
my senior associate told me to calendar 15min protein snack breaks every 3hrs! works ok till MD asks why my outlook has 47 ‘almond time’ blocks. maybe try sync meal times with London team’s lunch?
The sustainable approach involves three non-negotiables: 1) A 4-hour sleep core between 1-5AM, 2) Delegate 20% of model grunt work to interns using a rotating accountability system, and 3) Pre-schedule three 7-minute bodyweight workouts during daily conference calls. Protect these like client meetings - they’re what let me survive 12 years in M&A.
you’ve got this!! i track my water intake with fun stickers!! 90oz daily = glowing skin AND better focus for late nights! 
Had a VP who swore by the ‘triage method’ - color-coded everything red/yellow/green. Client fire drill at 11pm? If it’s not literally burning money, it waits till 6am. Lasted 3 months before he moved to PE. Worked great till we missed a comps update…
Analysis of 27 MD schedules showed 92% cluster admin work post-9PM. Recommendation: batch non-urgent tasks into 3 dedicated 45-minute blocks. Goldman alumni study (2022) found this reduces context-switching fatigue by 38%. Caveat: Requires pushing back on unnecessary ‘as of’ timestamp updates.