How many hours per week?

[Buzliteyear]

I started my first website 2 years ago.

Since then, I have become a junkie. I already have a full time job, but I probably invest another 50-60 hours per week working on, tweeking, adding, updating, and improving my website.

I use to be addicted to WWII video games. Now it is building a website. At least with this game I make money.

I'm curious to see if there are others like me. How many hours per week do you guys work on your sites?

[Visit Thailand]

I think you will find due to the nature of this forum, that many of us here spend far too much time on our site(s).

Weekend, what's a weekend!

[deejay]

I'm in the wage slave category, and yes, far too much time spent after work.

Right now I'm on day 6 of a fortnight's holiday from work (aka sitting in front of a computer) YAY!.... but I took the holiday because I wanted to have some concentrated time to sit down and learn a new CMS and plan and write for a new site. So far I've probably spent about... 60-70 hours of my holiday sitting in front of a computer.

But I'm doing ok. I am forcing myself to leave the house at least once per day. *hermit grin*

[5stars]

I too am addicted. Working pretty much 7 days a week 12 -20 hours a day. There just is just too much to learn and to much to stay on top of. You blink and all the rules change. But I love it.

I think a lot of people here work way to much.

[trillianjedi]

It gets harder as you approach that marker where you think "hang on, the websites are now paying my mortgage and utilities bills, maybe I should be doing this full-time".

Not an easy jump to make. The financial implications are enormous and the web is a fickle fickle business.

The tendancy is therefore to do both and burn the candle at both ends.

I'm a great believer in finding a balance. Taking a weeks holiday and forgetting about the internet for a few days can work wonders - there's more to life than your websites, sometimes you just need reminding of that. It's easy to become blinkered and work/family and social life can suffer all too rapidly.

Having said that, at least you're doing something creative and rewarding with your time. Surprisingly few people in the World are able to lay claim to doing that.

But don't forget that you're human, and the human body can only take too much before it get's stressed out.

Same can be said of your friends and family.

TJ

[edited by: trillianjedi at 12:33 am (utc) on Sep. 11, 2004]

[kevinpate]

I limit my web stuff to one hour per week.
I just finished week 42 - year 2286
:)

[Shannon Moore]

I keep track of my time spent in productive pursuits (things that support my business, which means anything from customer support emails to adding functionality to a website or researching on Webmasterworld). Even the days I flag as "DAY OFF" in my calendar end up having at least 50% of the available (non-sleep) hours marked as productive time. I just can't get away entirely, unless I'm out of the house away from computers. Which I force myself to do, usually when the wrist pain returns and I realize I'm more comfortable looking at a computer monitor than a beautiful sunrise or sunset.

I'm an outdoors enthusiast, so eventually the need to get out and literally smell the roses/air/pollen kicks in. Otherwise, this is a 24/7 lifestyle addiction, as it always has been since I learned what the difference between baud, bps and kbsp was (hint: a long time ago).

[CygnusX1]

I had to stop keeping track of the time I was spending on the website everyday. It was taking to much time away from building more web-pages. :)

[Leosghost]

"Webmasters" by nature cannot be seen in the harsh light of the sun ...

similar to vampires ...

plus we only own underwear ...so can't be seen outside without being "cited" ...

Most of us actually spend too much time here and not enough time coding our sites....my wife says ...

[BwanaZulia]

With 4 main websites and another 5 smaller websites, I would say I spend about 20 hours a week on them. Of course if you counted time thinking, planning, emailing, it could easily get to 40 hours.

I find the biggest problem is wearing so many hats. On any given day I am the server admin, marketing manager, president, support staff, coder, html monkey, content writer... the list just keeps on going.

Right not it is pretty easy to manage, but as it grows, it is going to be interesting to figure out how to either automate more or off load some of the work.

BZ