There will be occasions when you won’t be able to get 8 hours of sleep no matter how efficient or productive you are.
And it’s always good to have that in mind because it will happen.
BUT…
This is what most analysts and juniors often fail to see:
It’s not your associate or your MD who says, “This week you’re going to work 90 hours and get max 5 hours of sleep”.
In the vast majority of the cases (especially when WFH), you DO have control over your schedule, working hours, breaks, and sleep.
If you worked 90 hours this week, it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t have produced the same output by working fewer hours.
If some people do consistently 90 hour weeks with less than 8 hours of sleep DOESN’T MEAN that you have to do the same to be as successful as they are.
There are INFINITE clever ways to optimise your work and earn more time for sleep or anything else that matters to you.
That’s the art of self-awareness, managing and leading yourself—or to put it bluntly—the art of not BSing yourself.
A lot of people brag about or romanticise the hours they put in. That’s crazy! The goal should be the opposite: to optimise output and work fewer hours.
Some people will say, “This is not possible. I can’t do much about that. Everyone in my team does crazy hours”.
Why? Because they don’t want to face the truth and admit to themselves that they suck at managing their time.
A career in investment banking is NOT a 100m race; it’s a marathon. You don’t want to burn yourself out. You want to look good, crisp, healthy, vibrant, and attractive. And not just look all that—but BE all that.
Never assume “reality”. Don’t take things for granted. Play smart. Develop self-awareness, remain curious, observe how you do things, measure stuff, and optimise.
Look at the week that has just passed. In what ways could you have optimised?
You like to sleep, you need sleep and you can definitely have it. Sleep is the best ally of creativity. And for an analyst who wants to become an elite banker, creativity is necessary in order to synthesise information and see the bigger picture of their spreadsheets and powerpoints.
I often ask analysts… if Michael Jordan was an analyst, how would he play the game? How would he optimise? Would he do 90 hr weeks with 4-5 hrs of sleep consistently?
That’s why some people become pros and Micheal Jordans whereas others don’t.
An investment banking career gives you unique opportunities to achieve self-mastery and become a pro. Not everyone wants that and is ready for that—and that’s okay.
Loving you, Angelos
PS: If you want to become a pro, you may also want to join my Unshakeable Bankers Club.
PPS: A caveat here: In some cases, the issue can be poor communication (bottom-up or top-down). Some analysts find it hard to say no, set boundaries and communicate to their team that what they’ve been asked to do is impossible and probably not a good use of their time particularly when the deadlines are tight. There should be optimisation on a team level too and it’s the responsibility of both senior and junior people to communicate effectively and address such issues. This leads to a win-win-win-win scenario for juniors, seniors, team and business.