Ask HN: How many (actual) hours do you work a week?
I don&#x27;t know. I&#x27;ve never tracked my hours, despite working contract for most of my career.<p>Based on managing contractors for years now, I think you might be the most honest contractor I&#x27;ve ever heard of. Most of them bill for more hours than they&#x27;re actually coding. I don&#x27;t think this is malicious -- it&#x27;s simply replicating the salaried structure, where goofing off and Facebooking are still part of a work day.<p>If you feel like you&#x27;re pretty efficient, I think fixed-fee projects are good for both parties. Hourly tracking is pretty miserable. My clients are usually excited that I offer only fixed-fee engagements.<p>If you do continue time-based billing, you should try to switch to weekly or monthly instead of hourly. This allows you to build in a little variability.<p>Somewhat unrelated: someone posted on HN that s&#x2F;he only codes 4 hours a day at the most, because most people&#x27;s brains only have a certain amount of cycles to devote to something truly thought-intensive. Many, <i>many</i> people chimed in with their agreement.<p>That&#x27;s an anecdote, sure, but there&#x27;s lots of research to suggest that much more than 30 hours of productivity per week is a fantasy.