David Heinemeier Hansson's Daily Routine

David Heinemeier Hansson created the web framework Ruby on Rails in 2004 and is the CTO of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp. He is also a racing driver who won his class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014. At his desk he is in less of a hurry: work doesn't start until 11:00 AM, and there is no alarm.

He wakes around 8:30 AM, and the morning goes to family breakfast, playing with his son, the school run and the household. He works until about 7:00 PM with breaks, has dinner, does a bit more work, then watches a show with his wife. He is in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 PM and sleeps 8.5 to 10 hours. Balance the Grind pieced the day together from his Product Hunt LIVE session in 2016, Lifehacker in 2017 and a tweet in 2018.

He keeps to 40-hour weeks and says 4 or 5 focused hours make a great day. It's for anyone who suspects long hours are the problem rather than the fix: you trade the grind for a slow morning, a full night's sleep and evenings that are actually off. Lunch, the length of the evening blocks and the weekend are our estimates.