3 Hours a Day is All You Need

June Huh is a poet-mathematician who won the Fields Medal, math’s version of an Academy award, back in 2022. In an interview with Quanta magazine, he says that he has three hours of focused work a day:

On any given day, Huh does about three hours of focused work. He might think about a math problem, or prepare to lecture a classroom of students, or schedule doctor’s appointments for his two sons. “Then I’m exhausted,” he said. “Doing something that’s valuable, meaningful, creative” — or a task that he doesn’t particularly want to do, like scheduling those appointments — “takes away a lot of your energy.”

Many creatives - and math at the highest level is creative - work similarily to June. 3-4 focused hours of work is the upper limit. Then they spend the rest of the time on lighter tasks or in a state of deep play.