42.5 hours seems like a long work week, though if it’s 42.5 with lunch breaks (1 hour every day) then it’s really only 37.5 hours, which is the standard in Denmark where I’m situated.
Nobody is productive 8 hours a day. I keep coming back to this comic.
Most of my day goes with thinking. At my work we also make it a virtue to do project briefs before any code is ever thought of or written. In the project brief time is also time to read documentation and make a game plan for how to implement something.
On top of that, we are also encouraged to use LinkedIn Learning or similar services to be better versions of ourselves. This can then be reflected in our daily stand-ups where you can write “I’m working on X and will be learning about Y today”
I think we are doing well on talking about mental health and we are encouraged to take mental health days, if need be.