Do you work less than 40 hours?

No, abject failure on that front. I work at a BigCo, and it's ridiculous how hostile it is to optimizing hours worked.

A few examples:

There are some weekly meetings to review changes and incidents for a 100+ person department, where they work through changes and incidents one by one, in random order - basically you have to listen in for the whole hour+ so you can respond if they get to an incident/change you are involved with, you can maybe address questions/concerns for 30 or 45 seconds, but have to listen and wait to be called for over an hour. If you aren't responsive when called upon, you look bad, so 100+ people all spend an hour waiting for their 30 second slot.

Lots of neverending support / escalations for supposedly "urgent" stuff, where they say we are experiencing X problem, how do we fix it? We suggest... check A to diagnose... check B, etc... nothing. 10 minutes later... we are still experiencing X... ok, did you check A or B? nope. somehow, it's urgent enough to pester me, but never urgent enough for anyone else to do anything at all.

Yes,

Moved to Eastern Europe to reduce cost of life, Freelance on Upwork, work about 6-8 hours a week.

Absolutely, should have done it years ago.

I rediscovered the joys of programming by learning Rust, I rediscovered they joys of hobbies (photography, car wrenching, modeling, 3d printing, bicycling, weight lifting). Wife gets at least 2 full days a week to do whatever she wants together. We often visit old European cities for a 5 day weekend. What else. Rehabbed my childhood home, rehabbed my Wife's log cabin in the mountains. Looking for a historical flat in the old town part of nearby large city. Life is not bad.

When I lived in Canada I worked 35 hours per week as a full time employee. It wasn't kept track of though, and as long as you're getting your work done you're good.

Now I live in Japan and work 40 hours per week, and all employees need to keep track of work hours.

It makes such a huge difference. 8 work hours + 1 lunch hour + commute means it's always dark when I get out of work. Most people have 30+ minute commutes so that leaves < 6 hours of free time, and most people don't have the time and energy to go out after work. Even if I wanted to go out after work everyone is exhausted.

Compared to Canada where post work activities are extremely common. I used to attend a language meetup, have dinner with friends, and go to a club every week.

So in my experience even 1 extra hour makes a huge difference. I'd love to work 30 hours per week of I could.

Yes, I found a part-time contract as Solution Architect. I worked 20 hours a week over the summer, then it was 35 over the winter and now it seems like we will be back to around 20 hours over the summer again. For me it is ideal.

I am contemplating leaving the IT field completely, but haven't found the right way out yet. Until then I can better live with a 20-30 hour workweek than 40. And beeing extremly priviledged with high hourly rate, the trade off is not really there. Of course I could make a lot more money working 40 hours, but I would feel a lot worse.

I use the extra time to work on old motorcycles, photography and take mini trips.

The contract I took was the first part-time I had been presented with. But I have actually seen a few others since then. So perhaps there are more to be had in the future.

Yes, I reduced from full time 40 hours to 32 hours. Which results in a 4 day workweek. I did this when becoming a freelancer. I'm in Europe and salaries here are not that crazy high as in the US, so getting a 20% pay cut might even hurt. However currently I make around ~110k per year with less work than before, thanks to freelancing.

On my off day I do the bare minimum of work, like writing invoices and do taxes. This takes max 30 mins, depending on what I have to do. The rest of the day I do whatever I want, without feeling guilty. I do sports, nap in the afternoon, pursue my hobbies or go shopping.

This really increased my mental health. And it was absolutely worth it. My "day off" helps me regenerate and just takes all the stress away. My plan is to do this until I retire, or even reduce my hours more.

I generally work between 5-7 hours a day. A lot of it depends on having a good manager and good team members that you can rely on.

For reducing work hours, I do a lot reading internal technical documents or technical blogs with my free time. This helps me with getting the job done faster.

I also spend a lot of time helping out coworkers so when it's time for me to ask help, the job gets easier.

Another way is not to overcommit on work.

With my free time, it's mostly family and hobbies.

I work part time, around 20 hours a week more or less. I would like to work full time but I burn out very easily. I spend the spare time studying, looking for other work, exercising, making food etc. A lot of the time work is at the back of my mind, so I feel like I'm working a lot more than I actually am.

10 hours a week tops. The trick is passive income. Set it and forget it. But I have always lived debt free. Bought my home with cash.

I spend time online torturing my political enemies, I make electronic music (which contributes to my passive income, but only a bit) and gardening, hunting, fishing, and practicing marksmanship.

Most weeks I work since I wake up 'til launch time (12 am), so 5ish hours a day.

In the afternoon I try to do something not work related, but to be honest is when I solve/decide most of my task for the next day.

Yes. I work 20 hours a week, as a software consultant. I make low six figures.

Most days, yes.