Gaming the system using catch up days... and still thriving

So today I found out there's a term for something I've been doing for years at work: catch-up days.

Apparently, I've been surviving the corporate world this way for a very long time.

For context: I'm a senior product designer with 15 years of experience. Ive been an IC for the most part with a few years of experience leading teams but have decided to stay in an IC role for now. We work 2 days in the office and 3 days from home. Pay is really good and am able to support a family and invest.

For the past several years, I've mostly been doing... just enough.

I work a few hours a day, focus on things I know will get noticed, and rarely do more than that. On most WFH days, I barely work at all. I drop off and pick up my son from school, have late lunches with him, go to the gym, play ps5, go for a run, or ride my bike.

Then, when deadlines get close, I have what I now know are "catch-up days" - that's when I binge all my tasks, especially the visible ones, and get everything submitted. People are always impressed by my velocity and the quality of my work. They often comment on how quickly I can put high quality designs together.

It feels like cheating. Well, it is. Here's how I've been doing it:

- I schedule messages early in the morning and a little after working hours. It gives people the impression that I'm working hard. I also schedule messages throughout the day so it looks like I'm online when I'm actually at the gym.

- I block 3–4 hours of "focus time" on my calendar every day. People seem to assume I'm constantly in meetings.

- Most days, I work on side projects that give me visibility with other managers and make my manager look good. Most of these projects are surprisingly low effort, but people assume they took weeks. In the past couple of years, AI just even made it faster for me to build these. I work on these most of the time... more than my more important deliverables. I then actively share these in places where people can see it.

- Then on catch-up days, that's when "real" work gets done. I see to it that I always look busy in the office. Headphones on. Lunch at my desk. Serious face. I focus on my deliverables, tag folks in Figma to get feedback, schedule working sessions, work on prototypes, then send out comprehensive updates to my team. Everyone would always be impressed with my speed and the quality of my work.

I've been doing this for so long that it feels normal. Nobody has ever called me out. I've consistently received high performance ratings, been promoted, and been recognized by managers throughout my career.

I know Im not the only one doing this as Ive read similar stories from other folks elsewhere. But just wondering, what other "work hacks" you've seen people use that somehow fly under the radar for years?