We live here so it's no big secret to us, but Texans are among the hardest working people in the United States.

In fact, in a recent study, WalletHub compared 116 of the most populated cities in America to rank the hardest working, and 8 Texas cities ranked in the top 25. Metrics included average workweek hours, unused vacation hours, and share of workers with multiple jobs.

I'm pretty sure if they'd expanded their pool of cities, more Texas towns would have dominated. As it stands, here are the top 25 with Texas cities in bold.

  1. Anchorage, AK
  2. San Francisco, CA
  3. Virginia Beach, VA
  4. Cheyenne, WY
  5. Irving, TX
  6. Norfolk, VA
  7. Corpus Christi, TX
  8. Washington, DC
  9. Austin, TX
  10. Plano, TX
  11. Denver, CO
  12. Aurora, CO
  13. Dallas, TX
  14. Chesapeake, VA
  15. Portland, ME
  16. Nashville, TN
  17. Fort Worth, TX
  18. Honolulu, HI
  19. Billings, MT
  20. Sioux Falls, SD
  21. Arlington, TX
  22. Oklahoma City, OK
  23. Salt Lake City, UT
  24. Houston, TX
  25. Durham, NC

Garland, Laredo, El Paso, San Antonio, and Lubbock also ranked fairly high on the 116-city list. You can see the full list here.

Of all the metrics involved, the unused vacation days really hit close to home. I tend to save my days, intending to use them toward the end of the year when I most like to travel. Inevitably, I end up not using even half of them because I wait too long and can't schedule around other people's days off or there's just too much to be done and taking time off would cause chaos.

This year, I'm determined to take my days. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first child in July, so that will be an excuse to take a few days to travel to Tomball and meet my new niece or nephew. I'd also like to travel to the coast and spend a couple of days watching the waves and maybe even doing some fishing.

I'm going to have shift my usual work ethic and mindset so that I don't feel guilty taking time off. Given how many Americans don't use their vacation time, I know I'm not alone.

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