I work from home putting together bids for construction projects that our project managers want to work on. I'll usually get a project to handle every week or so, but it usually only takes me a couple days of dedicated work to finish one, so I usually just pretend to work until the final few days before a project is due.

Last week we got an emergency project that the project manager forgot to send to us for takeoff, due in only 2 days. I clocked a bunch of OT that I didn't actually need since I could finish the project up at my normal pace anyway, and my boss loves me for finishing it so quickly. Working hard every day would just make that timeframe the norm, and take away any of the appreciation for the work I do.