Your 65-hour week paid less per hour than your 40-hour week.

Tier 1Temporary Pre-Tax Shield

Your withholding drag is heavy enough that the fastest fix is to shrink the check payroll sees. Temporarily raise your pre-tax 401(k) or HSA contribution by $0 per paycheck for the 0 blitz weeks. That pulls taxable wages back toward a normal week, flattens the spike, and the money lands in your retirement account instead of sitting with the IRS until refund season. Set a calendar reminder to revert the contribution when the blitz ends.

Tier 2Sinking-Fund Diversion

The drag is moderate, so the bigger risk isn't taxes — it's lifestyle creep eating the surplus before it does any work. Set an automatic transfer for payday: move $0 — your net OT take-home per blitz check — straight into a separate emergency / relocation buffer the morning the check lands. Over 0 blitz weeks that's $0 banked before the extra money ever feels "normal."

Rule of the house: the transfer fires on payday, not at month's end with whatever is left. What's left is never anything.

Tier 3Max-Yield Lock

Your withholding is already efficient — don't fix what isn't leaking. Two moves: (1) verify your W-4 matches your actual filing status and dependents so the baseline stays accurate, and (2) park the net OT surplus — about $0 across this blitz — in a high-yield savings account instead of your everyday checking, where it quietly earns interest while it waits for a job to do.

Re-run this engine any time your wage, hours, or filing status changes. Efficiency is a setting, not a personality trait.