I ended up being diagnosed with sleep apnea and once I started using a CPAP device and got used to sleeping with the mask on (took about 1-2 months), it was the difference between me being completely awake and having the energy to work on challenging things immediately after waking up vs feeling like a zombie for the first 3-4 hours every day.
I've never really had problems with "motivation" or discipline so I can't really speak on that, but getting this diagnosed and resolved has completely changed my attitude and capability for taking on new problems and not feeling "burnt out" all the time.
Anyone with tips would be appreciated. So far the only thing that works is sleep, but spicy eyes can resume immediately after waking from sleep.
Odds are good you’ll feel notably better in six weeks.
This isn’t personal medical advice, just an observation about an extremely common condition.
Personally? 90% of the time, if it isn’t done before lunch, it’s not getting done. So, I come in as early as I can and get my heavy lifting done from 7a-11a.
Eating healthy, exercise, getting enough sleep, relaxing activities like TV or video games. All of these can increase your energy levels and allow you to go longer before running out of steam.
You have none of these problems. You essentially have a 'purpose' problem.
The reason why we can't do more, is largely because most of it seems pointless. There is no real stake in the game, no sight of making anything in return in comparison to what we contribute, or worst we are working to add few more gold coins to some Scrooge McDuck's gold vault.
I myself have a lot of purpose in life, but absolutely need some downtime due to being tired. I can do about 35h - 45h of productive time a week, and that's it. Not due to lack of purpose, but due to mental health.
I found a volunteer group that had a lot of ambition in an area I feel strongly about but hanging out with them too often wore me out. Amped up people amp me up. After some of their goals became reality the energy level dropped and the contact high wasn’t enough. So I show up at events and about a third of the meetings because the purpose is still there but it’s not enough.
Here's a couple recent papers on what mental fatigue is —
http://www.viriya.net/jabref/why_self-control_seems_but_may_...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856320/
I believe that a lot of mental fatigue is actually an evolved mental pattern to move people from "exploit mode" back towards "explore mode" in explore/exploit tradeoffs, and the negative affect is the prompt to doing so.
But I think — and my personal experience has borne this out — that the negative affect/boredom/unrest can be mentally overriden by recognizing what is going on. I don't believe there's anything like a "fixed" store of energy for mental tasks independent of things like sleep pressure, hormones, blood sugar, glucose, etc.
If it's physical/biochemical — sleep pressure and flagging concentration — that calls for a nap, sleeping, or at least a break. But if it's just boredom, I don't see that as an energy problem. With practice and training, it can be overriden safely and in a life-affirming and healthy sort of way. Profitably, too.
There is nothing at all that I recall in the time management literature about being a friend to yourself. Finding ways to find the energy (and thus the time) for your priorities means stepping back and taking care of yourself first. When I started this I dreamed of getting three times as much stuff done as I do now. Someday I hope to do maybe twice as much, but I’m pretty happy with the idea of getting a little bit more done than now instead of many times as much. I’m giving myself permission to try to do things right instead of trying to do everything. I’m also, as you say, accepting that some things I think I should do simply bore me.
There’s a little bit about knowing your limitations and doing what you can, which is a start, but it’s grabbing the stick by the wrong end IME.
On the other hand I find it relaxing to workout after work. My mind becomes more or less empty afterwards. When I then do things that require more complex thinking the effect wears off pretty quickly though.
It also wears me the fuck out - so I go to bed early, sleep really well, and wake up the next day feeling recharged.
> or merely drain them slower
Can you elaborate? What does this mean?
> (see also: me and video games or TV)
Are you saying video games or TV: (1) recharge you, (2) fill time, or (3) drain energies slower?
In the case of games or a show they can stop being fun and be more like work pretty easily. They're like junk food. They fill you up for a little while but they're not fulfilling.
How did you realize you actually enjoyed listening to music uninterrupted rather than driving?
What I think I know is that the answer changes over time, so you should get comfortable with the idea of always asking yourself the question anyway.
If I have a system that only works because of my tendency to problem solve. Imagine that a friend confided in you that they're having trouble and asked for help figuring it out. What would you ask them? What are your answers to those questions? How would you respond if your friend gave your answers? It's not a panacea, but if you avoid doing this experiment with subjects like employment and romance (we think everyone else should break up and quit their jobs immediately) it kind of works.
Leisure time like listening to music or playing a video game can make you happier. Such happy events can re-energize not on that specific day necessarily, but e.g. the workweek (or beginning of workweek) afterwards. Neutral and unpleasant activity will not have such effect.
Anecdotal: overcoming a great challenge in gaming in a team had made me euphoric for a few days. I woke up and was literally right away excited. Gaming doesn't always have such effect though. One problem games (and TV etc) have is that it can feel like a choir. A mandatory riedel you gotta sing every X time together with person Y on time Z. Even when at times you really don't wanna. Then you can end up in a negative spiral, especially if the other factors are being difficult as well (e.g. your kid, work, etc). Because it isn't always static. Sometimes you want to skip. If you game in a team, play a team sport, or are a high performing athlete you might be hard on yourself. If you got on-demand TV, you can skip easier, but I suppose the monthly pay makes you wanna eat your cake as part of the all you can eat sub.
Sports can affect your brain by increasing your cognitive performance.
I suppose it can be proven with EEG/MRI scans. Probably rather costly, but if its done for academic purposes and reproduced by a TV show you got two birds (tho not with one stone): the scientific part background, and that being applied for the general population explained with simplicity.
> How did you realize you actually enjoyed listening to music uninterrupted rather than driving?
By testing the effect of driving without music, or listening to music without driving.
If I couldn't play Chess online I don't know what else I'd do to relax that wasn't vegging in front of the TV.
This year I'm going to my local club as well and play OTB for the social aspects.
I know, the website looks a little cheesy but everything they talk about in the videos is legit. Meditate. Eat food that is actually nutritious, exercise, learn to be grateful and resilient. If you don't find Rick Hanson's way of talking about those topics to be helpful, just google the overall ideas of self-care and well being. Pretty much everyone says the same sort of things Rick Hanson says, but different people put slightly different spins on particular parts of the message. Find the message that speaks to you about this: how to take care of yourself.
Not just "how to happy" or "how to be productive".
Alternating 3 months on and 3 months off of jogging in the summer an elliptical in the winter, 4 days a week, with a steady program that took 45-55 minutes tops including changing clothes and a shower. My records do not support exercising for productivity gain; they support the opposite.
It was clear that exercising simply depleted my energy. It doesn’t take very long to do and it feels good, but it sucked my energy and my productive hours (mostly coding) were shortened by an average of 3-4 hours per day. Although I felt energetic, I didn’t “have more energy” as they say.
I will continue exercising when I can afford that, because keeping my body healthy is important long-term.
I am now curious about the wider justification of this common advice. I doubt it’s just a virtue signal. It’s hard to beat catching a morning run that moment before the sun comes over the horizon. Great way to start the day. But, my goal here was to be honest with myself. It does not make me feel better throughout the day. I wish it did, because I love feeling better, but it doesn’t do that. Not for me.
Best of luck to you!!
However, I switched to a 10 minute cycling workout with high intensity intervals (4-5 intervals 30 seconds in length). I have only done this for a few weeks, but I find that it boosts daily energy rather than depleting it.
I.e. working out at 7am with workhours from 9-5 are suboptimal but workhours from 4am to 8am with an hour of workout between 8 and 9 gives you a boost for the rest of the day
Not getting immediately sucked into moralizing your attempts at self-care is almost alien to the American ethos. John Calvin, haunting America for 450 years...
> Some shift their perspective to make it less taxing (not everyone hates weeding).
It sounds like what you're actually saying is that some people are more productive because they get energy from what other people would consider "work"
It’s less “don’t stress about it” and more “one day it might not stress you out”. If you do figure out how to shift something from column A to column B, try to hold onto the memory of the process. If you can pull it off more than a couple times then I think you’re in for a much more pleasant life.
I didn't get unstuck on this until a few years ago when there was a research paper that refuted the 20 minutes of uninterrupted cardio advice. I know too many people who feel like they're gonna die around the 14 minute mark, and they just give up.
Turns out that 3 intervals of 7 minutes is enough to show progress. You can duck out of work for 8 minutes in the afternoon and take a walk without even getting sweaty. Do it again at lunch and after work and you've got your 20.
Start easy. Don't put the goal too high. Don't have a defeatist or perfectionist attitude (relapse is a natural part of changing a habit). If you have to stop earlier because your body tells you so, accept that, and retry the next day. Once you start doing it regularly you'll notice the difference. It will go easier. Especially in the start. Later on, you can increase your limit, aiming higher, until you meet your goal.
If you're doing it regularly and then end up skipping it once, the effect of that is negligible (unless you're pushing it but you're not an athlete, are you?). Just like if you're eating usually healthy and not too much the impact of that Christmas dinner is minimal. Just like with brushing your teeth if you brush them twice a day and end up skipping it once, it isn't a big deal but if you regularly skip and neglect your teeth there will be more of an impact.
Realizing that makes say losing weight, getting fit, and maintaining dental hygiene easier. Heck, it makes life in general easier as well since it is never too late to start compared to going on with the bad habit. I loved your GP comment as well, it makes so much sense, and has a similar soothing effect. Thank you for making that point.
I doubt that I can stick to anything that requires more frequent efforts. 15 years ago I begun to train karate, but training twice a week for 2 hours was too much so I eventually dropped out.
There is something deeply relaxing in kneading dough and waiting for it to rise.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68985.The_Power_of_Full_...
I haven't tried again since I made an effort to broaden my interests. I've been tempted but haven't acted on it yet.
Thanks but no thanks random internet commenter.
Go see a licensed therapist for fucks sake.
So I found the gentlest exercise program (if your joints are good, try yoga. If not try Tai chi. If not try qigong). It’s still a lot of work and sometimes you want to quit.
After six months I got into a volunteer group that involved manual labor outdoors. I got a little nature and to hang out with generous people.
Now I’ve added a hobby where I make things.
All of these have adversity in them. My thesis is that being able to deal with one type of adversity gives you callouses against the rest be they mental or physical. So far it seems to be true.
I also did very simple things like make myself take a real lunch. Even read. And when I sat down to do pass times like play a video game or watch a movie, my internal narrative was “I’m doing this to decompress or recharge”. Which also meant it was easier to time box and I would pick something I knew I would enjoy instead of feeling obligated to choose one over another.
Which one please?
May be, but I think we also have a trust problem.
That is: why in the world would anyone install a software (RescueTime in this case) that can produce this kind of results... To get those results, obviously, it tracks everything you do. Is that.. OK? Your logins, passwords, urls.
You do not have a time problem. You have an energy problem. We. Have an energy problem.
The reason you only get three hours of stuff done on Saturday and then you ‘waste’ the rest of the day is because you had three hours of energy. The rest of the day you’re just filling time. Not because you’re bad, or lazy, or selfish. Because you’re spent.
The difference between productive people and you is not time management. Their skill is in dealing with taxing experiences. They avoid it, delegate it, or confront it on their own terms at the time of their choosing. Some shift their perspective to make it less taxing (not everyone hates weeding). And when they run out of energy they engage in activities that recharge them instead of filling time or merely drain them slower (see also: me and video games or TV)
If you know where to look, we already know this subconsciously. A bunch of industry Best Practices are more time consuming but less energy intensive than the alternative. We balk at scheduling two difficult tasks in the same time interval even though they both “only” take less than half of your time. A task that takes four hours might leave you exhausted, and all you can do for the rest of the day is read email and code reviews and browse Hacker News. Nobody can rearrange your schedule or demean youbinto anything productive during that time. If you try you’ll just make mistakes. Which is why you’re trying to Do No Harm by “goofing off”. You already know this you just don’t have the words like “self-care” to express it.