Just want to piggy back off this and throw this out as a PSA: if you find you're constantly feeling tired even after making changes like improving sleep hygiene, exercising, etc, try getting a sleep study done.

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.

I have another problem related to sleep. Once in a while my eyes get "spicy"... as in I am unable to keep them open for long periods, and am forced to force close them and prevent myself from staring at the screen for any moderate periods... like touching chili with your fingers and then rubbing your eyes...

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.

I used to get something like this, except I described it more like a "burning" behind my eyes. My optometrist recommended reading glasses for computer use. During the day, I wear glasses for nearsightedness, and it turns out that using those while working on a computer was causing a lot of eye strain. I found that reading glasses are actually pretty great -- they force your eyes to focus at a very close range, letting your eyes relax. Since I started wearing them, the burning has gone away. Perhaps you could try something similar.

Thanks for the tip! I am currently using my nearsighted glases with tint to block the screen's UV rays, and yes it DOES help.

Speak to an optho about blepharitis and/or dry eye disease (dont google it; the results are always about the far end of the bell curve.) Warm compresses, eye drops during the day, eye gel at night, and daily warm compresses. Did I say that twice? Daily warm compresses.

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.

Wonderful tip, I am doing some of these, will add more to the routine. I am quite sure of a positive result. Thanks!

Don't do the hard problems in the evening when you are tired, you won't get much done. Take all the hard problems when you have the energy, and save the 'stupid' work for when you have low energy.

This is absolutely key. And likewise, don't feel like the time spent working (especially after hours) is any way to judge your effort. There's little point working each night until 2am if you're operating at 10% productivity. For many people, you'd likely get more done in 30-60 minutes before breakfast while you're fresh.

I get more done between midnight and 1am than I do between 10am and 3pm.

Sure, but the key here isn’t “don’t work late at night”; it’s “know yourself, be honest with yourself, and act accordingly”.

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.

The problem is when you only have a sequential of hard problem and you're currently too tired to start and your boss expects a status report in 2 hours...

In that vein, you may really like The Power of Full Engagement.

"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams (Dilbert author) also talks a lot about managing personal energy.