The average office worker is productive for less than 3 hours per day https://www.vouchercloud.com/better-living/office-worker-pro...

That's normal across all industries. If there are people who are actually productive for 7 hours per day, they are extreme outliers.

I used to think that I worked 8-10 hours per day. That was until I measured my actual productivity.

I worked as a translator once. When I timed myself, I found that I can translate about 2,000 words in 1 hour. But in a day, I struggle to do more than 5,000 words, no matter how hard I push myself- even though that's just 2.5 hours of work! And if I do 5,000 words every day, I burn out within a week.

Exactly. I really like the empirical example. I find that solutions to work problems come to me at most random circumstances, shower, sleep, etc. Also a 15 minute break can unblock something that I’ stuck on for hours.

I think it’s important to realise that there’s that limit to productivity, so don’t force it if it’s not working. take a break, come back tomorrow, you may find that you’re far more productive even though you’re spending less time “bums on seats”. Somewhat employer dependent

Machines have a concept of duty cycle! Welding machines are rated to a maximum percentage of time that you can run them before they overheat and shut off. This is helpful for thinking about the importance of rest.