Throwaway020423

I agree. In the past, I’ve tried to just be disciplined, stop procrastinating, and push through no matter what, and it lead to horrible burnout where I spent weeks/months being fairly ineffective. If you’re not sleeping at all at night and can’t think straight during the day, even for a couple minutes, you’re simply not going to be effective. You’re also liable to make really bad decisions that will drag on you even after you’ve recovered.

Having a routine though, even a very flexible routine, has been very effective. Things become automatic. Settling into an effective routing often involves not worrying too much about discipline, though. It's easier for people to get to the gym everyday if the goal is "get to the gym, and do something" than it is if the goal is "get to the gym and do a rigorous 2 hour workout." Small steps and environmental changes, as well as not stressing over what's optimal, have been the most effective approaches in my experience.

I did, and still do, but that's another thing that got severely screwed up by burnout.

Routine is a good word. I have a flexible routine now, and it's effective enough. It's not the most disciplined, and there's procrastination, but I don't worry about it and just try to make sure that I'm moving in the right direction.

I suppose it depends on the person. In the past, I’ve tried to just be disciplined, stop procrastinating, and push through no matter what, and it lead to horrible burnout where I spent weeks/months being fairly ineffective. If you’re not sleeping at all at night and can’t think straight during the day, even for a couple minutes, you’re simply not going to be effective. You’re also liable to make really bad decisions that will drag on you even after you’ve recovered.

These days I try not to worry too much about procrastination, and get as much done as I can. I’ve found lots of little tricks to squeeze out more productivity here and there. If I’m in a situation where I just need to buckle down and push through, I will, but I’m not going to risk pushing myself over the edge when it’s not necessary.