Productivity Guilt and Rest

I suspect you would understand if you spent less time at work or doing side projects and more time resting.. some insights come after having some time to get bored.

I think that in your case, allow yourself some time for unproductive rest and relaxation. I don't mean this as a joke. I means this as a "it is ok and beneficial to just chill for some time" and "it is ok to spend time in an unproductive way". Because I noticed that your fulfilling hobby is also basically work.

I find it hard to do the bullshit company work(now it's more like startup, but corporate was hell too) while daydreaming I was spending my best hours and fuel on a number of things else that I'd rather do or work or build. But after 8-10 hours, since I only have the leftover fuel and small hours, then the incentives become more twisted.. e.g.: 5 hours left on the day, I've been thinking about working on my project all week, I need to rest a bit, I want to read, movies I'd lik

Make an effort to not be productive most of the time and draw a clear distinction between work and leisure. Even if it feels counterproductive, not being productive and just enjoying yourself with non-tech hobbies or non-growth activities, likely will refresh your mind. I used to be like this; work 40hrs, then work another 20-30hrs from home. It used to work, and damn was I productive and enjoying it. But over the years that was no longer the case. Working on a better work/life balance and

The problem is the mental fatigue / penalty as a consequence of not working in things you are interested in.I work @FAANG, for the stuff that I am actually interested in, I found myself casually hitting 60 hours per week without even thinking about it, plus M hours at home working on adjacent stuff / ideas. I worked here during my last semester of uni when I finished my thesis, and I was fine because I was doing genuinely interesting stuff.However, the mental exhaustion that come

You aren’t a robot, ride the waves and stop trying to optimise everything. There is nothing wrong here - it sounds like most of the time you are productive and then find you need a break to begin something new. I always look at this as being a time for communication and “soft” work or learning something new. It’s a positive for everyone if you make use of this time to develop yourself and learn and communicate. Good luck.

On rare occasions, I'm left with both wife and kids out of the house for a few days. Just about every time I lose the first (non-work) day entirely to video games. Then the next day I'm just... done with games for a good long while, and start doing productive things because I want to. It's like I have a fucking-around-uselessly tank that's never full (near-empty, in fact) usually, so most of my free time goes to worthless activities like games or bad TV or—ahem—certain

Keep your dedication, but get something in return:1. Go for a 4-day week. Reduce hours a little bit, actually bill/stamp/communicate your 9-10hour days you do anyway (I guess)2. make 3 day weekends. 1 day chores, one day as usual (bugs, frameworks, rss feeds etc), but you get one additional free day - let it come to you what will happen there. i have seen people practically going to professional cooking level, 250miles a day cycling, hiking, etc - you’ll discover that.3. enjoy

I've these same thoughts and feelings. Right now I just would like to get outside more and get some exercise. In general I don't feel bad if I work on work problems off-hours as you can't really control when your brain figures things out. These moments should be for exceptional/interesting cases though and not a priority for and reason like a work deadline. It's not even like internet services have truly hard deadlines like gamedev or shrinkwrap software of olden days.<p

Uh, first question: None of your business?Second question: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/05/30/the-importanc...I find having some sort of routine and dedicating time for me, rigidly, and sticking to it tends to help break that cycle. It doesn't ha