The balance between rest and productivity

Question

My job is mentally tiring. I find that I often have to study on it a little when I get home to keep up with the current technology, but by then, I'm often too exhausted to focus on anything.

My personal projects often involve a lot of creativity - writing, game design, business plans, etc. Unfortunately, being mentally exhausted makes it very difficult be creative, much less do any research or learning necessary.

Trying to force myself to slog through it does work, but by the time I get inspiration, it's 1 AM, and by the time I get something useful out of it, it could well be up to 4 AM. The lack of sleep hurts learning and productivity for the rest of the week, even if I get something done that night.

On the other hand, when I tell myself to take a break and watch TV or play a game, I find that I could spend all weekend on it and achieve nothing.

So, are there any recommended approaches to get enough rest and still be creative or learn something?

Answer 1

Do you absolutely HAVE to do all these projects? If not, perhaps, it's time to prioritize your goals (I have some pet projects which will take all my free time and then some if I won't stop myself)

Also, you might want to relax and let your creative side take charge - write down all questions, problems etc on the list of paper and put in your pocket; every time you have an idea about one of the items from that list - write it down or (even better) use pocket voice recorder in your cell phone); You will be surprised how much you can do without actually putting any effort (just make sure to process these recordings every week or so)

when stressed out, it's difficult to remove from my mind onto paper, creating something that feels like mental constipation

afaik, this is perfectly explainable - if your mind would not believe that all these recordings will be processed, it will try to keep all that stuff in your head (which is the terrible way to keep unfinished projects, takes lots of mental resources); so if you will convince your mind that keeping all these little things somewhere else is safe, it will let you to do that. This trick is from GTD.

Answer 2

1. Make an absolute rule to catch sleep at least for 6 hours, and take short cat nap once in a month or a week just to get that the sleep deprivation out of your system and get it declogged. For me it’s hit the bed at 12 and get up at 6 which means skip parties and late night movies but make few exception if there is need and it is must, it is tough but one needs to draw a line to get life back to me.
2. Use standing desk for work, which will automatically make you super productive and get you, aligned 80/20 principle without you getting realize that you are already doing it. Standing long hours builds your mental toughness, you automatically skip trivial stuff and low priority stuff. (if you are worried to get high priority and low priority done at same time I suggest adopt GTD to the core)
3. Use pomodoro technique to review your day, and http://weekplan.net/ to do weekly review. Don’t mix or dilute work and life, have good work life balance.