1. Modulate expectations. Nothing will let you be 100% productive, 100% of the day. You don’t want that anyway. The moment you get 100% productivity, they will demand 105%, which you are not capable of. Even if you can hit 100% for a moment, you can’t maintain it. It’d be like redlining an engine. Find your sustainable level of work and maintain it. You won’t get paid anything if you kill yourself trying to do more.
2. Take breaks before you hit the wall. Work an hour, go for a walk. Work an hour, close your eyes and do deep breathing for a bit. Work for an hour, sing along to a few songs. Don’t think actively during the breaks. Your unconscious needs processing time. This keeps you from hitting the wall so hard, and might let you get an extra cycle or two.
3. Make the things you do on those breaks activities that do not require strong attention but do get air moving through your lungs. Part of fatigue is build up of waste products in the brain. Get air and blood in there and it’ll help.

That sounds about right to me! Trying to go full steam ahead for 8 hours a day isn’t sustainable or even desirable.

I found Cal Newport’s book Slow Productivity really helped me get some perspective on work. It has three main lessons: Do Fewer Things, Work at a Natural Pace and Obsess over Quality.

If you’re able to afford it and it doesn’t jeopardize your employment. Taking a huge amount of time off can reset the mental burnout.

If you wait too long to take a decent vacation the burnout can take years to recover from once you finally break.

Alternatively an therapist might be able to work out a solution tailored for your situation.

What I do is work less than 3 hours per day. If on a job, the rest of the time I just act as if I’m working.

Doing anything physical ( a walk, exercise, bike ride, whatever) while doing nothing mental (as in, no chores like cleaning, something physical and mostly mindless) usually helps me.

Crack cocaine

That’s the most normal thing in the world.

We aren’t machines - most people can only focus deeply for at most a couple of hours at a time, and it takes a lot of energy to focuslike that. Just like you can’t run a whole marathon at sprinting-after-the-bus speeds, you won’t be able to work a whole day at the level of your peak performing hour. Best thing to do is plan your work accordingly.

The number one thing for me is taking breaks BEFORE I think I need it. Way more frequent breaks than you think.

Short breaks so you don’t lose your flow, but still take time to get some blood flow through your body up to your brain: Set an alarm every half hour or so for a mini break 30-60 sec (closing your eyes, stretching, breathing, standing and staring out a window). Every hour move away from the desk 2-5 min (refill your water and grab a fruit, or empty the dishwasher or quick walk up and down the stairs or around the building for some fresh air). Halfway between morning and lunch, and halfway between lunch and night take a longer break 15 or so minutes (with a cup of tea or coffee and reading or chatting with colleagues or a friend).

Absolutely no (constructive) work talk during breaks with colleagues. Better to sit in silence than ruin your break time.

Brisk walk (get the heart rate up) or quick nap during lunch.

Save some menial tasks for when you run out of steam, usually after lunch and often towards end of day. Replying to a few emails or checking off some small tasks - something simple just to get the ball rolling after lunch or to wind down the work day.

Make sure you eat and drink properly.

Avoid negative self-talk, because you’re doing really well with your human brain and biological need for rest and recuperating.

And ask for help even when you don’t need it, because sometimes just explaining your work means you find a solution that would have taken a lot longer to find in silence, and sometimes it just makes someone else feel good to be of assistance.

I’m gonna give you the answer no motivated person wants to hear. You should listen to your body and take a rest. You’ll be able to get more done with time, but exhausting yourself to get there won’t help in the long run (ask me how I know 🫠)

Prolonged mental exhaustion causes a buildup of glutamate in areas like the lateral prefrontal cortex. Sustained overstimulation can lead to excitotoxicity, where excess glutamate damages neurons.

Take a walk. Even if it’s just on a treadmill. Even if it’s just up and down the stairs a few times. There are empirical studies on this; the physical act of walking energizes your brain. Doesn’t have to be outside, doesn’t have to be going anywhere. Just walk. Five to ten minutes, put a podcast on or something. Do that every hour or two.

I’m honestly only good for a few hours a day. I do my thinking, usually come up with something good, then basically fuck off because unless I’m feeling very inspired that’s as much as I’m going to produce.

Now when I’m inspired by something I’ll go like 18 hours straight, but it’s been a long long time since work inspired me like that.

So in that down time I walk to the coffee shop, take a nap, browse the internet, whatever.

Like, yesterday morning I made some code that needs to run daily 150,000x cheaper. Literally saved us a few grand a month. I expected like a 10x improvement. But I could only do that after not thinking about it for the weekend.

Escape the hell that is forcing you to labor.

Im like this. Getting worse as I get older. I used to do a shitton and it was more like 5 or 6 hours but that has come down. No advice except to feel miserable.

Don’t work three hours straight.

Try doing two hours and then give yourself a break.

It’s much easier to carry five 20 pound loads than to try and carry one 100 pound load.

Did you get enough sleep the nights before? Have you eaten well and had enough to drink? Do you do modest exercise?

Don’t think anyone can do a full 8 hour workday of only deep mental work, about 4 hours is more reasonable. Fill the day with some less challenging work.