No Stupid Questions

I'll tell you what worked for me: Doing everything before work instead. Get up at 4am instead of 7 and go to bed at 7pm instead of 10.

Maybe you're a morning person. Wake up and do all your important stuff in the mornings and be lazy at night.

I'm in this picture and I don't like it.

On a more serious note, I feel the same.

Don't get me wrong, I actually do like my job. I'm working with people I like, I like what I'm actually doing, and I'm not waking up with dread every (or really, any) morning. I can't even complain because I'm getting paid well, great benefits, tons of time off (so much in fact that my manager had to force me to take Fridays off until EOY just so I use up my base rate PTOs), great bonus situation, lots of options to travel, management is generally good as well.

But every single day, I just feel exhausted after work. Even when I'm WFH, or have little actually exhausting tasks to do... I'm just exhausted. Tired. No energy for anything but running a quick bath, or shower, reading for an hour or two, then sleeping.

In fact this lack of energy has been so bad recently that I've taken to inserting a workout+cooking+everythingelse hour in the middle of my WFH days just so things get done.

There's a lot of good advice to improve things by changing your behaviour. It is also worth checking your health. I have had similar issues but it got better after I was treated for vitamin B9 deficiency. I was just plain exhausted but after a blood test confirming the issue and a few weeks of supplements prescribed by my doc, things got so much better. Depression and burn out have also been mentioned and it is definitely worth asking for a depression test if you see a doctor. That shit is so exhausting. When I was depressed, I could sleep like 10h a night and I still had zero energy.

A lot of it is just figuring out a new routine. Once you do, and you work that routine for a couple of weeks, it will feel weird to NOT hit the gym after work a few times a week.

You only need to cook one day a week to have good meals.

Make a whole roast chicken on Sunday. You can have that bird all week. Ceasar salad with chicken; chicken tacos, chicken sandwich.

Get a big pot and make a giant stew. Freeze it in pint size containers. Right now I've got chili and lentil soup sitting in the freezer, waiting to be nuked.

Keep plenty of fresh fruit and quality cheese on hand. An apple with some sharp cheddar is a great snack.

Angel hair pasta takes about five minutes to cook; put any sauce you like on it.

You don't have to go to the gym to stay fit.

Use this manual, 15 minutes a day.

https://leisureguy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/rcaf_xbx_5bx_exercise_plans_text.pdf

I have some after work martial arts classes and on the other days I practice for an hour or so on my own. I also think up what I want to cook and keep it interesting. Most of our crappy eating and snacking is due to boredom.

Pure fucking willpower, don’t let yourself sit down when you get home right away.

It's quite insidious, and tbh there's only so much you can do to control how you feel after work. Instead of hoping to feel good every day, I try and set myself up for success on random days where I do leave work with energy.

In my case this means I have 1 or 2 braindead-easy dinners waiting in the wings. Good leftovers I can reheat in the oven, or a meal that takes 2 steps to prepare. If I don't have to worry about cooking dinner, then I have that much more time to dedicate to a hobby when the fancy strikes me.

It might be worth it to try a 10min power nap after work and see if that helps.

I go pretty much straight from work to yoga, make supper at a civilized hour afterwards, and take Wednesdays off workouts to, as you say, flop.

Gardening I do in the morning before work.

Cooking I do because others depend on me, that's been true for 30 years now, before that I didn't remember to eat, just when hungry. Don't keep junk in the house if it tempts you, make your easy stuff healthier. Hummus, boil eggs on the weekends so you have those, fruit, bagged salad greens, make it easier to eat nutritious food.

I want to say suck it up and go to the gym, you will be glad you did. 9-5 is pretty nice hours, here it's 8-5 or 9-6. Exercise is one non-negotiable for me. I have gotten up at 5 to run when that was the only option, and have gone to the gym at 20:30 after night classes after work when that was the only option. You will feel better if you just GO and work out even if you don't want to.

Habit>willpower. Commit to 6 weeks, and by then your schedule will probably settle out. Personally I put exercise ahead of healthy eating because I know my body.

Whatever bullshit tasks you're dreading, see if it's possible to do them before work, or on your lunch break, or on the weekend, or on your scheduled vacation days

Viagra

Quit, then nothing is post work because everything is.

If you have a good job that’s not too demanding and are still feeling this, then you might think about it as a health issue and look into it with your doctor. You have two paths:

1. look for some treatable malady - perhaps depression

2. focus on wellness and fitness: exercise more, get your electrolytes, fix your diet

Either of those two paths may lead to more energy. I don’t know how old you are but this kind of thing doesn’t get any easier with age so I highly recommend getting ahead of it as soon as you can.

If you've started this job recently, that sounds completely normal, at least to my neurodivergent ears.

You're learning how to ride a bike, except it doesn't require so much physical practice as mental practice. You're putting in a lot of mental effort all day every day, and it's exhausting. For me, this period at a new job can last three to six months, sometimes more. Eventually, you get the hang of it, and you don't have to put in nearly as much mental effort to do your job well. Then you can get back to your other life shit.

Personally my biggest hurdle is getting started on something. When I get home I NEVER feel like drawing, but if I sit down and force myself to start I slowly get more energy and focus.