I know that in a day or two I will be full of energy again. Maybe even later on today. But these lethargic moments come often. Once every few days I guess. Any Ideas how to approach this kind of situation?
1. Eat food. Eat good, healthy food on a regular schedule. The willpower center of your brain takes a LOT of calories to run, and if you don't fuel it, you'll find yourself paralyzed by laziness. Make sure the calories you ingest are solid ones - protien, fat, sugar. Not HFCS or other forms of fructose, since it messes with your insulin and makes you feel full even when you aren't.
2) If you are male, check your orgasm and pron consumption. For myself, if I've orgasmed in the last three days, I get a kind of empty, grey fuzz feeling that feels a lot like depression. As someone who's fought mild depression, one of the best ways for me has been to regulate my sexuality and orgasm only when I know I don't need to do anything the next day. Track your energy and your sex drive, and see if there's a correlation - I bet the results will speak for themselves.
3) Sleep on a schedule. Caffeine doesn't count. It's painful and it takes willpower and it sucks but that's life. I solved this one by getting married to a woman who keeps a very strict sleep schedule (ymmv :P )
4) Organize your time. Follow pomodoro or a one hour on-one hour off time. If you find yourself "half-working" (sitting at your computer pretending to work but really browsing HN and Reddit). Get up. Go outside. Walking and standing are good for your health and your creativity.
5) Find a friend or partner who energizes you. Someone who you can hang out with and have crazy ideas and good conversation. If you don't have someone like this, start by making acquaintances at a local club or meetup.
6) Rest. Understand that recuperating your strength for a day isn't going to wreck your chances at becoming the next great startup CEO. It's okay to give yourself a break, before you break.
Hope this helps :)
Consider getting some blood work done. I found out I have a high incidence of Epstein Bar (related to Mononucleosis) and if I don't regulate my diet, I get completely drained of energy and will for anything. This also affects my sex drive and as revx mentioned, my physiology after orgasm. I call it the sex hangover.
I found that yoga and walking also helps a lot, I look for yoga videos on Youtube, the prettier the instructor the better ;)
I think it happens to pretty much everyone, we as society just don't talk about sexuality or depression enough to put the two together.
In the depression/anxiety/lethargy space I find it's not time for any major life breakthroughs.
The biggest breakthrough for me is finding the initial half ounce of mojo to begin the space-clearing and space-claiming process... whether washing a single dish, throwing an old piece of clothing, deleting an email I'll never get around to replying to.
Then, doing it again, and again, one damn t-shirt at a time.
Soon the momentum picks up and the clearing happens by itself.
Also, for me generally the only way out is through - I find it starts with acceptance of this moment as it is, so I'm careful to not add my judgments ("This should not be happening", "I fucked up", etc.) to the situation, but instead hold the lethargic/anxious/depressed parts of me in kindness. Not trying to change anything about them.
From that starting place of self-kindness I can take a breath, dust myself off, and begin taking one simple, tiny action – not to make anything happen but only to make space for the new and invite it in.
I ask myself often: Which old junk am I ready to let go of to make space for the new? I don't need to know what the new is, just trust life and start throwing away the shitty t-shirts.
What makes you say this? I always feel fantastic and motivated after a hard session in the gym. I agree that long runs or walks yield more creative thoughts than time in the gym, but few things are as energizing and motivating as successfully grinding out heavy sets of squats or deadlifts.
Go for a run? If you don't have the energy to run, go for a walk. If you're not going to do anything during the day, might as well enjoy the sun and visit new places.
Over time you can try to identify things that lengthen lethargic periods, and things that inspire you, and try to build those. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being demotivated from time to time. I just see it as a natural recharge time between inspired times.
Some things that I find bring on inspired times:
- Sit around and disconnect from the internet. Boredom is fantastic as a motivational tool.
- Exercise.
- Do nice things for your friends and family. Invite people over for dinner, play board games, mow your grandmothers' lawn. Or just write them a letter.
I work for a government outfit as a programmer and I don't have the cool frameworks to play with, the pool table in the break room, etc. Sometimes you just have to get out of the space for a bit and let your mind wander.
Living with depression, which causes much of these types of feelings, I've learned not to force anything- as it usually doesn't work. So I just wait for the cycle to move on & am grateful to have energy when I do.
2. I've found I've a strong connection to musical context, i.e., when my ass is dragging, playing tunes I have listened to while doing things I find fun (in my case, careening down mountains on bikes with earbuds in) can give me a good jolt out of a lethargic moment.
3. Redirect the slack. Few time-wasters out there compare with surfing the web. So, if I'm falling down that rabbit-hole, I surf to find things I find motivating and energizing, e.g., reading about the training regimes of athletes I admire, or find youtube clips of them demonstrating significant badassery, or finding training clips I can follow (I've been enjoying Ryan Leech's 30 Day Wheelie Challenge lately.)
4. Take a nap. In the sun if possible.
5. Listen to Car Talk (while eating some proper food, but be careful with liquids that can come back through the nose.)
6. Smile. If you can't do #5, just plaster a big, fake grin on your face. I find it rare my brain doesn't say "hey, we're smiling here, crap we must be happy and energized and I just missed the memo, time to get on that!"
Other than that I can only think that you're not properly motivated. I don't know much about clinical depression so this may be obtuse but let's assume you were being tortured; burned, whipped, fingernail removal, whatever. Would you do everything in your power to get out of that situation? Well right now you're comfortable. There are no pressing matters and you have pretty much whatever you need from day to day. That emotional inertia that was there when you began working on your startup isn't there. There are also no new stimuli to spur you back into motion. So the only thing you can do is rest until your comfort level with your progress drops enough for you to get back into gear. I don't know, there's a very good chance I'm projecting from my own past experiences.
The only solution I've found which works for me every day is to get angry. Angry about what other people have done that I haven't done. Angry about what other people have that I don't have. Angry about not using my talents to the fullest - not seeing what I'm capable of doing. Angry about being told no, I can't. My progress is fueled by rage and my heart will probably pop by age 50 but I will get my work done. I will never allow myself to be comfortable.
Good luck, whatever you do.
After a while I realized that this is not sustainable and I have to do something. I started to focus on weight loss since the results are easily measurable and I felt if I succeed that will give me positive encouragement to improve other parts of my life. Started off with simple changes. Started walking home from work (about 6km) instead of taking the bus every day. During my walks I listened to my favorite tracks or just walked in silence and thought about stuff that I wouldn't normally spend time thinking about. The change in my day to day mood was measurable even after the first week.
After a while I started doing yoga at home following YouTube videos and started meditating regularly. Yoga, besides having positive health effects (flexibility, weight loss) teaches you about being aware of your body and it's needs. I noticed that after a couple of weeks I started eating way healthier and drinking way more water (these days I do at least 3 liters / day) and way less alcohol.
In six months I lost over 26 kilos, which is obviously really nice but what is even better that I feel happier in general and more confident in myself. My life is not revolving around my work anymore. This new found self awareness also had positive effect on my professional life. I'm thinking more clearly, my code quality is better and I solve problems faster than ever.
I know it can be really hard to make yourself do it, esp. when you feel down, but after you are done, you will be asking yourself what were you objecting to in the first place.
If you want to learn more about the link between exercise and brain health read "Brain Rules" by Dr. John Medina or watch his Google talk by the same name:
He also has "Baby Brain Rules" on parenting techniques to help your new baby get a good start (some of the stuff you need to do way before you even get pregnant/decide to have a child).
Then focus on diet and exercise.
I generally ascribe to the "show up and do something" philosophy on days like the one you're describing. I tell myself that I can have the rest of the day off guilt free if I just do one task that I've been meaning to get done. For me the biggest challenge to working is starting, so generally once I start working on that one task, I find new energy and will continue working once I finish it.
If this is a regular problem for you, the time to address it is when you're feeling "up" - get exercise, get enough sleep (even if that involves midday naps, and I'm sure many other things that people can suggest).
Usually when i get lethargic it means something is wrong with my enviroment, nothing new, everything run of the mill and other people have allready down it. In that case- try to automatize it or find out how one could do that .
If you are, stopping feeling guilty because the time is not productive will help a lot.
- Clean the house a bit
- Do some yard work
- Get some exercise (bike ride or stretching & 7-minute workout)