How do you keep energised in the evenings?

[WeaverofWords]

I'm working from home at the moment, researching a particular topic and writing about it. I get up at about 6, feel full of beans & get down to it almost straight away. A short workout and then I break at 12 for lunch, usually carb-free, some soup or salad. I get back into it, then go out for a walk or to do chores - pick up stuff from supermarket, sometimes work meetings. Dinner at 6, but after that, I'm exhausted. I want to try to work on in the evenings, but my energy just goes, and I end up slumped on the sofa with my eyes shut, or just surfing mindlessly.

How can I give myself more pep? I take vitamins, have coffee by day. I am awake enough to read by about 10 ish, and then sleep at midnight.

Any ideas? I've tried a cold drink tonight but I'm not sure it has had much effect...

We moved dinner from 6pm to 8pm and it really helps me. By the time we have eaten and cleared up, dishwasher on etc it’s 9pm and time to relax/craft/read/hobby.

Beforehand I was regularly ready for bed by 6.30!

Thank you, @user1471554720, it's helpful to compare with someone of same age. If you collect your dcs at 5, presumably you work until 4.30 ish? I need to get out in the day otherwise I don't see any people! But could tweak that to happen in lunch hour, along with a walk. Good idea.

@UnicornPoopsRainbows

We moved dinner from 6pm to 8pm and it really helps me. By the time we have eaten and cleared up, dishwasher on etc it’s 9pm and time to relax/craft/read/hobby.

Beforehand I was regularly ready for bed by 6.30!

Good idea, will try shifting dinner to a little later, too. Maybe it's how I break up the evening. I think the winter evenings aren't helping much, at least in the summer with some light, I feel more energised. Hmm maybe I will use my light box tomorrow, too.

I think you need to rearrange your day to do a longer stint of your most complex work in the morning - it sounds like you are a natural lark ad so unlikely ever to work well in the evening. is the daytime bath because you exercise? Because it would be a good swap to put it after dinner as it will help you sleep as well as giving back productive daylight hours. Also, if you are going to bed at midnight and up at 6AM you will actually be getting less than six hours a night of sleep, which isn't enough for anyone.

Thanks, Duke. My work is just as complex all the way through, it doesn't change at all, I just need to divide it up more wisely, I think.

Yes, I did wonder about switching the bath for a shower in the morning. I sleep fine, I just wish I could feel more productive in the evenings.

I'm neither a lark nor an owl, I like to get up early and go to bed late, I don't need more than about 5 or 6 hours sleep, that is perfect at the moment cos my head hits the pillow and sleep well until I wake.

That is an important point: daylight hours. I wonder if I should use my light box again, because it does feel like I'm living in the dark a lot of the time... Thanks!

I think you're not getting enough sleep. If you go to bed at six one day when you're feeling that exhaustion, that might kind of top you up so that you're ok for a couple of days which might work short term to get to this deadline.

But in general it's not sustainable. Burn out is a thing.

Thanks, Bertie, I've tried manipulating my sleep cycle, but if I go to bed any earlier, I just wake up earlier. I've always been like this, my eyes ping open at 6 am. I think if I went to bed at 6pm when the exhaustion hits, I'd wake up at 9pm and not need to go to bed until the early hours. I really don't want to mess around with my sleep like that. My head literally hits the pillow and I'm asleep in minutes. I'll try pushing it to 11/11.30 but I do feel refreshed in the mornings.

I wonder if I just need to do something more active in the evenings... even typing on here tonight has made me more alert.

@Luredbyapomegranate

How many hours work are you doing? No one can do more than 4-5 intense hours, plus a few routine hours on a regular basis. If you force it you will just loose energy overall.

I think age comes into it, but also work is sometimes more complex as you get older and more senior, plus you are more aware of your overall quality of life. An extra hour sleep would also help.

What a load of tosh. Plenty of people manage to work more than 4 to 5 intense hours.

Are you eating a decent amount of protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Vitamin B12 makes a massive difference to my energy levels.

When are you fitting in exercise - your day seems to be work and sleep. Do you go for a run before work and/or a gym class in the evenings? Great for boosting energy levels. If I don’t exercise I very quickly feel the effects.

Hi, @Parker231 I do a workout every morning and do a short walk approx every other day. Running really fatigued me, can only really run on a weekend.

Will look at protein intake. On the whole, it seems ok. I am vegetarian but have cheese with salads or in soup, or a couple of hard boiled eggs & nuts, lentils. Loads of green veg.

I am a similar age to you OP and just the same re sleep. No matter what time I go to bed, I wake up 6 hours later. The day would (and sometimes does) start at .4.30 if I went to bed early. I just can't get back to sleep when I wake up. I would love to as I'm often still tired then, and need coffee to feel human.

It would be great if I could discover how to sleep for 8 hours. Perhaps I would then feel energised all day.

As I said in my other post -I don't feel tired if I go out in the evening - being with people is energising, particularly after a day spent wfh.

Agree with everyone else- shorter breaks! I am similar age and work full time. Up 6am and housework/ short dog walk . I either work 7am and dh sorts dc and drives to school or I do school stuff and work out in evening. Work 8.15- 12.00 (I sometimes take a 15 minute break mid- morning and do house stuff) Lunch including dog walk or any other errands (sometimes with a friend 12-1/1.30 then work again until 4.30. 4.30-630 juggling work, dc, cooking dinner, housework. Evening workout, driving dc to activities, finish work or flop on sofa!

The obvious answer here is fewer breaks and more work during the day the schedule you posted only has 5 hours of work in it. That's a really short working day. I'm all for breaks but if you need to get stuff done there is an obvious answer here.

I'm a couple of years younger than you and also wfh. I start at 8:30 most days, 9:30 if I go for a run. Then work through to around 12:30. I start again at around 1 and work through until our nanny leaves at 1830, taking around 20 mins out to chat to my daughter when she comes home from school if I'm not on calls then. I'll also usually do a few emails in the evening. So that's 9-10 hours a day of work, almost double your 5.

Your schedule sounds like the dream btw - I'd love the chance to fit in that much non work stuff during the week days. It would make my life so much easier.

Yup - fewer and shorter breaks. Then hopefully you wont need to work in evening. You could also save admin or house admin for evening when you are less alert. And a shower not a bath in the day.

You appear to be on a break as much as you are working!

Surely the answer is to get up at six and have your breakfast, shower and workout before you start doing any work?

Then work day 9-12, have an hour for lunch and a walk/errands, then work 1-6 with maybe a half hour break in the middle for a cup of tea.

You shouldn't be expecting constant productivity all day, it's not sustainable but you seem to be using your most productive time (mornings and afternoons) to be doing the stuff that should be being done in the evenings when you're winding down for bed.

Have a rest after lunch or at about 4pm for half an hour to an hour. That makes me feel much more energised in the early evening but I seldom remember to do it. Must try harder as I waste the evening watching hours of tv as it's the laziest thing to do.

I work til 4.50. The chikdcare and bus are 10 mins drive away. Sometimes I start work earlier. I do 7.5 hours a day, sometimes a little more. I do no work in the evenings or weekends unless something totally unusual happens. Exercise is half an hour walk at lunch, sandwich at my desk.

Have a little power nap or just rest mid afternoon. Or accept that the day is finished. I've always had a rest after lunch. Normally a nap. My evening is shit otherwise.

I think you might be deluding yourself in how much work you are doing. You said you get up at six and start almost immediately, but later on you said you don’t actually start work until 8. Is that right? Originally I thought if you were doing six hours straight - 6-12 - that was good going, but it now seems that much of your work day is “break”. You aren’t getting enough sleep either.

@Snowiscold

I think you might be deluding yourself in how much work you are doing. You said you get up at six and start almost immediately, but later on you said you don’t actually start work until 8. Is that right? Originally I thought if you were doing six hours straight - 6-12 - that was good going, but it now seems that much of your work day is “break”. You aren’t getting enough sleep either.

I’ve already given my routine and said that maybe the breaks are longer than they look. I have nowhere implied that I’m doing 6 hours straight. This isn’t a thread about how hard I work/not!

Thanks so much for suggestions! It’s great to hear everyone’s ideas and how they run their day.

Yes, I’m really lucky to have tweaked my work over the years so I don’t have to do more than about 5 or 6 hours, and can work at liberty, which is maybe why my breaks are as lib as my working patterns 😁 but it would be good to do more, which is what brought me here.

Last night I found some pizzazz on the back of this thread and did LOADS from about 10-2 😳 very rare of me to do this but I got tons done. I emphasise that I won’t do it all the time. Just woken up, so it does put today out of kilter. Will play by ear.

It’s only a few more days. Think I will try to get some proper structure in place soon as I will definitely get exhausted otherwise!

Seems like you’re only sleeping midnight til 6am? Of course you’ll be tired!

Yes, I’m really lucky to have tweaked my work over the years so I don’t have to do more than about 5 or 6 hours, and can work at liberty, which is maybe why my breaks are as lib as my working patterns

But this is precisely why you're not energetic in the evenings as you're stretching your "working day" to include doing all errands and jobs people normally do on their lunch break or after work.

I suspect if you just sat down and did, say, two three hour blocks of work with a break in the middle, you'd feel like being a lot more productive in the evening, instead of stretching your working day out to take up 10+ hours because you're doing loads of time fillers in between.