How many hours do you work? Do you have much energy in evenings and weekends?

[careerplanning]

Wondering how much energy people have in the evenings after work?

How long do you, for example, spend cooking dinner? Do you have enough energy to go to the gym or go to the cinema after work?

Or to focus on watching some telly before bed? Or so tired you just zone out until you can fall asleep?

How many hours do you do, and does your employer expect you to be available and work in your evenings or at the weekend?

I feel my energy levels are so, so low and wondering what is in any way normal.

do you exercise ? counterintuitive but it can improve energy levels and leads to better sleep

Well I work 12 1/2 hour night shifts 3x a week. My energy levels are shit, can just about do the housework, garden and cooking. Also going through the menopause doesn't help either.

I work 21 hrs a week and then am the main carer for 2x primary age children alongside my husband who works long hours.

I have energy to do activities after work a couple of times a week, but I very much need wind down and zone out time. I would struggle working a full time stressful job and have activities after work too (left a previous job and reduced hours for this reason).

I do think this changes with different individual too. My husband loves being bus and get recharged by being out and with people. I very much have a limit for social interaction and after too much need quiet time alone to recuperate. So I wouldn’t worry too much what other manage and more on what balance works well for you.

However with Physical exercise I do think it’s one of those things that once you get over the “I’m too tired” feeling and get into the routine it gives you more energy.

for me my energy is sapped by some of the bad habits I have (staying on musmnet till the small hours).

Typically about 10 hours a day and 0 energy in the evening. Cooking, or just bunging into oven, is pretty much it!

But long covid and perimenopause is makes life very hard.

Full time menopausal secondary school teacher. No energy at all. Everything is one big effort. Onli got lool after myself and that is sn effort.

I work 40 hours a week but I have a young child & was very energetic until that happened.

I find that slobbing on the sofa watching TV makes me sleepy. Exercising, cleaning, or sitting reading / knitting / chatting is fine. TV is the killer.

Full time - 37 hours, over 5.
No I don’t have much energy after but I suspect I am autistic so doesn’t take much to leave me tired socially, which obviously won’t be helping.
Up until recently I was really hard on myself for not coming home from work and cooking from scratch every night, but I think I’ve not been making it easier by having such high standards. Heated up leftovers/pre prepped meals/oven food is fine.

How old are you? I'm early 40s. Been at work, finished at 4pm. I've just sat down now to watch TV. I go gym and out in the evenings. My kids have a lot of activities so a lot of evenings too.

I think stress levels also make a big difference. Stressful jobs are much more tiring even if shorter hours. I think it’s tiring being in a state of stress for long periods.

I work full time, so 37 hours M-F, with no evening or weekend work expected. I also flex my hours so I'm home by 4:30 pm most days, giving me a little bit of extra time in the evenings. I cook most evenings, we do HelloFresh so I have two meals which I know are easier to prep and plan, and then the other days will be simple things like traybakes, soup, etc.

I do go ride my horse twice per week during the week and on those evenings DH takes care of the afternoon/evening routine, and I get home just shy of bedtime. 8:30 - 11 pm is "our time" where we just chill on the sofa and I appreciate it by the end of the day!

26 hours over 4 days (although doing 32 for about 6 weeks)

I feel like life is a never ending load of utter drudgery and I try not to think about it.

My house is a tip and my life is chaos.

I’m not expected to work outside of my contracted hours but I often do.

My standard week is around 38 hours and I have a 40 minute commute each way.

Though I do have a 2 year old and am very pregnant 😂 because of DC we always eat by 7pm anyway. One of us tidies up whilst the other puts DC to bed. Then we normal have around an hour to flop on the sofa if we don’t have plans.

In the week we generally socialise once or twice a week for a few hours, In a very low key way though, people will come to us or we’ll go to a friends house. So no getting dressed up and travel is about 5 minutes max.

Pre 2nd pregnancy we had a nice balance of doing a day out like a walk or seeing friends, generally out of the house for most of the day on a Saturday and then we’d have a lazy Sunday and that worked well. We had the energy for it.

Around a month ago we stopped making weekend plans because I was just so tired, now we’ll do the food shop, swimming lessons and potter around at home/in the garden.

I work full time 37 hours a week, 5 days. Only go to office 1-2 days a week which makes an enormous difference to my evening and weekend energy. I can do all household stuff and exercise in the mornings and evenings.

Oh and I might occasionally catch up on my time sheets of an evening or stay and extra 30 minutes to finish something off but apart from that I don’t do anything extra. I can’t my life outside of work is full!

Around 42 hours per week, also have a job 1 evening a week which is another 6 hours per week, and spend quite a bit of time on a hobby. I dont go to the gym but would have the energy to. I do school runs, cook dinner, clean around daily etc. I'm not a TV watcher though, I must watch about 2 hours TV per month at most.

35 hours over 5 days, 7 hours a day.
4 from home and 1 commuting (3 hours in total).
energy levels are varied but I’ve got a lot of stress at home at the moment around one of my dc, work stress levels are low.
I have a before walk work the 4 days I’m home and either lunchtime gym or evening gym/walk 2-3 times a week.
My dc are older now and don’t have clubs etc, one at uni, one at college and one senior. The senior has football after school but Dh usually deals with that. Dh also cooks 99% of the time.

I work 32 hours over four days but end up doing work on my day off as I have to break off at 4pm as my child who is autistic gets home from school. I have two autistic kids and to be honest I’m knackered. Alongside work I do all the childcare (youngest needs supervision) including the holidays as I work term time only and the majority of cooking and household chores. I’m shattered. I have no energy and don’t go out in the evening. I can just about slob in front of the TV. I’m feeling a bit useless as a parent at the moment.

Work 25 hours a week across 4 short days, I do have energy. Cook from scratch & make lunches etc, but evenings are filled with ferrying dc to various activities.

I struggle to fit exercise in. I don't like doing it a home & have never been a jogger, I find it hard to get in the car for the 3rd time that day particularly in the darker evenings. Don't get a chance to watch much tv though as there's also something to do, arrange, chat to a friend etc.

I have a very low stress job now though which is bliss.

I work a three day week. I have a teen and primary age child. DH works shifts in a pattern which includes weekends. On work days I am usually absolutely done in by the time I get home at 6pm but so try to do a weights class at the gym at least one night. Work is very stressful and no way could I do it 5 days a week. I'm also deeply into perimenopause which causes me insomnia. I'm frankly knackered from the moment I get up. The two days I don't work I'm supermarket shopping, batch cooking, cleaning and tidying.

I work 45+ hours a week. Yes I have energy usually for the gym and going out. I don’t fall asleep in front of the TV. I’m 56. Just back from a run after a pretty full on 10 hour day running my own business.

that sounds smug. And sure sometimes I have to force myself to go out / exercise. But I find that the more I do, the more energy I have.

have they been and had Bloods done?

I work 9 hours Mon-Fri actually at work, with a 30 min drive each end. I sometimes do a further 30-60 mins work when I get home, and usually a couple of hours at the weekend. That's during term time - I'm a teacher. I do maybe a day's work in half terms, a couple at Easter & Christmas and maybe a week in the summer. I'm 51. I'm not that tired when I get home, but still can't quite bring myself to do any exercise during the week even though I need to!

30 hours a week and I'm always exhausted. But I do have a very active 2 year old! So that might explain it 😂

Stage of life matters, if your dc are young it's alot harder to have time