Ask HN: I found that I often have a lazy day after productive day

What you're going through is something I'm dealing with now -- one of the side effects of some health conditions is temporary (or permanent) changes in endurance. One of the difficulties I have faced is accepting the days when I'm less productive and moving on in the hopes the following day will be better.

You're a human, myself include.

It's a reminder that we're not a relentless robot. We need "lazy", like in lazy computation. It's a good default optimization strategy.

Have a good day.

I try to make up for it on productive days by being very productive or extra creative.

The important part is to handle the life admin and low prio stuff on the lazy days if you can so you can clear your time for the peak days. Usually I try to follow my lazy and then get curious.

Working remote helps with this since my output averages out over the week, and I can still have peak days without a manager bugging me or having to be in an office. Some lazy days are on the couch, but then a golden hour / brain wave of good work can happen. If I was chained to a desk it doesn't happen.

I think it's natural and speaks to the reality that we cannot operate at an all-out 100% continuously.

Use the downtime as an opportunity for self care, physical health, and low mental output tasks so that when the peak comes again you're not distracted by trivial things.

This could be proven/disproven with some metrics about your average productivity and productivity on 'lazy' days.

Yes, regularly. Yesterday was a lazy day for me. Today was a productive day.

> What would you recommend me to do to get out of this cycle?

I don’t have a solution. I’ve learned to live with it. I’m on ADHD meds and they help, but they don’t prevent the lazy days.

On your productive days you will often have ancillary thoughts - that document needs updating, its been a while since I read up on subject X, that server needs patching, this section of the config parser needs to be more robust, little tidy-up tasks that create more order in your workspace, these tasks are like the monks cleaning the house, they are restorative and meditative, but not cognitively burdening.

Write these down in whatever method suits you. Then they are outside of your working memory. On your less productive days, pick a few that seem appealing to you, and do them.

Lastly, not every moment must be productive, sometimes you actually need rest, life is about balance.

Have you tried examining what it is that actually gets you to work on those productive days? I wonder if you’re glossing over that part while you focus on what’s getting you into those unproductive days. Are you waiting until you get to sort of a critical mass, until feeling lazy feels bad enough that you can’t handle it anymore, and that’s your motivation for getting back towards being productive? If that’s the case, it might be worth contemplating how sustainable that is for you, and if there’s anything more sustainable you could use for motivation.

If you aren’t keeping up, I’d try working less on your productive days and see if you can spread out the work more evenly. Take more time for yourself. Exercise, sleep, eat, socialize.

Basically for me this "day of productivity" can extend to up to 3 days, but yes the cycle in general is always to some degree: Productive -> Lazy -> Something inbetween -> Productive -> ...

I know that doesn't adapt to student life at all. Back when I needed to get productive ashwaghanda and later prescription amphetamines were helpful. But that led me directly into a burnout so I wouldn't recommend going the amphetamine route. Ash is amazing still

Your mind has limited capacity for diffucult mental work. After you have used it all, you need time to restore yourself.

You can use several strategies:

  * Smooth it out: work less on a productive day so you can work more on an unproductive day
  * Improve your capacity for work: diet, sleep, exercise. there is a bazilion things written on the topic, find what works for you.
  * Adapt work to your capability. If you have unproductive day, do unproductive things. For example, you can attend meetings, write emails, or take the day off entirely and do something physical.

Love, Emma

Edit: formatting, I am new to the editor on this site

Passion is the opposite, you have to expend willpower to not do the thing. Once you do the thing, you end up with more energy.

Passion can be destructive in many situations though, especially jobs where your work may be writing docs, meetings, demos, and not doing the thing. So highly passionate people in "the corporation" end up feeling more drained than disciplined people.

But basically what you're seeing is a comparison between the two, instead of seeing it as a normal thing like the sleep/wake cycle.