Does anyone else lose steam mid-afternoon and wind up working until 9/10pm to meet your hours? I feel like I work late most nights purely due to the fact that there are like 2-3 hours where I can’t focus during the day every day or alternatively choose to run errands.

I clean during the middle of the day lol when I can’t think anymore. Deep cleaned my bathroom today. Then pick it up at night literally every night. Ir sucks but it’s very hard to do complex things for this many hours in a row.

Yes. I’ve always been unable to work like 12 straight hours unless I’m on a real deadline. So I’ve always tried to break up the day into little windows when my brain is productive and work out or do administrative stuff during the times when I’m unproductive.

Yep.

Yeah, I have a pretty severe dip somewhere between 2-8 pm, particularly if I had one of those mornings that I was going super hard with no break. There’s usually a two hour block in there that I work at a snail’s pace and another 2 hour block where I take a dinner break and chill.

It can be due to lunch, try having a heavy breakfast and a light lunch.

Often I find myself dozing off after lunch, having a light lunch usually solves it

It can be quite bad for me. I was diagnosed with really severe ADHD so I'm either working 8 - 14 hours straight with little to no lunch, bathroom or water breaks or I'm completely dysfunctional and get no work done whatsoever for days if I'm off my meds.

When I was undiagnosed I would completely lose steam after 2 - 3 hours.

Not suggesting you have adhd, but just saying that the alternative in my situation is not any better and I'm sure will kill me earlier.

Heck at least I'm meeting deadlines lol

All of this. During my mental block hours, find it best to use that time to do really discrete process or deal points — send a few emails, write up a to-do list, knock out a really simple doc. Removing even small stuff from the mountain helps it be less intimidating when you tackle the big stuff when your gears start turning later.

Congratulations, you’re human

Try figuring out when your natural productivity is at its highest and work your day around that. You might be your most efficient from noon to midnight, for instance. If that’s the case then try not to force yourself to work from 6 am to 6 pm because you will end up overly exhausted forcing yourself to work against your natural system.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but when I shifted my day to later I became much more productive.

Yeah i recommend taking a nap and then working out with those hours and coming back to work refreshed.

Never be afraid to nap, grab coffee, play some tunes. A fifteen minute nap puts me back on track some days.

Also very important to make a list of your goals/actions for the day, preferably in order. Knowing what I need to start next keeps me motivated and moving.

Do things you will enjoy least first. Then your day can improve as you go.