Too Busy To Work (or, why TV is so popular)

When the DayJob piles on the work, it doesn’t just eat up on time, it eats up on energy and motivation.

I’ve been wrestling with the DayJob lately, they have been loading me up with work. It hasn’t started to push into my free time yet (though I see that coming), but it has sapped a lot of my energy and focus.

When I started this crazy art venture, I wasn’t overloaded at work. Every now and then I would have to work late to catch up, but it was infrequent. Now, however, I have a constant, heavy, stressful load of work.

By the time I get home from work at 6pm, after stressing about the 3 jobs I have due in the next 2 weeks to 2 months, as well as the “gotta have it now” emergency work that gets thrown my way, I am mentally drained. I am not in a mental position to focus on writing, editing audio or video, and most of all, art, which requires plenty of focus.

I am not one of those crazy powerhouses of energy that can go and go and go.

Is it just me?

I have a feeling that a lot of jobs are like this, and a lot of people’s lives are like this. Fresh in the morning, drained in the evening. I hear this from my coworkers, later in the afternoon, their brain is fried, they can’t focus on stuff anymore, and not much gets done.

By the time work is over, and the commute home is complete, there isn’t much energy left for mush else. Food. Booze. TV. It’s not that I don’t have time to work for a few hours in the evening, it’s that I don’t have the capacity to work in the evening.

Most evenings, when I get home from work, I want a big plate of food, a few beers or glasses of wine, and to sit and blither out watching TV or some movie. I don’t even like TV (except Lost, that show is tha bomb), but it feels good after a long day at work. It feels like I am relaxing and more so, recovering.

I really believe this is why TV is so popular. It’s not what’s on TV, but what everyone does all day before they watch TV. There isn’t much left upstairs for anything else after slaving away.

So… what to do about it?

After all, I want the fire back. I wake up with it, and it is dim by the end of the day.

Honestly, I’m not sure.

I’ve been cranking up my diet, eating healthier foods, that helps.

I give myself my best time, ie. the morning. I just have to teach myself how to wake up early on a consistent basis.

I think that adding physical exercise to the mix will help. I may start doing some sort of physical activity first thing when I get home. I’ll try this out and see how it goes.

What about you? Do you have any secrets about how to recharge after a long stressful day of slaving in the spice mines? I’d like to hear it. I haven’t solved this one yet.

I will solve this one. It is just going to take some work, practice, problem solving, and trial and error.

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7 Responses to “Too Busy To Work (or, why TV is so popular)”

  1. Heather says:

    Still trying to get to grips with this one myself (except that mine is college rather than work, so not quite the same deal). What I’ve found is that since I started Tai Chi once a week it’s been a lot easier to focus; like I’m getting an hour or two to recharge properly that day.

    Maybe take up some form of physical hobby or martial art? Just a thought. 🙂 Not just you though.

  2. Katie says:

    I’d been wondering where you’d gotten to lately…

    I’m in the same boat – maybe most of us are? TV doesn’t help, though it is all I think I want after a long day. For me, a long walk/run is the best strategy – it clears my mind of all the work-related crap, loosens out the tension – and then usually gets some great creative thoughts on the go, so by the time I get back I’ve got half a new story or blogpost already simmering. If I miss out on this routine for more than a day or two, both my work and my creative projects spiral down the pan. The other option is to start saying ‘no’ to things at work – a dicey strategy, but one that I’ve actually had to resort to this week. I just can’t do any more, and thats that.

    The spice mines, by the way, sounds exotic, in a hard labour kinda way. Where’d that phrase come from?

    • Deacon says:

      I’m glad I’m not the only one that struggles with this. Physical activity seems to keep coming up as an answer. I usually jog at lunch, maybe something else is in order.

      I’ve started turning down work at the spice mines, because I have more on my desk than I can do already. The mines are a certain geeky reference, though the reference is expanding. I just heard a cool podcast about the 15th century sailing expeditions to the spice islands. Apparently, a successful trip could set up a captain for life with the money he made. The trip was very, very dangerous, however.

  3. Dave Doolin says:

    Keep chunking stuff down into smaller and smaller pieces.

    If you can’t do something tonight, figure out what you can spend 15 minutes on tomorrow night.
    .-= Dave Doolin´s last blog post ..How To Publish The **** Out Of Your Blog Post =-.

    • Deacon says:

      Funny you mention this, I have started to do this, especially at dayjob.

      When I come up with a list of items I need to do, I can march through it, and it is less draining. Once the tasks are decided, I can just work through it.

      The hardest part is the balancing act.

  4. tiven says:

    This is a tough one for me too. Haven’t figured out a good solution. Have you tried taking a 1 – 2 hr nap when you get home from work?

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