Ask HN: How do you deal with after work fatigue?

I went to a book signing by Brandon Sanderson. Not a huge fan of him as a person, but he's a fantastic writer and an incredibly smart man. He started off the signing with a little story about creativity. When Brandon was in college, he worked 3rd shift at a hotel. He'd go to school in the mornings, sleep in the afternoons, and work all night. He tried to roll his own degree, but they made him stick to the Creative Writing plan. Instead, he decided to mix up his electives -- take as many subjects as he possibly could. A writer needs to know about history, science, philosophy, technology, and so on. You can't just spend all day in English classes and expect to be a well-rounded writer!

So he took as many classes as he could. He'd go to class in the morning, sleep in the afternoon, and then get to work around midnight. In between checking in guests at the hotel, he'd work on his homework, and once his homework was done, he'd write for hours. He wrote his first six or seven novels while working at the hotel (the last one was actually picked up by a publisher or publication).

He said that he had no problem with this schedule... except for his programming class. He was taking a class that used Pascal, and he'd get to work, do his Pascal homework, and then be completely unable to write. He took dozens of classes at university, but the only one that left him completely creatively drained was programming.

In other words, programming took just as much energy out of him as writing did -- it exercises the same brain muscles, so to speak.

I don't really have much of a point to this, other than to say that a rather well-known fantasy author commiserates. Programming is hard. It's draining. It's being non-stop creative in solving problems.

My personal philosophy is this: everything can wait until tomorrow. When the clock hits 5 o'clock, start wrapping up. Find a stopping place, and pick it up tomorrow. Barring servers crashing, the work will still be there tomorrow. I don't check my email, I don't open my laptop, I don't do anything work-related once I get home. Home is me time. Nine-to-five is company time.

I guess there are two things here: programming is hard work, and draw a line between your personal and work life.

Typically I write code in chunks of time not exceeding two hours, after which I shift to other tasks: catching up on emails; writing specs or drawing diagrams; thinking about larger-picture issues; reading work-related documents or instructional material; talking or IMing with coworkers.

Also, I take walks, go swimming, go for a run, go to the gym, do some pushups, get a coffee, read a book, play a musical instrument in between programming sessions.

Those context shifts make each programming block more meaningful and concentrated for me.

My most productive days usually leave me energized, not exhausted.

It helps you to relearn to relax your parasympathetic nervous system, which might get 'jammed' in the day being stuck at a desk for 6+ hours.

Also if you go wide open for any long period with no down time you are going to burn out and start thrashing. 2 weeks is my limit.

Intention is important. If I start the day with the intent of having something left over for myself at the end it really helps.

I set a phone timer for 18 minutes, lay down in the dark, and nap for a bit. 18 minutes is completely arbitrary, but my body has adjusted to that time specifically, for me.