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Comment by jowiar | Hacker News Reader

It took me over 10 years to overcome this. For the longest time, I needed fatigue to kick in to overwhelm the anxiety and enable productivity (albeit at nowhere near my potential).

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Thanks, that is a very insightful and a helpful comment. It's happening a lot less for me these days, but have had a recent resurfacing.

Physical exercise and mindfulness can be great helpers, and making time for them even when there doesn't seem to be any is paramount.

"I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." -Martin Luther

This made me laugh. So relatable! Sometimes I spend my first 2 hours in bed plus having a very long breakfast with my wife (I work remotely) just so I can mentally prepare for the work ahead.

FWIW, the resolution for me eventually came when I was able to get a nice feedback loop of breaking off what I thought was a day’s work at the beginning of the day, doing a day’s work, and either succeeding or taking the loss and rescoping for the next day. The sleep deprivation is a cycle from hell, where I can get something done, but it’s at a cost of the next 2 days of productivity, which causes more anxiety...

I've always guessed this could be the inspiration for the fictional "Ballmer peak" (alcohol taking the place of fatigue).[1]

[1] https://xkcd.com/323

Call me crazy, but it's not fiction to me. When I figured out what I am gonna do, a beer or two helps me focus.

I drink red wine 1-2 times a month. Most of the time I get the dosage right and I feel like Skynet for 3-4 hours.

But I do it rarely, don't want to ever be dependent on alcohol.

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