A few questions to people who have struggled long-term with fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, etc.: what do you do to keep awake for a full-time workday? Black coffee, supplements, herbs, drugs/prescriptions, other? None, and it required a lifecycle habit change? Have you had success with “desk” jobs sitting all day, or had to choose a field with physical activity to keep from falling asleep on the job? Does it just “get easier” to wake up and stay up after multiple years of full-time? Before starting full-time I had only been able to get part-time gigs before, but it hasn’t taken long for me to notice my biological clock isn’t set right and every day I’m not sure if I’m “built” for it. Is anyone? Thanks Lemmy!
I had done jobs with on-call requirements for a long time. No cubicle. No set times, and no sitting around in drugery while I waited. Sometimes on the job there would be many hours of driving to get to a work site, but it was always unique and I liked the actual work.
Once I transitioned into a cubicle job, I found it soul crushing. Ten+ cups of bad coffee a day, no real sense of direction at the job, screen headaches from staring at a computer all day, and mental fatigue that kept me from doing as much physical activity on weekends. There was also a sense of dread where long running projects would be giving me anxiety even on weekends as I’d think about them. It was a quiet but bad spiral for me.
Luckily for me I had skillsets that allowed me to go off and get a non-cubicle job. Not on call anymore, but active enough that I’m not in front of a computer often at all. Now I don’t have any long running projects giving me worries on the weekends, because the work is always done on my end when I leave, which makes me much happier when I’m spending time off. I have somewhat extreme hours, sometimes 16 at a time, but I don’t work more than 3 days at a time, and I will get a corresponding 3 days off. It’s a schedule that I find much easier, because to me the worst part of work is the morning ritual of waking up and getting ready. Doing it five days in a row for Monday-Friday cubicle life was unbearable.
I do everything I can to fill up my off days with activities, which gets me some much need sun and exercise which feeds into making me less tired.
I know not everybody could have made the exact transition I did, but if cubicles are killing you, it doesn’t hurt to look for another option outside of an office.