What do you do to get a second wind after work? (extra energy)

I only have one answer to this. Don't go at it after work.

Get up one(+) hour earlier than usual. Work on your project first. Then go to work.

I get up at 5:30 often to work on my side-projects, then commute to work to be there at 7:00 (having the first 1.5 hours in silence and getting stuff done!) and back home around 17:00.

Family time and some hacking time on some evenings.

Works like a charm!

Run for 30 minutes and take a cold shower afterwards.

Power nap. Meaning I come home from work and the first thing I do is strip naked and hop into bed. I close my eyes and completely relax everything - mind, muscles, eyes. Keep breathing consistent. Set an alarm for 30 mins and wake up rejuvenated!

Drink more water. Dehydration is an energy drain.

Exercise every day.

Two things that helped me the most were:

Diet, I started eating another meal at 10:00 am and 5:00pm, yogurt/oats/berries. It gave me more energy throughout the day and when I got home. Hydration was a big part of that as well.

Another thing was always having a collection of small tasks ready to go, so within github I would make sure there are a few different tasks that I can complete within 15 minutes. Having those available made it easy to get started which was always the hardest for me!

This thread should have a bookmark option!

Try and do 1x day per week of this:

1. No bad carbs or sugar

2. Drink enough water

3. Do a high intensity workout for 30 minutes

4. Go to bed before 10pm without your phone

As you build up to 2 days, 3 days etc watch your energy levels go through the roof.

Also consider doing your side project work either during your lunch break, your commute or before work. Same time everyday.

There are a ton of great suggestions here. I highly recommend you to try these three things out:

1 - Power nap. Take a quick 20 minutes nap to recharge.

2 - Sprint. You can do this anywhere even on a treadmill, sprint as fast as you could for 1 minute. If you don't have space for running, try doing burpees for straight 3 minutes non-stop.

3 - Cold shower. Take a cold shower and try to stay in it for at least 2 minutes.

You can do these separately but it usually works best when doing together. It should take you less than 30 minutes.

Hope this helps.

Before going into how to keep working, I want to emphasize its just as important to relax sometimes. Keep up a solid sleep schedule and take time for friends and family. Spend whatever is left on actually pushing the side project.

With that said, I'm a bit hardcore and average about 3 hours a day on the side project and that's with accounting for everything else.

To keep the momentum, the simplest thing is to just open everything up, and start. Yeah sounds cheesy, however a long time ago I've read a small motivation rule - the 2 minute rule. You should always have energy to do something just for two minutes. If you want to do something just start by doing it for two minutes, if after that you cannot manage to continue you should probably rest anyways or question if it's really something you want to do. Otherwise 2 minutes quickly becomes 2 hours as it just sucks you up as you start.

I wish I had more energy. I can barely do an hour or 2 at night.

I usually get home by 6:30/7PM. Dinner and hang with family. They go to bed around 9. Then I try to code until 11PM but usually I have too much mental fog and make bare minimum progress.

Recently, I have decided to make a few changes to improve my performance.

1. No more learning new tech for side projects. Learning requires a lot more mental concentration. So trying to stick with PHP/Laravel for side projects now. (Though I am struggling with Vue but I don't think I have any alternate way for my project).

2. Workout during lunch. Apparently, healthy body make mind healthier but I haven't noticed any improvement yet.

3. Healthier eating. See point 2.

4. Limiting my consumption of news, hn, reddit, instagram, etc.

5. Mindful meditation. I don't do sit down and breath thing. But try to be mindful throughout the day. It is easy, just not let your mind wander. On days when I remember to do this, I feel a lot more productive, at work and at home.

6. Indie Hackers. I stopped visiting Hackers News as much and prefer to come here. It gets me motivated usually.

7. One Man Can Change the World by Big Sean. Well any inspiring music.

Curious... do you commute, or do you work remotely? For me, there hasn't been any single consistent driver in terms of late night energy. What I've realized is that no two days are the same, and some days I'm just more driven and energetic than others. Sure, you may not totally crush it every evening, but that's okay!

On days that I feel less motivated than others, I tend to prioritize smaller things (or more boring "simple" stuff) so that on days when I'm feeling it, I have nothing blocking me.

I'm a night owl, I can't help but be more productive at night - my brain just buzzes in the evening.

Are you a morning person? Maybe you could wake up a few hours before work and work on personal projects then.

Do you have a commute to work that gives an opportunity to do some work on your project?

I’m fortunate to have a 40 minute train ride to and from work, and I always get a seat in both directions (commute to and from a terminus), so I get a lot done on these journeys.

Here a few things that has worked for me:

1. Mediate for an hour after work. That gives me enough energy to stay focused for 3 to 4 hours.

2. Replace meditation with yoga. I got the same results in terms of focus and productivity, but a much better sleep cycle with yoga.

3. Get up at 4:30 - 5 am, and I warm up with some light reading and get into serious work by 5:30 am. That gives me 2 hours of full focus before I get to work.

4. Work out at noon, so I get an energy boost for the second half of the day at work. That way I'm not burned out at work. Giving my day-gig my best too.

Cheers!

For me, not differentiating beteeen work (client projects) and play (my side projects) helps. It’s hard to do but noticed that the more I thought if it as a ‘clients project’ or ‘work’ - the more energy there was used up in doing it, and the harder it was to switch to ‘play’ post work. Trying to see it all as play, and be 100% involved in everything so there is no specific resistance while doing any one. Less resistance, less energy used. No resistanxe means it’s like working on a project without any effort. And when there’s no effort, I don’t get that ‘need-a-break’ feel at end of day. Not sure if I’m making sense at all, but this is something I noticed. Other than that agree with all the rest - power naps (10 mins tops) and exercise helps.

Getting 8 hours of sleep every night is absolutely crucial to not only have the energy to do the work, but to encode the knowledge and insights you acquire from your work session into your memory.

I recommend watching this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXflBZXAucQ

And, like others have said, exercise and good diet always are beneficial. I find that I do get sleepy around 3-4pm, so a short 15-20 minute nap is a good way to recharge. Also, avoid drinking alcohol before bed or smoking weed, it really inhibits your ability to sleep well.

I'm a big fan of going to the gym after work. It's like a reset button for me and helps me get out all the built up stress from the day.

I've shifted from shi pping til 2am to stopping at 12:30 which has made me reconsider how I structure my evening. I have found get home and do dinner and then immediately do all my housework and have everything clear and kids in bed 9:30pm gives me a much more relaxed evening where I feel I can focus and work on stuff.

Try working on your projects before spending your energy on your day job. Wake up a few hours before, work on your project, go to work, sleep early.

Also, you could change to a less energy-draining job or work part-time instead of full-time.

Couple years out of undergrad, while I was working as an aerospace engineer, I enrolled in a MS program and would catch up on recorded video lectures in the evenings. My routine involved no caffeine after ~ 2pm and a ~30 minute nap right before beginning graduate studies (helped recharge & context switch).

After finishing my grad program, while still working at the same engineering company, I started a project/side gig with a couple partners. For that project I changed my routine and began waking up earlier to put in ~ 2 hours of side gig work before day job work. This routine was harder for me to stick to because I am not a morning person.

As of late, I've been using evenings & Saturday mornings to work on side gigs. I've found this works the best for me.

Matcha! I highly recommend matcha. It has the same caffeine charge that coffee gives without any of the side effects.

Although, it will taste bitter for some but overtime, you'll get used to the taste of matcha.