Thanks for sharing Luise, I also have some issues with tiredness and probably something burn-out-related and found this helpful to read. E.g. this feels very familiar when I want to engage more complicated research questions:
That depth of thinking and amount of working memory sounds way too hard right now. I try, but 3 minutes later I give up. I decide to read something instead. I feel the strong desire to sit in a comfy bean bag and get a blanket.
Had to laugh at this one, sounds like torture to me xD
Even staring at the wall for 10 minutes sounds great right now
My current approach for myself is mostly to push myself much less in terms of doing work I’m not motivated by (my theory is that pushing myself way too much in the past is a key cause of having lost touch with many motivations around doing particularly effortful cognitive work). And I’m tracking my productivity, well-being, attention levels, motivation levels. Your post inspires me to be more strict about having working hours, that sounds like it might help me a bunch. Probably I’ll call it a day latest at 8pm.
Sounds like a plausible theory that you lost motivation because you pushed yourself too hard. I’d also pay attention to “dumber” reasons like maybe you had more motivation from supervisors/social environment/more achievable goals in the past.
Similar to my call to take a vacation, maybe it’s worth it for you to only do motivating work (like a side project) for 1.5 weeks and see if the tiredness disappears.
All of this with the caveat that you understand your situation a lot better than I do ofc!
Thanks for sharing Luise, I also have some issues with tiredness and probably something burn-out-related and found this helpful to read. E.g. this feels very familiar when I want to engage more complicated research questions:
Had to laugh at this one, sounds like torture to me xD
My current approach for myself is mostly to push myself much less in terms of doing work I’m not motivated by (my theory is that pushing myself way too much in the past is a key cause of having lost touch with many motivations around doing particularly effortful cognitive work). And I’m tracking my productivity, well-being, attention levels, motivation levels. Your post inspires me to be more strict about having working hours, that sounds like it might help me a bunch. Probably I’ll call it a day latest at 8pm.
(And yeah, I would also read the appendix!)
Thanks Max!
Sounds like a plausible theory that you lost motivation because you pushed yourself too hard. I’d also pay attention to “dumber” reasons like maybe you had more motivation from supervisors/social environment/more achievable goals in the past.
Similar to my call to take a vacation, maybe it’s worth it for you to only do motivating work (like a side project) for 1.5 weeks and see if the tiredness disappears.
All of this with the caveat that you understand your situation a lot better than I do ofc!