Feeling Drained After 5 PM: Does Anyone Else Struggle to Pursue Creative Passions

[Clabber Girl]

I'm curious if anyone else is in the same boat as me. I have a corporate accounting job that really takes a toll on me mentally. By the time 5 PM rolls around, I'm completely wiped out and find it hard to muster the energy or creativity to work on my true passions.

I have a deep love for the Western lifestyle(vintage western art, southwest native textiles, ext) and dream of starting my own business around it, but it's so tough to make progress after a full day of unfulfilling accounting work. I find myself longing to dive into my creative projects, but my mind feels too drained to think about anything but relaxing or taking a walk...

Does anyone else feel this way? How do you balance a 9-5 corporate job with your creative passions?

I have considered just doing a part time job since financially I could survive on that.

[Realms of Wonder]

I do the majority of my creative work in the morning because… same!

 

Waking up at 5 means I can get 1-2 hours of high quality work done before I head out for my job.

[Salvijus]

First, I would open myself to the possibility that the real solution is something that I haven't thought of yet and may involve changing your life inside out. Then if the vision or idea comes from the heart, then it becomes of matter of trust and faith that God knows what he's doing by speaking to you in your heart, allowing yourself to make the changes necessary happen for that vision to manifest through. 

[integral]

Got to do a 10 minute very hi intensity sprint every day. The intensity high enough to cause sweating in under 10 minutes.

You will need some kind of resistance like a mountain to run up. Normal running is not hard enough.

Your body is not out of energy, your drained because your body doing things it’s not designed to do. 

Edited August 30, 2024 by integral

[Human Mint]

3 hours ago, integral said:

Got to do a 10 minute very hi intensity sprint every day. The intensity high enough to cause sweating in under 10 minutes.

This is the best counter-intuitive advice for having better energy levels...

Or you can walk 3hs a day if you have the time.

I almost forgot, intermittent fasting helps quite a lot. Again, it's counterintuitive. You think eating in a narrower time window will deplete your energy for the rest of the day. Quite the opposite. Disclaimer: study it well so you don't harm yourself.

Edited August 30, 2024 by Human Mint

[integral]

1 hour ago, Human Mint said:

Or you can walk 3hs a day if you have the time.

Definitely counterintuitive, Got to experiment with what works for your body. Three hours is an endurance routine and it does affect the body very differently than a high intensity sprint, got to test them both but I doubt he has three hours of time.

[Chadders]

@Clabber Girl I feel exactly the same way in my job. A job that you are not passionate about will drain you of your life energy even if you haven’t done much work. It’s actually quite horrible to put up with 

I would fuck the job off and do something else

Im looking for a new role now. Need the change big time

[Thought Art]

@Clabber Girl Check out the book the power of full engagement. By learning to manage your energy more effectively it could provide you with the skills to have enough energy to pursue your passions while working your job.

[Clabber Girl]

On 9/2/2024 at 6:43 AM, Michael569 said:

@Clabber Girl I can relate to your situation. I'm also working 9-6 corporate job while building a small business on a side as a Nutritional Therapist. 

A few questions for you? 

• are you a remote worker / hybrid /  or full time office? hybrid - I did have two days wfh but now it is going to be one
• do you work Monday - Friday? yes
• do you manage other people? no
• is your management on your timeline or do they join later in the day? not sure what you mean, I am an accountant
• Are you busy the whole 8 hours of the work day or could you reprioritise your work to, say, squeeze everything into 4 hour window leaving the other half open for something else. I am not busy all 8 hrs
• do you have any dependencies? (kids, elder parents etc) no
• if you had the energy, how many hours per week do you think you could dedicate to this? Say 30-miutes a day for a start, could you find that time? probably 30 min - 1 hr
• how much reserve do you have on your bank account at current expense level? after I sell one of my properties, 2-3 years of expenses paid

 

Also a few things regarding your energy and health: 

• do you currently restrict your diet in any way? not really
• are you eating regularly and meeting your caloric needs? yes 
• how is your sleep? not great, fair(as per my fit bit) 6-7 hours on a good day. bad hours would be 4-5
• do you exercise? Regularly I walk and do yoga, sometimes run and lift weights. I want to try and get this in again.
• do you take sufficient amount of break at work? like PTO? I have been taking more time off work but just recently...

 

[Clabber Girl]

On 9/2/2024 at 7:26 AM, Thought Art said:

@Clabber Girl Check out the book the power of full engagement. By learning to manage your energy more effectively it could provide you with the skills to have enough energy to pursue your passions while working your job.

I have just signed up for the audiobook at my local library. Thanks!

[Human Mint]

3 hours ago, Clabber Girl said:

how is your sleep? not great, fair(as per my fit bit) 6-7 hours on a good day. bad hours would be 4-5

This is not good at all! It will slowly kill you.

[RendHeaven]

It's almost as if the system (work-eat-entertainment-sleep-cycle) is deliberately set up to keep you uninspired and unenergized...

[integral]

In the near future you’ll be able to automate much of your online work load with AI. That should reduce some of the total daily stress.

[Clabber Girl]

@Michael569 - I am definitely not super loyal to this company. I am paid well in relation to the work I do so, it makes sense to stay.

The pretending to be doing accounting when I am in the office but actually working, I never really thought about! There is a software I need to be on but there are PLENTY of spreadsheets and other interfaces that I can be on whilst "looking " Like I am working on accounting. I do work in a corner and can hear people approach. 

My WFH days I can do some work in the mornings, I think my problem is the bad sleep quality which I am now seriously addressing by not using phone at night. Zero alcohol and going to bed earlier no excuses, I get to bed sometimes waaaay to late. If I get up earlier say 6:30am that will give me optimal time to do some creative work.

 

@integral I hear this all the time... AI will solve all data problems. Well there is a LOT of judgement in accounting its not just punching in data from other places and bam there is your books. It requires a knowledge and understanding of much more than just number goes here and here. Not sure your dept of accounting but its very different than book keeping. If you have any specific suggestions on how I can use AI for my accounting job please let  me know!

 

 

[Sine]

I do one hour before having breakfast. I wake up at 5, then wash my face and brush my teeth, then from about 5:30-6:30 I work on what's most important, which to me is writing my second novel. Then afterwards I get ready to go to university. I struggle though with getting time for exercise. I'd like to do that when I get home in the evening, but like you I feel so exhausted at that time. 

Edited September 6, 2024 by Sine

[Carl-Richard]

On 30.8.2024 at 2:52 PM, integral said:

Got to do a 10 minute very hi intensity sprint every day. The intensity high enough to cause sweating in under 10 minutes.

You will need some kind of resistance like a mountain to run up. Normal running is not hard enough.

Your body is not out of energy, your drained because your body doing things it’s not designed to do. 

I've been doing sprints for about a year now, and I've noticed the last couple of months that I've been experiencing some build-up of fatigue, and I think it had to do with me slowly upping my sets of sprints from the recommended number of 3-4 sets to 6 sets (and recently also an additional "sprint to failure" set on the 6th set: when the set is done, sprint the other way until you literally cannot run anymore). In hindsight, that sounds pretty foolish, but I somehow felt like I was progressing by doing it that way. But yes, it was foolish because it didn't just make me feel fatigued but it also made me less able to sprint with high intensity (which is the point of sprints). Recently, I've cut back down to 4 sets, and the difference is palpable.

So if you are going to do sprints or other forms of super high-intensity work, keep your sets deliberately low. And I agree that sprints are something unique when it comes to boosting your cognitive functioning. The type of mind state I enter after a sprint session where I managed to hit extreme levels of intensity is so much different than times where I didn't or compared to low-to-moderate intensity cardio or weight training. It's like your mind just got bolted with electricity or fed some superconductive substance, which is probably because it had just been granted an extreme amount of resources (blood flow, glucose, oxygen, neurochemicals). I think I used to achieve something similar back when I did weight training with extreme intensity, but I partially stopped doing that to work on form, correct muscle imbalances and deal with various injuries.

I think the reason high-intensity training in general is thought to increase intelligence is because of this effect of granting an extreme amount of resources in a short time period. In order to think clearly or solve difficult problems or have insights, your mind needs to be working at high intensity, and high-intensity bodily training produces a high-intensity mind (your body is connected to your brain which is connected to your mind). Also, thoughts themselves are fleeting and quick and are in a sense analogous to a sprint. Nevertheless, if you increase the intensity that your mind can handle in short bursts, then naturally you will be able to handle more heavy thoughts and thoughts in general.

Edited September 14, 2024 by Carl-Richard

[mr_engineer]

@Clabber Girl Join an art-club and discipline yourself to go there every weekend. (Twice or thrice a week, if you have a deadline for your business) Go to art-galleries, talk to artists. They are ever-ready to talk about their journeys and if you say you want to enter art, they will be very supportive. 

I think you're being drained by the people around you, more than your work. Accounting is not fundamentally boring, you can always get better at it. But, I can understand how being surrounded by accountants all day can drain your spirit. 

[integral]

On 9/13/2024 at 7:27 PM, Carl-Richard said:

I've been doing sprints for about a year now, and I've noticed the last couple of months that I've been experiencing some build-up of fatigue, and I think it had to do with me slowly upping my sets of sprints from the recommended number of 3-4 sets to 6 sets (and recently also an additional "sprint to failure" set on the 6th set: when the set is done, sprint the other way until you literally cannot run anymore). In hindsight, that sounds pretty foolish, but I somehow felt like I was progressing by doing it that way. But yes, it was foolish because it didn't just make me feel fatigued but it also made me less able to sprint with high intensity (which is the point of sprints). Recently, I've cut back down to 4 sets, and the difference is palpable.

So if you are going to do sprints or other forms of super high-intensity work, keep your sets deliberately low. And I agree that sprints are something unique when it comes to boosting your cognitive functioning. The type of mind state I enter after a sprint session where I managed to hit extreme levels of intensity is so much different than times where I didn't or compared to low-to-moderate intensity cardio or weight training. It's like your mind just got bolted with electricity or fed some superconductive substance, which is probably because it had just been granted an extreme amount of resources (blood flow, glucose, oxygen, neurochemicals). I think I used to achieve something similar back when I did weight training with extreme intensity, but I partially stopped doing that to work on form, correct muscle imbalances and deal with various injuries.

I think the reason high-intensity training in general is thought to increase intelligence is because of this effect of granting an extreme amount of resources in a short time period. In order to think clearly or solve difficult problems or have insights, your mind needs to be working at high intensity, and high-intensity bodily training produces a high-intensity mind (your body is connected to your brain which is connected to your mind). Also, thoughts themselves are fleeting and quick and are in a sense analogous to a sprint. Nevertheless, if you increase the intensity that your mind can handle in short bursts, then naturally you will be able to handle more heavy thoughts and thoughts in general.

That's a good point I think I noticed a similar pattern and by coincidence I just watched this video

A surprising discovery is that the total number of calories burned daily doesn't significantly differ between those who are highly active, like hunter-gatherers, and those who lead a more sedentary lifestyle.

For instance, the Hadza people, a hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania, walk an average of 9 kilometers daily. Despite this high level of activity, they burn roughly the same number of calories as people in industrialized societies.

This phenomenon is not due to genetic differences but to how the body allocates energy. The body seems to have a relatively fixed daily calorie budget that it adheres to, regardless of activity levels.

The body has evolved to maintain a consistent energy expenditure. When you exercise more, the body compensates by reducing energy spent on other activities or processes, a concept known as the "activity budget."

---
The way I see it is when you overdo high intensity exercise you're pulling from all the energy of all the cells in your body and if that isn't replenished or the recovery can't keep up you're going to suffer. Pretty obvious but it's interesting that you are still use up a fixed amount of energy throughout the day regardless of your activity level. 

Edited September 15, 2024 by integral

[Clabber Girl]

@mr_engineer - YES! We had a new boss that started in April, and he is the most draining person. Instead of actually looking at the emails he will come over to hot seat you about them almost immediately. Its exhausting, the workplace was nothing like that before he started. He also changed the wfh schedule to be in the office 4 days a week. My cat has a terminal illness so it makes it even worse....  I would love to spend more time with him.

[Clabber Girl]

@Carl-Richard would orange theory qualify? It's a intense one hour workout that usually does sprints on the treadmill.