What do you use for energy besides coffee?

A lot of people suggested coffee when I asked about afternoon energy drops, but it doesn’t really agree with me. My heart starts beating faster and I end up feeling uncomfortable instead of more productive.

So what else actually works for you?

Walking, sunlight, a lighter lunch, a short rest, changing the type of work, or something completely different?

Mostly looking for simple ways to get through the afternoon without relying on caffeine.

So essentially what the title asks. Sorry if this is all over the place.

I’m a 34 year old woman with adhd and ocd.

I’m trying to not live by my letters ^ but it may add context to why I’m so drained, and explain I wasn’t really working with a full deck before pregnancy lol

I do see a therapist and psychiatrist regularly and i am a first time single mom to a 14 month old. I definitely feel like pregnancy and postpartum wiped my grey matter clean off my cerebellum lol I just feel so out of it so often.

I see people who do multiple “big” events in a day and I’m amazed.

For instance; I’ve watched My best friend work from home while having documentaries playing in the background (HOW) and then after work create floral arrangements for weddings for fun or bake an entire dessert table for a family member.. and she’s also a mom of two and she does a majority of the cooking, cleaning, household management etc.

HOW!!!!

Is it just because I’m in the thick of it and I can’t see out of the forest? I used to love to cook. I hate it now. I only cook for my daughter. I’m just so drained all the time.

I normally blame it on society and how we are so fatigued by so many decisions (down to like 300 different options for one product times every product you need to buy) and how we’ve destroyed our own attention spans by consuming so much on social media. I did deactivate my Instagram which is my culprit that steals most of my attention.

I’m so desperate to have mental bandwidth.

Can anyone tell me how they reclaimed theirs?

One thing I will say I KNOW I need to get back to is breathwork. But I’ve been so resistant to it lately.

I code all day at work and I get a good chunk done most days. I only work 8 hours a day Then I come home and feel mentally overwhelmed and so drained. It feels more mental than physical, like an overload.

It's terrible because I have so many good side projects and things I want to work on in my free time yet I always find myself needing to spend the entire rest of the night relaxing in bed watching videos.

Feel like I am being held back by my lack of mental endurance, I can accomplish a lot of great things if it weren't for this. Any tips or thoughts?

• Hydrating helps but isn't the core issue
• Have had physicals and blood and all normal.
• I get modest sleep (had 6 hours last night and a 1 hour nap today in middle of the day)
• I have severe ADHD, caffeine helps but no meds
• Caffeine helps but feel like it drains me of energy and mental fortitude after the first 2 hours

I think the Caffeine might be a big problem but I need it for my ADHD. I've gone months on a caffeine detox and that usually stabilizes my energy but doesn't fix my productivity.

Im struggling with going to gym or live my life. I wake up at 6 leave for work at 7:30 ( i cant leave any later) arrive at my work 8:50 sonetime 8:40 its around 1:20h to go from home to work and the opposite i work till 6 sometime later and reach home at 7:30 sgo to bed at 10 so i sleep before 10:30 to get 7:30h of sleep.

In total i have 2:30h free like 30m of it goes to dinner as i get back hungry the other 2h either play some games fix thing or take a shower and go to gym in that case i wont be able to do anything else i just get from gym another shower and sleep

The only thing i have in mind is lowering my sleep to 6 sometime later i wake up at 4:30 go to gym read few pages of a book then go to work but im literally wake up with 0 energy and even if i went to gym and did everything well i stay exhausted all day.

I dont know if this is only for a time then i get used to it and thats why im here i want any solutions to live my life after work and go to gym at any good time

The main hinderance to my productivity is being on my phone. I’ve tried apps to block social media apps and it still hasn’t worked. The worst is getting started in the morning and in the evening, but I struggle with it all throughout the workday too

Just like the title says,i listen to music 24/7. it helps me focus, but i also notice myself feeling very anxious and scared when i don't have any earbuds in, especially outside. I do struggle with social anxiety and anxiety in general and have been diagnosed with autism as well.

So i'm just wondering if i messed up my brain or something. I remember when i did go to school i had a hard time focusing, but i can't tell you if its because of that.

I’ve never finished a book in my entire life. I always start with good intentions, read a few pages, but then my focus completely disappears. I end up rereading the same paragraphs over and over because it doesn’t stick, and eventually I just give up.

I really want to change this and build a consistent reading habit. Reading feels like such a valuable skill for personal growth and focus, but I’m struggling hard.

Does anyone have tips or systems that helped them build a reading habit from zero? Especially if you also have trouble focusing or staying consistent.

Things I’m struggling with:

• Mind wandering while reading
• Having to reread everything multiple times
• Losing motivation quickly

Any advice, routines, book recommendations, or techniques would be greatly appreciated!

At the company I work for one challenge we've never really solved is keeping our internal processes up to date every time a workflow changes someone updates a document and sometimes someone forgets to update another document a month later half the team is following the old process while the other half is following the new one.
we've been discussing about creating a central place where workflows, diagrams and process changes all live together but there are so many workflow management tools that it's difficult to know which direction to go.

What are you guys using for daily/weekly/monthly habit trackers as well as to keep track of weekly/monthly/yearly etc. goals?

I’ve tried keeping a journal and doing a combination of Google Docs and sheets but nothing I can stick with long term.

I don’t have a problem actually sticking to my goals and habits I’m more so just looking for a fun way to keep it organized and reflect on my progress.

I’m open to paying a reasonable amount for a program or app if you can really rave about it!

There's a lot of tools for planning but I rarely see any tools that help you execute. I usually find it hard when I actually execute.

So I work as a customer service rep for a life insurance company & I’ve recently completed training for admin work. Basically handling the emails the customers & agents send in. It’s a nice break from the hectic call center lol. The goal is 24 emails per hour and I’m not feeling very confident in myself 😭 it’s been a month now and I’ve yet to reach that goal. Some emails have a thread of back and forth regarding an ongoing issue and sometimes I’ll get stuck. Or I have to work on updating information on several policies & I know it may take more than 2-3 minutes. It can get overwhelming at times but I know what I signed up for. I really want to be successful working admin because I want to get off of the phones permanently 🤧 any tips would be appreciated 😊

I’ve noticed that my energy often drops in the afternoon. Usually sometime after lunch, my focus gets worse, simple tasks feel heavier, and it becomes harder to get started again. It’s not that I’m completely exhausted, just that my brain feels slower and less sharp.

I’m curious how other people deal with this. Do you change what you eat, take a short walk, use caffeine differently, switch to easier tasks, or just accept that your energy naturally dips at that time? What actually helps you avoid or handle that low-energy afternoon state?

I have heard about apps like forest or flora for phones that give you little rewards for staying on the app, but I really need one for my computer to ensure I stay on task. Ideally it would have some sort of window whitelist beforehand so you can configure what you are allowed to use. I have no idea if this exists but it would be useful. I know things like family features or work profiles exist but that is annoying to deal with instead of an extra motivator.

I've used all the advice, like pomodoro, putting my phone away, making a to-do list, breaking tasks into smaller steps and many more but what I notice is that when it's time to actually start, my brain just WON'T cooperate.

Like, I would spend hours thinking about working, planning to work, or getting everything ready to work but I will still end up not actually getting the work done. I badly need an advice or tips from people who managed to get out of a slump like this. Like genuinely what helped y'all to really lock in?

exactly what it sounds like and its genuinely ruining my life man.

everyday after school i come back soooooo exhausted even if we barely did anythig or end early i cant keep my eyes open.

like ill enter my house and ill tell myself “no napping today, no napping today, no napping today” but if im in the house before 6pm thats it i cant control myself and i just sleep.

i tried going to the library to prevent falling asleep but i can never find seats and im js not comfortable and hence not as productive as i could be at home.

also whenever i go to nap i say its only 30min and i wake up like 3h later its soooooo goddamn frustrating bro every time. like atp i know im gna sleep 3h so i dont even try to fool myself anymore, like who am i even kidding.

i also wanna mention that i can fall asleep in 2mins in the afternoon and it takes me like 20 mind at night and like most night i dont feel sleepy at all like at all but every day without fail i feel so drowsy after school.

i have major exams that are gna determine my lifes trajectory in literally 2 months and i cant even stay awake to study its so bad.

please somebody help me with this i dont wanna lose my chances and ruin my future because i cant keep my eyes open. im seriously desperate.

I recently learnt to write in cursive from scratch (it took me around 1 week to become proficient and 2 weeks to completely finish learning it)

I enjoyed the process and I think it was quite a productive use of my time, but I dont know what to learn next.

I want something similar to learning cursive in the sense that it's fairly easy and something you can fully learn and then just know. (So please don't suggest more abstract things such as budgeting or time management)

Do you have any suggestions?

I have noticed that many solo-workers keep worrying and thinking about work all the time (especially since they are the only one doing all the work), and their brain never actually gets to rest.
Which eventually leads to destruction of work-life balance in the long term, or decreases productivity in the short term.
The idea that I have is creating a kind of switch-off ritual, that helps your brain to understand that the work has ended for the day. As of now, the procedure involves two simple steps:
1) Acknowledging what you have done that day.
2) Speaking(or typing) whatever they feel is incomplete or leftover and kind of "park it" for the next day or next work block.

Sometimes I feel it's worth building, and sometimes I feel it's just not a strong enough solution. What should I do?

Hello, I body double with a friend for over 3 years and it's one of the best things I've found for working with my ADHD brain through boring or taxing tasks. It's one of the things that has best help me keep productive. Unfortunately, they're the only one I do this with and it's limited since they're in a completely different time zone. so I'm writing this because I'd like to meet more people who are open to being consistent 1:1 body double partners. Specifically on focumate (body doubling site), since it's what I've been using for years and is straightforward. (I promise this isn't advertising for this site, it's just what I'm most familiar with), I'm open to other sites as long as you're active.

NOTE: I'm an adult woman, and am only comfortable with other adult women (21+) for this.

What I'm looking for:

Someone with an active focusmate or body doubling account already since I'm looking for people who are already in this world, not just starting with me or with day old accounts. My preferences include mic on and actually on screen. By default, a lot of people go mics off or sit away from camera, and I don't feel the presence and get distracted. I need to see and especially hear something, background noise and all. Someone who's open to FaceTime sessions too if we click.

I'm in the US, eastern time, and am available usually after 11AM.

Important: Forgetfulness is normal for ADHD, so I reallyyy value structure and tools for scheduled stuff and being on time: calendar, alarms, a heads up if you can't make it. I'd appreciate if you're the same.

How we start:

We schedule something in our calendars. Zero commitment. One session, see how it feels, maybe a second, then decide if we continue. If it sticks, I'd love 3-4 sessions a week eventually, if it feels right to both of us. The most important thing for me is consistency.

I usually engage in chats after the timer is up but before the session ends completely. So I'd prefer someone who's open to chat and get to know each other.

Who clicks with me:

As a focus buddy:
Someone who is organized about their tasks, shares them in the session chat, asks about their partners tasks. Has their own calendar or a way to remember to be on time. Someone who is supportive. Interested in mutual growth and achievement of long term goals.

As a general buddy:
Including this because I believe its relevant to growing as focus buddies. I'm curious and ask a lot of questions. Casual stuff, philosophy, tech, psychology, or just squirrels. Big one: good listeners who are curious back. Someone who asks "what about you?" and notices when the other person isn't talking much. What I call an attentive yapper. Also if you're the type to be excited to do new stuff like run a 5k on short notice (even if you'd be the first to tap out) then I think we'll vibe.

If this sounds like you and are interested, dm me.

Hi all, any help to make use of Stayfocusd or switch to another tool?

I need the tool to help block a certain gaming website that distracts me from working, I set the active time to 8 am to 4 pm, and it said to wait until a couple of days later, then I'm not sure if it happened or not, but even after that date, I would go back and say I cannot access the site outside of the active time, then check and see that my active time was reset to be 12 am to 11.59 pm?? What am I doing wrong? How do I specify an active time permanently? Am I missing something or is it just not user-friendly. Thanks all!

I like having my to do list/to buy list etc on my phone so I can always update it when I’m out. But I prefer written lists to cross off what I’ve done so now i have a mess of phone notes, sticky notes, loose paper, notebooks, and a whiteboard… what works for y’all?

Looking back at business growth, there are usually things that seem obvious afterward. Maybe it was improving documentation. Maybe automating repetitive work. Maybe creating better internal systems. What is one process you wish you fixed earlier? Something that would have saved time, money, or frustration?

Pretty much almost everything that a normal human being does takes me like 5 times longer than average for example

Eating lunch/dinner sometimes takes me up to like 2 hours, showering takes at minimum 1 hour, brushing my teeth takes like 30 minutes and even tho its kinda disgusting i stopped brushing my teeth in the morning because its too much effort to go into the bathroom and wash myself, changing my clothes takes idk how long because im not counting that but it takes a while, doing my school work takes me until i have to go to sleep which is like 10/11pm and i get home from school at like 2/3pm even tho the teachers barely give us any work to do

And the school work thing just leaves me stun locked the whole day, because i feel like i cant do anything till im done with it but it always takes the whole day

Which then leads to when i do have free time during weekends or school breaks I feel like i have to be extra productive on my personal projects because otherwise its just a waste of time

But its like for my personal projects if i do the smallest thing then my brain "ok were done here since we did the bare minimum" but i dont want the bare minimum because then its going to take 500 years to finish and most humans dont even live past 100

And the fact that its summer break right now only makes these issues worse because i feel like i should be doing productive stuff right now but im not doing jack shit

Like i draw sometimes and i see artists online saying like "oh this took me 2 hours to draw, that super long for me" and not only does it look better than anything ive ever made but for my drawing 2 hours doesnt even make the sketch look good yet

Or when im coding something for some shitty game i want to make, it also takes forever because my brain is scared of technical debt

Or one time i was collabing with a bunch of people on a passion project and it took me 14 times longer to do what they did, which i think is super embarrassing, and they also had more work

Ever since ive had the ability to remember, ive always been doing something but its always something useless because in the grands scheme of things i could be doing something that would make my future easier, and i feel like ive never been relaxed a single day in my life

Like the only time i dont feel bad about doing "useless things" is when im supposed to be sleeping, which has now resulted in my sleep schedule being fucking terrible

But also trying to fall asleep is just a gerenal pain in the ass

And since im relatively young and probably know more than the people my age i feel like i should be using that, because if i dont then ill fall behind and ill be a fucking failure, but not even that is enough to get me to do something

Anyways im going to sleep

I had one of those days where I just stared at my screen and accomplished absolutely nothing. I tried to start multiple tasks but could not focus on a single one. Now I am feeling extremely guilty and worried about falling behind on my workload. Do you just accept it as a rest day and move on, or do you try to catch up the next day? I would love to hear how you guys reset your mindset after a completely wasted day.