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 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 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

[Michael569]

@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? 
• do you work Monday - Friday? 
• do you manage other people? 
• is your management on your timeline or do they join later in the day? 
• 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. 
• do you have any dependencies? (kids, elder parents etc) 
• 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? 
• how much reserve do you have on your bank account at current expense level? 

 

Also a few things regarding your energy and health: 

• do you currently restrict your diet in any way? 
• are you eating regularly and meeting your caloric needs? 
• how is your sleep? 
• do you exercise? 
• do you take sufficient amount of break at work? 

Edited September 2 by Michael569

[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.

[Michael569]

10 hours ago, Clabber Girl said:

On 02/09/2024 at 11:43 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 thanks! 

The way I see it, you have a potential opportunity to cram in some business time while you're working. The way you wrote the post it seems to me that you're not super loyal to this company so probably wouldn't have a moral conflict with this but let me know if you disagree. 

• that one day WFH could be your prime day and during your time you would dedicate maybe 2-3 hrs per business day to working on your thing, otherwise most days it would be, say, 1 hour 
• it is important that you find a way to block your calendar without being punished, such as adding "focus time", etc. If you cna maybe lock in 45 minutes of focused time twice a day during which you can pretend to be doing accounting but you'll actually be working on your business. 
• If you know you are being observed, you would need to deliberately "clutter" your screens with work stuff and only work on , say, 1/4 of the screen. If you can, for example, use Excel and Word for your business, making it look like you're working, even better. 
• You would have to use your best judgment and make sure nobody sees what you do directly. 
• honestly this is how I graduated from my nutrition school while working full time. It wasn't easy but it was doable. I was a bit lucky that I had a corner seat in the office, and the colleague next to me knew exactly what I was up to, so she didn't mind. It can be more challenging if you work somewhere everybody sees your screen and your work pattern is more predictable (say, all using one software and pulling up anything else is seen as a red flag) 
• in addition to that if you could find extra 25 minutes outside of your work, maybe in the morning, that would be a massive help 

In terms of those energy levels, optimising that sleep to at least 7 and half up to 8 hours would probably help

Let me know your thoughts. Happy to go into more detail if you like. 

M 

 

 

Edited September 4 by Michael569

[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!

 

 

[Michael569]

16 hours ago, Clabber Girl said:

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. 

Its a bit shady, I admit but these corporations are filthy rich and they don't really care about you as a person so use their resources, use their money, do the bare minimum work to get by and keep your boss happy. Don't do any extra because these placed don't value hard work. They value connections, shareholder value, stock prices, reputation and power. 

Use any spare time and spare energy to pour it into something meaningful because one day when you no longer have the energy and time, you'll hate yourself over not doing anything and that feeling will never leave you

All the best! 

Edited September 6 by Michael569

[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 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 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.