I get exhausted most afternoons. I eat a light lunch. I don’t think my exhaustion has to do with food.
In the morning I’m humming along. I swear I’m 5x more productive at 9am than 3pm. Try to schedule a meeting in the morning and I fight back. That’s my time to make stuff happen. Build presentations. Craft emails that people might actually respond to. Work on strategy for a project. Work on ideas for better marketing for one of our products. Although I often have to meetings in the morning.
So in the afternoon I get stressed because my energy and focus and productivity plummet. Then I worry about it and my energy drops even more probably. I try to take more breaks in the afternoon. That helps. I try to meditate a couple of times then. I also reserve that time for reading. I can read in the afternoon. I just can’t produce. I can also lead and attend meetings.
The reason I’m writing this is that I’m embarrassed by my lazy afternoons. But life ebbs and flows, so do years, so do days, so do hours. Either I can resist the flows. And suffer. Or I can embrace them.
I wish my mind was a robot. Then I could work for the Jetsons. I could also get more done. But robots are super uncreative. And they lack a conscious. Although those autonomous vehicle companies have some tough decisions to make around who to crash into, almost embedding a conscious into a robot.
I’m going to try to enjoy the afternoon brain drain. Take more breaks.
And maybe the afternoon is the best time to stay centered. That could help my tired mind. And let me connect to the world better.
Here’s to less productive afternoons.