Taking a break is hard work. I noticed during my three week summer vacation that it took me a good week to unwind and slow down. Work stress is a slow killer (will bite you in your fifties and beyond) and taking that long to slow down is a good sign you have it in your life.

If you take the time to slow down, the restorative effects of a good break do kick in. You sleep better. And when the break is over you have a few days/weeks where you might have more energy for stuff.

But the core issue of addressing root causes for stress in your life would make that more of a permanent thing. There are many ways. Meditation is usually singled out as a silver bullet. But there are many other things including eating well, going to bed earlier, exercising, etc. And maybe reflecting a bit on how you deal with work challenges, communication, etc. A lot of stress can result from bad work habits on that front. Those are fixable. I know people that can't deal with deadlines. They worry about them and then when they get close they are unprepared and have to scramble to get shit done. Every time. That's a great example of unnecessary stress. The issue is not that there is no time but poor planning.

Some of that stuff can be organizational. Poorly performing teams cause a lot of pain on their team members. The classic example in software development is "crunch time" which is literally poor planning resulting in some crazy push to get shit done that drives everyone to the point of exhaustion. Some teams even glorify this as the only point in time they shine. Shielding yourself from that kind of stress is hard and might involve having to call out some BS around you or taking the lead yourself. But recognizing that stress is transferable and a bit of an organizational disease is important. There are a lot of dysfunctional workplaces around where this is endemic.

Not all stress is bad. I kind of like a bit of peer pressure and I run a startup. Which is not exactly free of stress. But there's a point where you have to worry if it's worth risking a burn out or other health issues. I'm 51 and I cannot afford to get side lined with a burnout. So managing my own health is mission critical for my company. And treating your own health as such is a good thing in general.

> What I quickly learned is that whatever I do in the first hour after waking up will set the tone for the entire day. If I read social media, my head will fill with nonsense I truly don't give a shit about, and will develop into a thirst for quick dopamine which escalates as the day rolls by. Any action, really, will set me in a particular direction and then it's too late to do anything about it. The only thing that has been working for me is to be completely intolerant of any distractions in the morning. Until noon, my phone is silenced. My email client is closed. Social media is blocked on all my devices.

Very true.

> I noticed during my three week summer vacation that it took me a good week to unwind and slow down.

It depends a lot on what you do on your holiday. I think it's best to start with something "mind focussing": you're not going to think about your job while skydiving, scuba-diving etc.

I enjoy reading about other people’s approaches to motivation and creativity.

But I very much dislike when they phase it as “you need to” or “this is how it works”. Thinking everyone else’s brain operates the way yours does seems to be a frequent bias among bloggers. And managers.

I encourage those who write about their experiences to keep it in the first person.

I have transitioned from a late nighter to waking up in the 3-4am zone over the last few years.

That sweet interruption free early morning slot of ~5 hours when everyone's sleeping is probably the most productive I feel before the hustle bustle of life starts.

I have yet to master how to work better in short bursts of 1-2 hours when I have errands to run or calls to take later in the day. Would love to know if anyone has found techniques that work for them to make the most of such smaller time slots where it's harder to reach flow.

isn't momentum the same as inertia? i've got plenty of that!