I concluded years ago that I'm not time-constrained, I'm energy-constrained. I couldn't explain it in terms of neurochemistry, but it's clear empirically that for me at least, willpower or mental focus is a resource which can be depleted, and work takes most of it. To me, the best way to use those 52 hours is not achieving things but caring for myself/restoring willpower, which means some blend of socialization, exercise, and relaxation.

This is in part why I have a job I'm overqualified for at a slow-ish moving corporate. To be fair, I fell into it and the job suits me better than being a software engineer. Being a software engineer isn't bad. But being a data analyst while having the same pay at a marketing department is infinitely easier. I'm the only technical person, so anything I make has more impact, despite the fact that it's easier. Also, one knows how long it takes so I can set my own schedule. Finally, because of this I'm hard to replace. It helps that the IT department is barely functioning, which is why I'm able to fill this gap anyway. It also helps that being multidisciplinary is my biggest source of strength. I'm an okay programmer, I'm an okay psychologist (academically speaking - I've neve worked in the field but published a paper and finished a bachelor in it), and a few other disciplines like that. Here most of that comes together.

I don't work the amount of hours I should, but no one bats too much of an eye since I have already saved them +250K within the first 3 months of working there (not due to my talent, the IT department really isn't functioning there). It was a bit of a lucky homerun to be fair, but I make enough impact for a normal Dutch salary.

So while I am overqualified, it's in part because there are some natural advantages I have in the role of a data analyst as it is a really generalist role. And in the Netherlands, it pays about as well as a many SWE salaries (unless you work for Databricks or Optiver - to name 2 very different but both high paying companies).

This is the worst of my linked in feeds.

"If there were only more hours in the day we could work."

The problem really is:

  *  Human malware.

  *  Managers introducing complexity where it shouldn't be.

  *  People wasting your time on issues that could really have been emails.

That's it, I have at least 4 hours / day free time but I don't feel any compulsion to fill it with anything important. This stress some people feel when they have downtime and aren't filling it with Something Productive is a fast track to burnout.

Have you stumbled on The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr[1][2]? It crystallises this idea well, divides energy into several different dimensions and tries to give you a framework to figure out which dimension is constraining you and how to expand your reservoir. Some of the practical advice is silly but I still find it very helpful. I go back to it often.

[1] https://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68985.The_Power_of_Full_...

I often hear "The first hour is the rudder of the day."

In my case, it's "The first hour is the time during which my neurotransmitters are still mostly present."

I'd also expand energy to attention, or maybe even "mental space".

I notice that I'm able to think much more clearly when I don't fill my mind with random clutter. (i.e. when I make an effort to stay away from my phone for at least an hour.)

I feel this a lot with music. I technically have a lot of time to do it, but usually I’m pretty mentally wiped out from work and it uses a lot of the same mental muscles as software engineering and managing other software engineers

Another way to look at it is that we are attention constrained.

And there are a lot of systems out there that are designed specifically to steal that away from you.

Thank you for this comment. For my job, I am driving in my car anywhere from 4-6 hours a day. You could say I am just sitting there, why don’t I have energy to do anything else with my free time? I’ve recently begun to realize that while driving all that time, my brain is making thousands of subconscious decisions. I don’t have any study to back this up, but I think the brain only has so much capacity for decision making each day.

Many days, I end up zonking out for a 20-30 minute nap in the afternoon. It’s a visceral need to sleep right then. And then I can function at a better capacity for most of the rest of the day.

try waking up 3-4 hours before work and do something else you want to do but requires more energy. It's hard to keep the habit in today society, but it can be done.

Typically you can do your work good enough with less energy, if you've worked in the same place long enough.

When I stopped working it took me around one year to stop self-sabotage and overcomplicating things. After then I finally started resolving technical and software problems the simplest way, straight to the point, consulting technical literature. It's impossible to achieve this among people motivated mostly by money and hierarchy.