This is a question I have struggled with for years! Hear are some of strategies and reasoning behind them that I’ve have tried over them.

Ages 0 - 18

Sleep! When I was a kid. I was tired, I would sleep. Simple and easy. Of course the stress of life was not on my shoulders at all.

Ages 19 - 33

I started university and needed to study more and longer, but kept falling asleep. There was a coffee shop near by so I thought that this will work. It did, I studied lots, except for overdoing it and having the shakes… Eventually I also didn’t like being dependent on caffeine, the gut rot from having too strong of a coffee, and the headaches when not having coffee got really annoying. Yes, there would be that magical cup that you became super motivated and barrelled through some work, but there was also cups when I would end up not able to sleep at night. Eventually I challenged myself to drink less and less and quit as I was receiving no benefit from the caffeine anymore. I was just as tired after I drank the coffee then I was before. I felt out of balance.

33 - Present

Back to what I did when I was a kid. Sleeping. This is tough to do. There is a lot I want to do, but the days are so short. So now I obsess over being as efficient as possible. Trying to get to bed at the same time every night, doing the same bed time routine. Not agitating myself before I go to bed. One problem I now have is I commonly mistake being hungry for being tired. So I feel I eat more then I should. I try to go for low calorie food, but that doesn’t always work. I also exercise about everyday and don’t find it helps me focus, it just makes me want to do more exercise and in a way can be more distracting.

Anyways, what are some over your strategies to deal with when you are tired?