
Tired of Being Tired - Sato
http://zenhabits.net/tired/
======
fleitz
Couldn't agree more on this, throw out your alarm clock, it's killing you.
Remove stress from your life, take a shotgun to stress and refuse to accept
stressful situations / people. I've lost 100 lbs in the last three years,
here's how and how much weight I lost (I tend to have long plateaus).

I started on Nov 25, 2008: 285 lbs

Nov, 08: First Step, got Divorced: Lost 10 lbs - 275 lbs

Jan, 09: Job tells me I have to be in at 9 am or will be fired. Gained 10 lbs
- back at 285

Mar, 09: Haven't really been in by 9am, hand in my resignation as part of the
earlier agreement. Lost 10 lbs - 275

Apr, 09: Job agrees that I can come in when I'm well-rested. Lost 10 lbs - 265

Aug, 09: Burning Man Lost 15 lbs - 250

Sep, 09 - Jan '10: Start seriously cutting refined fructose Lost 10 lbs - 240

Jun, 10 - The 30 people they hired to rewrite my code are finally done, I get
fired. Lost 5 lbs - 235

This is the point at which I really start losing weight as I'm sleeping much
more naturally

Jun, 10 - Mar, 11 - Sleeping completely naturally and start cooking all my
meals Lose 15 lbs - 220

Mar, 11 - Startup Bus - Having a blast helps! Lost 10 lbs - 210

Jun - Jul, 11 - Spend two months in SF, eating mainly homemade veg tacos
(walking more) Lost 10 lbs - 200

Jul - Aug, 11 - Get back from SF, get an office downtown, start trying to get
in by 9am. Gain 10 lbs - 210

Aug, 11 - Now - Give up on 9am, walking more, eating a little more veg Lost 20
lbs - 190

Pretty much everything that's led to weight loss for me has been all about
enjoying life and cutting stress. Small improvements to diet and exercise as
well but I don't go to the gym or stick to any sort of diet plan.

~~~
palish
I don't really understand why fat people are so... well, upset at being fat.

What I mean is, I would personally be OK with myself if I were 285lbs.

Ok, this comment isn't really coming across very well. What I'm saying is, at
worst, being fat would only shave ~20 years off my life expectancy. Since I
don't want to live until I'm 70 anyway, I'd personally be happy with a ~50
year total life expectancy.

I don't care what other people think of me.

I don't need to run, ever.

If I'm hungry, I eat. Thus I enjoy life.

So I just don't understand why fat people have this desire to be skinny. Does
it really just come down to... well, wanting people to think of you as
attractive? (Caring what other people think of you.)

I'm asking an honest question here, so I hope people won't skewer me for it.
But since it's an interesting question, I'll eat the inevitable karma loss.

~~~
lpolovets
1) You might be happy with 50 years, but most people want to live longer.

2) Quality of life is worse when you're overweight. Some things that are easy
for most people are hard for you; some things that are hard for most people
are impossible for you.

3) There's a social stigma.

4) I agree that enjoying a shorter life is better than not enjoying a longer
life, but it's not completely black and white. If eating whatever you felt
like took a year off your life and didn't affect you physically, I'm sure many
people would consider that trade-off worthwhile. But if it's 10-20 years off
your life, it starts sounding more like a fool's bargain. Also, if you really
eat whatever you want, you probably won't be feeling great physically day to
day (food comas, occasionally nauseous, less energetic, etc).

~~~
swombat
I mostly eat what I want, but I'm not fat. Everyone who knows me will tell you
that I really enjoy eating, and I generally do give into it regularly!

However, that's in part because I trained myself to want what's good for me. I
used to like sweet stuff, until I realised (back when I was a teenager) that
there was a direct correlation between me walking into McDonald's and having a
soft drink, and having some new spots on my face 6-12 hours later. At that
point, I basically taught myself not to like overly sweet stuff. That teaching
has lasted ever since - I rarely eat desserts and that sort of stuff - even
though I no longer get spots.

You can train yourself to like healthy foods - salads, freshly cooked good
meat, vegetables, etc. It's hard to get obese eating healthily. I've never
heard of an obese person who eats healthy food all day long. Generally they
eat pizza, crisps, chips, chinese take-aways, and all sorts of other nasty
processed foods.

------
tluyben2
I travel between 3 countries, one of which is Spain. It really makes life a
lot better; in the south of Spain people are so incredibly more relaxed that
you first get frustrated with that, but rapidly take over that life style as
being frustrated doesn't make much sense. Example: you can be in the
supermarket, in a queue behind the cash register and no-one sitting there. You
look outside and he/she is standing talking with the neighbor. 10 people in
front of you waiting. The foreigners/vacation goers sighing, grunting,
annoying and just going away after a while, the people who live here just
talking. Doesn't matter if it takes 1 minute or 2 hours. People don't care.
And yes they have jobs, but it's so ingrained to work like that...

Another example; you're driving on a one car road and suddenly end up in a
jam, you check what it is ; someone is standing still and talking to someone.
No honking, people shut their engine and go talk to each other.

This way of life makes you realize what kind of crazy stuff we are doing 'up
north'; like every second matters. It does, but not for work. For work, really
very little matters. Your clients can wait for a bit. That site that 'must go
live tomorrow' really doesn't have to go live tomorrow in almost all cases. If
you live 3 months/year in Spain, you'll be well rested and viewing the world
more for what's important which are things like rest, your family (however
configured), your friends, eating and making quality food, hobbies, and
telling people to _fuck off_ for trying to stress you out.

No amount money is worth wrecking your health over and in some cultures they
know that; we seem to have forgotten.

~~~
0x12
This is all very true. But there is one big but. If you live like that you
yourself will have it easy, but the economy as a whole will suffer and the
weak in society will suffer disproportionally.

The further South you go in Europe, the stronger this effect gets.

[http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/SpanishBusinessNews/4527/qua...](http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/SpanishBusinessNews/4527/quarter-
of-spanish-children-at-risk-of-poverty-unicef.aspx)

Articles like that are not capable of conveying the differences between Spain,
Portugal, Italy, Romania and Greece and the more Northern parts of Europe but
after traveling through most of those this summer I've seen the other side of
that medal and the price of the 'laid back' Southern attitude is one that has
become very visible to me.

~~~
tluyben2
Agreed. But north and south are 2 extremes; I travel between Netherlands,
France and Spain with a bit of Germany. The mix makes it great; TOO laid back
has problems but having the Spanish feeling when working with clients in the
Netherlands gives you great advantage and economic wealth.

I used to be NL only and this was very stressful; we have very large (for EU)
clients which were pushing through projects at great speed and everyone was
stressed. It made a lot of my colleagues and me physically ill. We used to
work _hard_. In NL that's no longer the idea; it's a national 'thing' now that
people (even big company CEOs) want to spend more time with their families and
so work a lot less hours per week and still the economy grows. But that's
something else (don't know why that is). The thing is that I always wondered
why there was so much pressure behind every project, because, usually, after
delivering the technical part, there is a lot of _other_ work to be done which
takes them months or years to complete after which the entire project usually
gets binned because it's not relevant anymore.

Southern Spain teaches you that you can just tell those clients to stuff it;
we deliver when we deliver and if that's not ok, then that's a shame, go
elsewhere. Of course it's said in slightly different tone and SCRUM is used a
lot but it works. Clients want quality, not speed. Speed is almost never
relevant. Actually I have, in my 25 year software career encountered exactly 2
times it was time critical. Out of over a 1000 projects I managed or built.
And 1 of those 2 times the client actually messed up the launch, not us. I
never thought about this (stupid me) until I spent significant time in Spain;
that made me see that there is always enough _time_ for anything. Being in a
hurry is just some lame excuse for not having a solid plan. If it just is done
fast enough, the profits will come, right?

I have too many examples for this; few years ago we built a Facebook app for
about $100k which HAD TO BE DONE in 3 weeks. Of course that's not possible,
but he, we are up for a challenge and the specs were ok. So we slept in the
office, worked ourselves crazy and finished it. This was 2006 or something,
the app STILL is not launched.

Southern Spain taught me; if you are in a hurry, your plan sucks. But I'm
making more money than I ever made doing projects the stressed way and so i'm
contributing to the economy and making (many) jobs.

~~~
0x12
Customer control is a difficult issue. Of course everybody likes to pretend
that their stuff needs to be done yesterday. But in reality, most things can
wait for a day or two, or even longer. Too much of that and you do start to
suffer and I think that is what is driving this, the fear to miss the window
of opportunity.

I did some contract work and usually the speed with which I could deliver the
solution was a key element in getting the contract. Making sure I charged a
stiff premium for the work gave me the opportunity to get some 'down time'
after completing a job and that helped me in staying balanced.

As long as you are swimming in work you are probably too cheap.

~~~
tluyben2
I never realized I was doing it wrong :) And that it's _either_ time/material
with a fixed deadline or fixed price with a flexible deadline.

Funny thing is how many people do not (want) to understand this. I now enforce
this and we're still swimming in work with about 35% profit, which is
excellent for consultancy work. I'm fine with that :)

~~~
0x12
> we're still swimming in work with about 35% profit,

You're _still_ too cheap! Trust me on that, give it a shot and raise your
prices until you get 'no' about 1/3rd to 1/2 the time you write proposals or
until you have more than 20% unbooked time, whichever arrives first.

------
chr15
Depression may be another reason one feels tired all the time. Proper diet and
exercise helps, but it's best to seek medical attention.

------
cheald
One of the biggest changes in my life when I left my job to work on my startup
was the freedom to not be pinned in a chair from 8 AM-5PM. If I get tired, I
go take a nap. If I get stiff and sore, I go for a walk. If I can't think, I
go do something else.

The net result is that I'm able to be productive 100% of the time that I
actually am working, and I can work _more_ than I could otherwise, if so
needed.

If you have the luxury to set your schedule, listen to your body, do what it
asks, and you'll find yourself operating much more smoothly than you're used
to.

------
sage_joch
That proverb at the beginning is great ("A man grows most tired while standing
still."). It reminds me of the quote, "If you want something done, ask a busy
person to do it."

~~~
sliverstorm
Which reminds me of the quote, "If you have a difficult task, give it to a
lazy man, for he will find an easier way to do it"

~~~
huckfinnaafb
Of course he might not do it at all.

~~~
Bootvis
I try, as in make a concerted effort, to be both.

------
courtneypowell
I agree that working out is essential, but I believe that putting the right
type of food in your body is equally important. For many people, decreasing
the amount of carbohydrates after breakfast can provide enormous energy gains.
I recommend reading Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Body for some interesting advice on
diet, exercise and a very detailed chapter on sleep.

~~~
wvl
After breakfast? I would include breakfast as well. My energy levels after a
breakfast of bacon and eggs is far steadier than after any breakfast cereals,
toast, muffins, pastries, etc. Avoiding _any_ large carb intake (post workout
_possibly_ excepted) is key to steady energy levels.

For a more rational book, try Robb Wolf's "The Paleo Solution", which also has
an extensive chapter on sleep and cortisol management.

~~~
courtneypowell
Obviously this varies person by person. In my own personal experience, I have
found that eating carbs in the morning (a reasonable amount) allows me to have
a much stronger workout. When I eat NO carbs, it makes it too difficult to
maintain a moderate to intense workout schedule. I liked Paleo as well, but I
liked Ferris' attempt to look at the "whole body".

~~~
dredmorbius
If you are indeed engaging in significant activity, then the carbs will help.
I have sedentary job (technical) but get in a good couple of hours at the gym
most days. Keeping carbs moderated keeps the fat in check, but cutting it too
low make intense cardio and strength training very challenging (and less
productive).

------
latch
Just gonna say this outright...

I've seen colleagues who are constantly on the verge of falling asleep and the
common thread has always been that they are fat.

3+1 guide to productivity: Exercise, Eating Right, Sleeping Enough, and, as a
bonus, no long commutes.

~~~
prodigal_erik
There's a pretty high (but not perfect) correlation between obesity and sleep
apnea, which I think is under-diagnosed because a sleep study is kind of an
expensive hassle.

~~~
WalterGR
_which I think is under-diagnosed because a sleep study is kind of an
expensive hassle._

And I think it's also under-diagnosed _because of_ that correlation.

I "have a friend" who is of normal weight, and who also doesn't snore and is
young (2 other anti-correlates.) This friend struggled his entire life with
sleep issues and blamed it on laziness. It wasn't until it was affecting his
career that he had a sleep study - and it turns out he stops breathing 60
times an hour. (That doesn't make for especially restorative sleep.)

If you have sleep issues despite making an effort to have good sleep hygiene
etc. - talk to your doctor!

------
aj700
He's ignoring the main reason why Britain and America are so pro-work and
anti-rest, and why Italy and Spain aren't.

(It's also the reason why the med is comfortable with nudity and the
Anglosphere isn't)

Protestant ascetic work ethic: no pleasure is allowed. first toil then the
grave.

The med is Catholic, and so far more comfortable with resting.

------
kstenerud
"By the time afternoon rolls around, you’re in caffeine withdrawal. This is
often why people are sapped by mid-afternoon."

Actually, no. You feel sapped in the afternoon because you need a 15-20 minute
nap. That's normal. Take the nap and you'll feel energized for the rest of the
day.

~~~
lemming
Actually, yes. I gave up coffee about a year ago, during a pretty stressful
period during which I wasn't sleeping well. It is _unbelievable_ how much
better I sleep (and I seriously believed that it didn't affect me), and the
second thing I notice is that I'm no longer tired in the afternoon.

~~~
kstenerud
Conversely, I've never drunk coffee, or red bull, or genki drinks or any of
that stuff, only drink tea on social occasions, and gave up soft drinks a
decade ago. I eat right and am active. And yet I often find myself feeling
groggy in the afternoon. But if I manage to get in a 15 minute nap, I'm
energized for the rest of the day. This effect is backed by numerous medical
studies.

------
DanBC
I went through a period of being tired all the time - so tired that I found it
hard to stay awake in the afternoons. And close friends would mention that I
looked like I was putting on weight. I felt confused most of the time. It was
lousy.

Turns out it was a thyroid problem combined with myxodema (water retention on
the face). My GP diagnosed it after blood tests. Now I'm on life long
medication and I have yearly blood tests -but the fat-face has gone, and I
feel normal. Also, I get _all_ my prescriptions free. (I'm in the UK.)

------
TelmoMenezes
"By the time afternoon rolls around, you’re in caffeine withdrawal. This is
often why people are sapped by mid-afternoon."

In my experience this has a lot more to do with carbs-heavy lunches than
caffeine.

------
stephen789
What are your metrics for this kinda thing?

Tiredness and productivity seem like very subjective things, hard to measure.
Don't get me wrong, there's some good points there, that aren't hard to
believe. But i'd love to know how i can measure this kind of well being stuff
so i can better myself.

* as the saying goes, "what gets measured is what gets improved"

~~~
jacques_chester
I believe that NASA and aviation researchers developed fatigue tests some time
ago. There's also discrimination-timing tests.

For example, if the object on the screen is a blue circle, press the right
side shift; if it's a red square press left side. Reaction time is used as the
indicator.

But these are only proxies for what is, after all, a largely subjective
experience. You will necessarily need to rely on measuring inputs (hours of
sleep, caffeine consumed, exercise length and intensity) and using subjective
measures for outputs (a bit slow, tired, very tired, exhausted).

------
gutini
"Be less busy. Seriously, we’re too busy these days. Cut back on commitments,
put space between things, allow yourself to have a slower pace. Your energy
levels will thank you."

I think the key here is not to fill the "space" with directionless
Internet/Twitter/Hacker News perusing. Easier said than done.

------
skcin7
Sorta/kinda relevant: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nncY-MA1Iu8>

It's a TED talk about a woman claiming that sleep is the secret to success. (I
only sorta/kinda agree with her but it's still an interesting point of view to
consider)

------
nhangen
How does Zen Habits keep making it to the top of HN?

~~~
ethank
Why are you on a computer at 9:30PM PST on a Saturday night? Probably because
balance is something we all should aspire to?

~~~
nhangen
My problem isn't with balance, but with the source of the information.

------
elguntor
Why quote a psychotic like Jim Jones?

------
softbuilder
A Jim Jones quote??

~~~
thyrsus
I wasn't familiar with the quote, so I wondered: " _that_ Jim Jones?".
Apparently so.

[http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jimjones389862.ht...](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jimjones389862.html)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones>

------
EponymousCoward
"Feeling tired? Drink this Koolaid." - Jim Jones

------
earplug
Exercise and allowing myself, which is SO difficult, to take that afternoon
power nap has saved me. I find an extreme amount of gilt when I attempt to
force myself into that afternoon power nap, but when I do, and wake up
afterwards, I'm 100 times more productive than I ever was before, or if I had
skipped it.

------
eric_t
Sounds great, until you have kids...

~~~
Rawsock
That doesn't seems like an issue for the OP. Leo Babauta has six kids.

~~~
eric_t
If your kids are toddler-age and older, it is certainly possible. But when you
have babies, I consider step 1 impossible. I do all of the steps he mentions
except number 1, and I am tired.

------
melloclello
I just recently suffered a terrific burnout at the end of the university
semester. Forcing myself to take a couple of days off to just hit the
painkillers and play Minecraft is one of the most sensible things I've done
for my health in recent times.

------
fady
good article, but it left out a major factor. food. eating right is so
important for energy. i went from normal everyday lebanese food to eating
mostly high raw vegan foods and i cannot get enough day for the energy i have.
i'm never tired in the afternoon, i don't drink coffee, i get most my protein
from spirulina, and i juice every day.

drinking a lot of water is super important as his mentions, but, try to drink
1-2 liters before when you wake, before anything else goes down your throat
and you will noticed a drastic change in your body.

------
oomkiller
These are all good tips, but you should also watch out for sleep apnea. Its
incidence increases the more overweight you are, and it's a silent killer.

------
dos1
I cannot stress how much I agree about exercise. About 6 years ago I started
going to the gym regularly* and lifting. That was really one of the best
single changes I've made in my life. I feel more energized during the day (no
more coffee!) and I feel like my mental acuity is higher. My memory seems
better and I'm generally in a much better mood (partly because I look so much
more fit!)

* When I say regularly, I mean I went every other day for 6 months without missing a workout. I made it a high priority. After 6 months of that, I felt so guilty if I missed a workout that I've more or less continued that schedule for the last 5.5 years.

~~~
Swizec
It's even better when it becomes a habit and you don't feel guilty for missing
a workout. You feel like you haven't brushed your teeth in the morning.

I'm there right now. Until I get my 30 minutes of workout in the morning, I
just feel _wrong_. I can't really explain it, but it's enough to get me
working out even when I had been partying until 5am, slept for 3 hours, have a
hangover and feel like I'll die if I even try getting out of bed.

------
chugger
I use to not eat breakfast everyday for 18+ years. it was something I just
didn't do. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I started feeling the effects:
chronic fatigue, I was always feeling lethargic, etc. eating breakfast changed
everything (a healthy diet really).

Check out this book about Willpower and the role of glucose.
[http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-
Human...](http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human-
Strength/dp/1594203075)

~~~
Evgeny
Well I'm not eating breakfast quite often and it does not affect me in any
negative way - more like the opposite.

If it took you 18+ years to feel negative effects of not having breakfast, I
would probably check any other changes that happened recently first.

As a counter argument, here's a couple of links on why you should not eat
breakfast, but feel free to disagree.

<http://www.gnolls.org/2131/the-breakfast-myth-part-1/>
[http://www.gnolls.org/2181/the-breakfast-myth-part-2-the-
art...](http://www.gnolls.org/2181/the-breakfast-myth-part-2-the-art-and-
science-of-not-eating-breakfast/)

------
eurohacker
80 thousand twitter followers is not bad for a blogger

