Asklemmy

20 years in - you'll get used to it. Change your employer and find a job that not only pays your bills, but also somewhat fulfills you. Else you'll definitely burn youself out. Find that niche of yours until you're 35 and then stay with it.

Then, those 8 hours a day won't feel too difficult and you'll be like, "eh, weekend's ahead, lets find love in life". Because ultimately life is about happinesd. If you need to give up way too much time to enjoy life, your job is inefficient at giving you the needs to get happy. So switch your employer or your professsion. Heck I've seen student colleagues giving up studying and going for machining. Always smiles with his dirty fingers about how fun things are now for him.

So yeah, it's not all about money, it's about happiness.

Just stay clear of any form of drugs (including cigarettes, alcohol and sugar). The big problem with drugs is they literally make you happy by stealing your future happiness. You pay that credit back with future happiness and the interests on that credit are insane.

You’re still in bed at ten, your work began at eight.

You’ve burnt your breakfast, so far, things are going great.

Your mother warned you there’d be days like these.

But she didn’t tell you when the world has brought you down to your kneeeeeees!

That

I’ll be there foooor yoooooooou!

I’ve been at my job for less than a year, so I’m still learning new stuff here and there. I’m salaried too. When I’m working on processes I am familiar with - my job is cake. This week I took on a new and complex project and suddenly felt like you - why is this week so long and exhausting?! Give yourself a few months to get comfortable and your days will go by quickly.

Others have offered fantastic advice, I'm not going to add anything from personal experience. I will share this link: https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/

Reading this isn't going to change your life, but I find it very helpful to reframe how you think about life. It deals more with the long term impact of having a full time job, outside of work in a way that worked for my brain. Hopefully you find it helpful but it's not a single solution.

Because it gives me stability to enjoy life. Simple as that. One part of the life puzzle.

Working 40 hours can be tough. I think it is about a finding a setup that can work for you. Here's how I set it up to work for me (I work more than 40, so some of this is just so I don't die). Maybe there's something in there you can try out.

• I work with family so I can double up work/family time
• I work from home so I don't have to commute and I can pause to see my kids off to/come home from school
• My husband does not work so I see him throughout the day and he takes care of household chores
• I let my kids play in my office when I'm working (even on conference calls)
• I like my job and coworkers
• I take naps on the weekend
• I have given up on hobbies outside of what my kids like
• I get up at 4am and start work most days by 5am to ensure I have evenings with my family

40 hours is pretty long TBF! I’d probably just zone out for the last hour of each day.

I think it will get easier after a few weeks. The mind is like a muscle, it will adapt to how hard you push it after awhile.

Congratulations, you're now a slave. Get back to work.

It only ever gets worse. Just wait until you get to do that new process you just learned for the 2,000th time while emails flood your inbox, bringing the unread count to 672.