Question for guys out there with corporate gigs doing side projects. I work a job with regular hours, but many nights I'm working on my side projects in the evenings - side hustles, language learning, taking online courses, etc that require full concentration/mental faculties. But especially if I hit the gym after work, by the time I get home, a lot of the time I'm beat and operating at a fraction of my normal mental capacity in terms of reading comprehension, and just overall concentration/focus...
This doesn't happen all the time. Some days I'm just naturally in the zone and even if I've had a full day + workout, I'm able to jump in and get into the project I need to set my mind to for that evening. But I don't have a choice when to turn that on, especially if I have a deadline to meet.
I've found caffeine is effective to combat this, but the problem is that it ruins my sleep, even in small doses. I've used mondafinil and found the same thing - if I take it anytime after 12pm I'm going to have a horrible time getting to sleep.
I don't expect this to be an easy answer because essentially what I'm looking for is a short-term boost to energy levels/focus (2-3 hours) that after it wears off that I can still get to sleep that night. That probably doesn't exist but I thought I'd least check and see if anybody has come up with something that has helped to mitigate end-of-day fatigue and still be able to sleep, chemical or otherwise.
This doesn't happen all the time. Some days I'm just naturally in the zone and even if I've had a full day + workout, I'm able to jump in and get into the project I need to set my mind to for that evening. But I don't have a choice when to turn that on, especially if I have a deadline to meet.
I've found caffeine is effective to combat this, but the problem is that it ruins my sleep, even in small doses. I've used mondafinil and found the same thing - if I take it anytime after 12pm I'm going to have a horrible time getting to sleep.
I don't expect this to be an easy answer because essentially what I'm looking for is a short-term boost to energy levels/focus (2-3 hours) that after it wears off that I can still get to sleep that night. That probably doesn't exist but I thought I'd least check and see if anybody has come up with something that has helped to mitigate end-of-day fatigue and still be able to sleep, chemical or otherwise.