The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I’m struggling with my energy levels over the course of day, after it hits mid-day my brain starts to shut off, where I find it hard to focus on concentrate, brain fog and generally feel very fatigued - I just feel very tired
I am trying to address this by exercising regularly and diet, but problem still persists
Is there anything I can do to improve my mental stamina so that I can get through a working day without my performance severely deteriorating?
Thanks
Take regular breaks, supplemented with exercise and occasionally fruit - Assuming you have nothing else wrong with you (diabetes, etc). Caffeine? Sugar?
You don't mention your start time...? If it's 9 and you're fatigued by midmorning, see a doctor. If you bounce out of bed at 5 and start around 5.30 - well, by 12:30 you've done almost a full day.
You don't mention the type of work you do. I'm assuming it's mental - maybe software? Have you been working on a project too long? Work too many days/hours without a long break? Do you have other stuff going on in your life which is mentally taxing?
Have you tried asking any real life friends their opinion? Remember, those carbon based, mostly water filled life forms that we coexist with? Go and talk it out with someone, and chances are, the answer will present itself.
Have your doctor do a blood test to make sure your iron levels are not too low. Iron can be found in lentils, spinach, soybeans, chickpeas, oysters, fortified hot cereals, dark chocholate,meat especially liver,canned clams, sesame seeds, duck, apricots, tofu, quinoa,cashews and almonds.
Assuming you have already tried getting 8 hours of sleep, eating better, drinking less alcohol and exercising and still have symptoms you should probably just see a doctor.
A normal healthy individual shouldn't be feeling brain fog or extreme fatigue in the middle of the day. Do yourself a favor and get yourself checked out.
I recommend:
journaling or otherwise documenting what you specifically experience when you encounter this brain fog and fatigue. Try to frame it in terms of both the frustrations that you run into (get very low-level and mechanical, you could even use the STAR method here to document where you have trouble) and how this affects those around you (nothing speculative, more along the lines of "I take longer to do X" or "After x PM, I am less consistent when doing Y").
bringing this up to multiple medical professionals, who can help you identify any obstacles from both a diet/exercise/sleep angle and the angle of any potential medical causes (e.g., what's causing the fatigue or difficulty concentrating).
Since you seem to be earnestly trying and struggling, I would have a frank conversation with a medical professional and see if they could offer any insights. You may even wind up with just diet/exercise/sleep/relaxation recommendations from them, but with more specificity than what you've attempted so far.
Especially if this is something that really frustrates you or something that you've been dealing with for some time and unable to fix, getting insights from a medical professional can be life-changing. (And if it turns out to not be anything medical- which hopefully will be the case- then that can still help you a great deal in terms of telling you where to look at.)
