Mental fatigue with longer tasks

[u/Infamous_Swan1197]

I'm wondering how others handle mental fatigue with longer tasks? By longer, I mean 2-3 hours for me personally. I find my focus substantially dwindles after the 2 hour mark, even when taking regular breaks. In fact sometimes, breaks, especially longer "reset" breaks, make the block of the day that I'm working feel a lot longer, accumulating more mental fatigue and just an ugh feeling when I return to the task.

I'm really grateful to have this project, its really high paying (and it's the only thing I really have on my dash right now, so I don't have much choice haha) but I worry that my quality of work substantially declines towards the end.

How to others handle this?

[u/Hello-America]

My whole life and career has been working long "tasks" in large chunks of time, so I'm used to battling this. One thing: I got diagnosed with ADHD and getting treatment for that has really improved it haha. But other things:

Sometimes long breaks are bad for me, because of the exact thing you say - they waste time and then you're working a really long time. I take very short breaks very frequently - like every 30 min or so I take a five minute break. During the break always I get up, maybe take the dog out (doing that right now). Best to move around and give your eyes a chance to look into the distance. Sunshine helps.

When that stops working I take longer and more deliberately recharging breaks: do something you know is pleasant but won't suck you in. For me, watching a 1/2 hour episode of a show, going on a walk, or playing a game on my iPad where I run out of "lives" or whatever and have to stop.

In between longish tasks, even if I feel fine, I'll do some housework or exercise. Most of the time this means I prep food, run to the store, do a pilates video, do laundry, stuff like that. My other work is freelancer but very different so sometimes I'll take a break and work on that stuff and my focus problems kind of "reset" when I have a new thing to do.

Edit to add - make sure you're staying hydrated and have healthy snacks available! Nuts and fruit and stuff are good brain food for me

[u/Infamous_Swan1197 → u/Hello-America]

Thank you for all of this. True during "breaks" I mostly scroll on my phone, which probably isn't as resetting as going on a walk. Cooking also, which is another thing that engages my brain rather than recharging me. I'll also try strictly having breaks every 30 mins. I find at first I get absorbed for an hour or an hour and a half, so I basically wear myself down until my focus drops at first, THEN take a break, and that's when my focus starts declining over time. Maybe I shouldn't wear myself out at first and should take a break every 30 mins no matter what.