2024-03-17: I find myself wondering, maybe this post should be retitled “why are you tired?”, in comparison to “why were you late?“

The exhaustion funnel is a simple concept that I wish I encountered when I was much younger. It puts a name to a phenomenon that I repeatedly experienced throughout my teens and 20s. I would say that at 31, I’m still just beginning to get better at managing this. Here are some thoughts and notes.

So the important idea here is that… well, there’s a funnel. Getting exhausted is kind of like getting drunk. The worse it gets, the worse it gets, and the more incapable one becomes. You have to adjust your expectations as you go.

My experience of exhaustion in the past has been, the less I get done, the more I feel compelled to “make up for lost time”. But if I reflect on the phenomenon of the exhaustion funnel, it becomes clear to me that that’s just not possible. It’s like hoping I will be more sober after another drink. The “only way out” is to call it a night, accept “defeat”, fold the hand. Cut your losses.

But this is hard to do. I think it’s a little easier to do once you can zoom out and see the big picture, and realise that you’re digging yourself deeper and deeper into an exhaustion funnel.

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I can’t remember where I found this one, but I must have been searching a few related phrases like “fatigue spiral”.

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one of the big ideas i’ve developed in recent-ish times (2022?) is the idea of emotional knottedness… this should probably be a standalone post since it’s a sticky concept

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To be continued