Doing absolutely nothing when you get in from work...

Does this describe you?

I start work at 6am every second week and finish at 2pm, but I can't muster any motivation to do anything worthwhile except maybe cook a decent meal for the hours after I come home.

How about you? Do you feel you deserve to do nothing after work or do you actually do things? How do you find the energy/drive?

In fairness, cooking a decent meal sounds like a worthwhile use of time.

I don't do anything most times but curse myself for that

I would love to do nothing, but sadly, rarely get to. I get home before my wife does, as my commute is only 8 miles to her 30, so I do any dishes that are left in the sink, feed the cats, clean the litterboxes and do any other immediate chores (e.g., haul trash to the curb on collection day) before relaxing. Sometimes I'll also mow the lawn or what have you, otherwise that stuff just eats into my weekend time.

What do you feel like you *should* be doing? This happens to me often enough that I feel like watching a movie or going out for a drink is a productive use of time, though ultimately I wish I felt more motivated to be creative after work. I tell myself I don't think as clearly in the evening, but that's probably an excuse.

Doing absolutely nothing when you get in from are at work...

but yeah unless i'm going out i guess i don't really believe just doing nothing at home to be an option anymore. as in there's always something i want to do/feel i should be working on whether it's a site design, some kind of artwork or sound/music thing etc.

i work ridiculous hours and do very little when i get home from work. Laugh at how horrible my shifts are: 3 days of 7am-4pm followed by 3 days of 2pm-12pm, or 11am-8pm on Saturdays, 1pm-10pm on Sundays. I console myself with the fact that I can do lots with my days off because I get 4 in a row.

oh midnight probably should be 12am, doh.

Cooking a meal or doing something unproductive but enjoyable is fine, but just sort of doing literally nothing but pacing round staring and struggling to get in gear and then realising it's 8pm is a fucker.

i'll either have five a side or cook dinner immediately after work. after that it's tv or reading, with the very odd evening of having friends over.

don't, at this stage, feel under any imperative to use my free time more productively, but will probably change my attitude to this as 30 approaches/i finally decide on a further qualification.

I never do absolutely nothing when I get in from work. There's always something around the house that needs to be done, plus eating, plus three out of five weeknights I have things to do after work outside the house anyway.

I watch movies or cook or whatever yeah.

What I feel I should be doing: exercising, maybe a sport, maybe some other activity. My job is on the route towards being something I really enjoy tho not quite there yet, so as a result I sort of feel I should be filling a hole evening wise.

Then part of me also decides I deserve to do nothing but cook a good meal and watch a movie.

I frequently get home around 8pm, so I usually don't even eat or cook anything unless I have to have lunch ready for the next day.

Instead, I make endless glasses of limeade or have a few beers, chainsmoke, and either read a book or catch up on news podcasts and Nova and whatever. I do wish I got more creative projects and/or cleaning & productive stuff done, but that's the time of night when I'm just dead.

Of course by midnight, I'm all perky again.

I sit around feeling tired after work. Or I go to the Library and post rubbish on the internet.

or waterstones, you go there!

i'm usually pretty productive, i feel like i'm doing something worthwhile if i see friends, work on music, or cook. even watching a dvd or playing video games feels like doing something. the only thing that makes me feel lazy is not having the motivation to exercise after work.

Of course by midnight, I'm all perky again

this is the problem.

the only thing that makes me feel lazy is not having the motivation to exercise after work.

otm, it's the worst. just can't find an excercise routine that I enjoy. thinking about something social like squash or similar with a friend.

if you can make your walk home from work longer that can help with exercise guilt

sign up for some night classes! :(

The real trick is DO NOT SIT ON THE COUCH under any circumstances when you get home.

I don't sit on the couch. I lie on the bed; even worse.

I don't mind "not doing anything" if I end up cooking dinner, watching a film or reading a book. It's when I mindlessly muck the evening away on the internets that I really feel guilty.

Exercising in the evening is almost impossible, I find. I can only really exercise in the morning - in the evening, I not only don't have the energy, but it makes me not sleep.

i don't think i've ever had a job within walking distance

I have. It didn't make much difference. The temptation to pish the time away on t'nets was still very strong.

watchin tv/movie/boxsets on couch with gf doesn't seem like wasted time, tbh. it's about all we do together during the week, especially given the weather/social scene round our neck of the woods.

all my great artwork is usually done at work.

it's like someone pushes a button at 5pm, that completely wipes out my creative energy and I'll spend the rest of the evening lay on bed watching sitcoms.

the only days where i really do nothing after work are like monday/tuesday. most of my other nights are filled with something or other. if i get one errand/task done (grocery shopping, ironing, etc.) and eat a decent dinner of some kind on those days i consider it a success.

I don't consider watching movies/TV (since we never just turn on the TV without intending to watch something specific) or reading or playing games doing nothing, but I do consider them all leisure activities so I guess I excluded them from my calculations when I responded to the question.

Anyway, I pretty much always do something that is neither nothing nor leisure activities immediately after work - errands, exercise, dishes, straightening up, folding clothes, making dinner happen - but that is so I can get it all done ASAP and have an hour or two to spend some leisure time with my spouse. Otherwise I am all antsy and can't actually relax because I'm thinking about all of the stuff I need to get up and do.

jenny and i do the same things after work
i do chores, mostly (shopping, cooking, cleaning) or exercise (3-4 days a week) and only then -- when all chores, exercise, and ancillary work activities (grading papers/quizzes, making handouts, planning) are done -- can i sit and relax.

ie, after dinner is eaten and everything is cleaned up. i cook a lot, though, and i think that is sort of a leisure activity for me.

get home,smoke a bowl. anything after that is all gravy.

Most nights I don't get home until 7 or 8, and the idea of doing chores at that point -- besides just basic picking-up -- is anathema. I rarely even cook on weeknights; I just eat a lot of sandwiches.

depends a lot on what city u live in imo, I can get much more done after work in glasgow than I cd in london (between the longer working hours, longer commute and spacedoutedness of potential activities)

If I lived in an apartment that was mine or within which I felt like I had any common space that I could utilize, I'd probably do more after work (tidying, cooking, DEFINITELY having people over). As is, though, I usually don't do much of anything if I go straight home from work. If I want to get anything done, I have to go somewhere else entirely and hope that I'll get over that tiredness hump rather than continuing to feel like a member of the living dead.

(For reference, I basically occupy a 10X10 room in a four-bedroom apartment with three other people I don't know. The rest of the place is a wreck, so I'm mostly just stuck in my room. Barf.)

Christ, you guys, just do nothing at work, then you have plenty of energy after work!
Or get two kids, you'll HAVE to move your ass ALL THE TIME.

Honestly, enjoy the fucking chance to do nothing.

One of my fave things to do after work is plonk down on the couch & watch tv. no music, listen to music all day. no innernets, use innernets all day. certainly not talking to anyone or thinking about anything substantial.

so you're at work, i guess. *waves at boss behind you*

ha, i'm actually taking the day off. and my boss is usually out of town, which leaves me as the boss, which is nice.

yeah i'm way more productive at work - with non-work related stuff. i've started bringing book-making stuff to do here, since i have a lot of down time, all the boring repetitive stuff like cutting and sticking that takes hours and that i can't be bothered doing at home.

it's really hard to get motivated after work. my job is pretty unstimulating and involves a lot of standing around pretending to look busy. when i get home my brain is mush and i feel so lazy, it's hard to muster up the will to do anything.

been a while since i've done this. depends on what 'absolutely nothing' is - cooking i consider a productive activity, it has to be done. watching a movie is a fun enjoyable leisure activity. i guess i consider 'absolutely nothing' to surfing the internet for long enough not to notice that it got dark outside so you have finally get up and turn on lights. haaaate those nights. thankfully they rarely happen b/c i have a spouse to spend time with. horrible lazy nights like that only happen when she's not home.

i recently moved towns so the past 3 weeks have basically been spent packing or unpacking, and i haven't had much free time at all. uggh putting together ikea furniture after work pretty much sucks. i can't wait til i can just watch movies after work

putting together ikea furniture after work pretty much sucks.

^^^YES

you're like "how long could this possibly take" and then it's 5 hours later

yea seriously. also the slight sense of guilt from owning yet another piece of particle board furniture

I love coming home and doing nothing all night long. There's no reason to feel guilty.

thankfully they rarely happen b/c i have a spouse to spend time with. horrible lazy nights like that only happen when she's not home.

Yes. Totally. It starts with me intending to sit for a moment in the computer chair before I start with my evening bustling, and ends when I realize it's after 9 pm and I still haven't eaten any dinner.

i didn't get to work until 1:30 and haven't done anything yet.

I usually cook and then just fuck around online and watch some TV and/or a movie. After spending every night in class until 9:30 for a year and a 1/2 I'm kind of enjoying this but I do get bored sometimes. I hauled out my knitting stuff today in an attempt to do something more creative and productive in the evenings so we'll see if that actually happens.

i've been making excellent use of my post-work evenings lately, by rewatching every episode of LOST

Did not know you knit, ENBB! :D

Knitting is awesome bcz you can still watch movies/read internet/veg out and still feel like you're doing something (which you are).

Saying I knit isn't really accurate tbh. I am trying to learn though!

I'm usually home by 7:30 and after dinner typically knit while being read to for an hour or so, maybe wash a load or two of laundry, or straighten up the kitchen. I'll occasionally do financial stuff (generate invoices, sort out the business checkbook, quarterly tax calcs, pay bills, budget, etc), but usually can get to that on the weekend instead. Considerable amount of time frittered away on the internets, esp. some of the mindless timesuck FB games. None of it feels particularly productive, though some of it needs doing.