I used to feel extremely exhausted everyday after work, which leaves me with barely any form of motivation to do anything. As a junior developer in the industry, I felt that I need to change the way I do things, so at least when I get home, I still have some energy left to practice my programming because I really do enjoy it.

I treat programming as my hobby and it makes me happy to be able to solve small challenges through code. However, it was obvious that the mental fatigue was not allowing me to spend time on my hobby. So I decided to change things a little.

Why I was mentally exhausted?

I was constantly indulging myself in worry at work and at home. It came to me subconsciously and I did not do anything about it other than thinking more about the worries.

What if I cannot finish this task?
What if there is an email request from work tonight?
What if? What if...?

There were lots of "what ifs" taking up my brain capacity to the point that it was in a constant loop of worry. After work, the work worries subsided a little, but not too much. It was on repeat over and over again.

I knew I needed some kind of help or advice.

Living in the NOW

I listened to some advices from the audiobook
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie which says that in order to stop worrying, you just have to be in the now. Not promoting this book, but I feel it may be of some value to others out there who might be in the same situation I was.

Worries do not help in any day activities at all, apart from wasting my time. So, each time a worry came to mind, I tell myself "Hey there Mr. Syuqri, do not worry about it NOW. Put it in your to-do list and think about it LATER". My worries slowly vanished and they appeared in the form of To-Dos. I schedule each To-Do for a designated time if need be, or leave them floating if they aren't important.

Although my schedule each day is filled now from day (work) to night (side projects), I feel a sense of ease at each point in time as I am only focused at the task at hand, and nothing else. This certainly helps in productivity and ultimately frees more time for myself - something that worry has never done for me.

TLDR

Think and live in the now. Worries should be transformed into To-Dos (scheduled or free floating) and be taken care of later.

What are you struggles in your busy schedule? How do you overcome them?