“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
— Lou Holtz
The other day at work, I was chatting with a “new hire” on my team. Well, not technically a new hire anymore, but close enough. We were talking about “work” in general – why some people are clocking 60-hour weeks and still feel behind, while others seem to get more done in half the time. Is it just efficiency? Is their work actually that much easier?
Funny enough, I had almost the exact same conversation with a close friend a few days before. We were both just tired – like “Bro, I’m just so tired for real” tired. Not the just-worked-out tired, but that weird low-energy haze that creeps in by evening. You know the one. That “let me just nap for 20 minutes and pretend it’s still 6 PM” tired.
So naturally, we started unpacking it – why does just living life feel so tiring sometimes? Why does my productivity differ from hour to hour? Sometimes i end up doing enough work in an hour that is equivalent to me working for like 3 hours.
That’s when I started thinking about this idea I now call The Penalty Game.
Life, as a Game of Energy Points
Let’s say every morning, you wake up with 100 points. Fresh start. You’re recharged.
Now, everything you do during the day costs you points.
- Getting out of bed? 2 points.
- Making breakfast? 5 points.
- Commuting to work? 10 points.
- Writing code or a doc? 15 points.
- Scrolling social media for too long? More than you think.
(Maybe 100 points is just too less lmao – but you get the idea)
But here’s the kicker – it’s not just about how many tasks you do. It’s how you switch between them that starts draining you.
Context Switching: The Hidden Tax
Not all tasks are created equal. More importantly, not all switches between tasks are equal either.
If you’re deep in work mode – writing docs, attending meetings, debugging stuff – the context switch between those tasks is relatively smooth. They belong to the same “mental bucket.” You’re warmed up, you’re in the flow. Maybe you lose 1-2 points between switches. Manageable.
But now imagine switching from…
- Deep work → Instagram.
- A Zoom call → Netflix.
- Brainstorming → Responding to 10 unrelated messages?
- Switching between tabs from Outlook to Slack to Firefox (yep – its bad)
Each of these switches is like a penalty. Not just in terms of time, but energy. You drop 10 points – boom – for a switch like that. And the more often you do it, the faster you deplete your battery.
Why Evenings Feel Like a Crash Landing
So by 6 PM, you’ve not only spent your points on the actual tasks — you’ve also bled a good chunk of them just switching gears all day long.
Which is why by evening, most of us feel like we’ve hit 10% battery. We’re fried. We nap, scroll, binge, snack — anything to buy back some points.
It’s also why some people seem to do less, yet feel better. They’ve just played the game smarter. Fewer switches. Fewer penalties. More grouped focus time.
So How Do We Beat the Penalty Game?
It’s not about doing less. It’s about spending your points intentionally.
- Batch similar tasks together: Morning is work mode, afternoon is meetings time, evening is social mode, night is chill mode.
- Avoid random switches: Don’t jump from a work doc to a YouTube rabbit hole.
- Design your day like a level: Group your tasks like missions – complete one mission before jumping into the next. While multitasking helps, its not really helping you in the long run.
And most importantly – recognize when you’re paying hidden penalties. The tiredness might not come from what you did, but how chaotically you jumped around.
Final Thought
We all get 100 points a day. You can’t cheat that. But how you spend them – that’s entirely up to you!
Play it smart. Beat the penalties. And maybe – just maybe – you’ll get to the evening with 60 points left, wondering “What’s next?” instead of “Where’s my bed?”
Welcome to the Penalty Game.
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