Question is in the title; I’m just curious to hear folks’ experiences
I’ve noticed that when I do a lot (5+ hours) of straight CAD in a day, my brain feels exhausted. Physically, I have energy, but mentally, it feels like I just… can’t think?
Like, it’s as if I’m pressing the gas pedal but the decision-making and thinking fuel tanks are just out of gas.
It’s as though I’m in a daze and I do everything a little bit slowly, like on the walk to the bike racks before my commute home, my eyes won’t be focusing on anything as I walk, or if I’m WFH, I just sit there staring aimlessly into space.
Do you guys have any experience with this? What do you do for recovery?
I don’t think this is specific to CAD. Whenever you’re doing something for prolonged times it’ll numb the brain. It is important to have a change of scenery for the brain, and the body.
If you sit a lot working you may want to shake things up by standing while working. This would be possible if you had a desk that can be moved into standing desk position.
Or take walks regularly.
Anything really to break the ‘monotony’ and remind your body and mind there’s more to life than just sitting and doing that one thing.
Yeah, I totally get what you mean. It happens to me when I do a lot of focus heavy, repetitive tasks, like sewing, soldering, or coding. Doing something physical after helps a lot to clear my brain. I’ve found that after doing it for a while, I could go at it longer with less focus fatigue.
Take breaks, and switch what you’re doing every once in a while if your work allows it.
Personally I do design & build (using traditional methods as well as CAM/CNC)
When I get sick of one then I switch to something else because yeah, too much of one thing gives me the brain drain you’re talking about
Like, I’m doing only modeling all day today and I’m seriously going home now because I’m over it… I should have just turned off Rhino after lunch and did something else instead
Now that I’m in my mid 60’s, I find my ability to really focus for long periods of time is diminishing. I’m good for the first half of the day. Then I need to switch to tasks that are less mentally demanding or I make stupid mistakes.
I suspect this is just the natural order of things.
I’m okay with it.
There is nothing at all unusual about what you’re describing. The usual remedy is exactly what others have suggested: Take regular breaks. Not just mental breaks at your workstation but actual walk-around exercise breaks, bathroom breaks, snack breaks, etc. This is an even bigger issue for programmers because they usually have a lot more “balls in the air” inside their head than CAD designers because their work is more abstract than CAD where the work in progress is right on the screen visually. This is not to say there is not a lot going on inside a designer’s head, though.
With time, you will develop a sense of knowing when a break s required long before you turn into a zombie. The frequency, duration and activities that work for you will become second nature. One important consideration is how long it takes to get back in the zone after returning from the interruption. Too many breaks with short work intervals will see you working very inefficiently for too much of the day just trying to get back to it, while working too long will reduce the recovery time but risks working inefficiently due to mental fatigue.