[thro3212]

At start I dropped everything non essential, then fixed it one thing at a time. Key was to establish routine and patterns, which does not drain mental energy and time from me.

For example I have simple exercise routine I do every evening. It is just stuff I do before shower and bed. I also stopped driving in narrow city roads, I leave a car at motorway exit and walk last mile.

Forget self-help stuff. It is really just basics; fix your sleep, health, sex, community you live in...

For programming I follow simple TDD routine (and other simple best practices). And I do not do anything else at computer except making money. Today is an exception, I have 2 hours a week for facebook and news ;-)

[throw345343]

as someone that's suffering from these symptoms rightnow, I'd be happy to listen to any advice you could offer. My memory used to be very very good, but these days I forget things easily and have a hard time recalling details from stories that may have happened years ago. For me, i bootstrapped a startup for a long time (4 years) and ultimately failed and walked away from it and have been picking myself up since then.

[summarite]

Invest time in your mental health, ie give your brain time and the possibility to truly rest. Meditation, walks in the woods (no headphones!), a fun (!) book at a rekaxing place. Or if that's too much at least start by not filling every minute. No smartphone on the toilet, no music or podcasts while walking to work, swim rather than gym, walk or public transport where possible rather than the car, not every evening a beer "to relax" but instead just a warm drink, smartphone away when playing with the kids, ...

If you really want to go bold, one of the best decisions in my life was to do a ten day silent meditation (i did one of those of dhamma.org; free courses where you of course donate according to your means at the end).

Idle time is an investment in your brain. We don't need constant information or entertainment.

[jyriand]

This is something I would really like to read more about. No pressure, but this would be excellent subject for a blog post.

[throw345343]

I second this, I would love to hear more

[peller]

Not the person you're asking to hear from, but, there was a good Ask HN thread recently on the topic of routines/habits that you might be interested in: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13095595

Specific books mentioned in the thread I can vouch for:

The Power of Habit (popular science) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-hab...

Superhuman by Habit (actionable, no-bull, if somewhat introductory) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23206969-superhuman-by-ha...