Most blokes know what real exhaustion feels like. Big week at work, tough project, late nights, early mornings. That kind of tired makes sense. What’s harder to pin down is the slow, background fatigue that creeps in even when life feels “normal.” You’re not run into the ground, but you’re not firing either. The tank’s never quite full, no matter how many coffees you throw at it.
That kind of fatigue doesn’t come from one big cause. It comes from a pile of tiny ones. The micro-habits, stressors and routines you barely notice but repeat every day. The good news? They’re fixable. You don’t need to overhaul your life or turn yourself into a wellness monk. Just a few realistic tweaks can put some charge back in your batteries.
Here are the sneaky drains, and the simple ways to plug them.
The morning phone scroll
Let’s start with the classic: Rolling over, grabbing your phone and immediately hitting emails, news and socials. It feels harmless, like easing into the day, but what you’re actually doing is dumping your brain into alert mode before you’ve even stood up. Your stress hormones spike, your focus scatters and you’re reacting to other people’s priorities before touching your own.
The fix: Charge your phone outside the bedroom or keep it at least out of reach. Give yourself ten minutes in the morning to actually wake up before diving into the digital noise. You’ll feel the difference after a week.
Death by notifications
You don’t need to be addicted to your phone for notifications to drain you. Even tiny buzzes or banner alerts create small spikes of attention and stress that add up over a full day. Your brain never fully settles, and by mid-afternoon, you’re wondering why you feel fried even though nothing dramatic happened.
The fix: Ruthlessly cut non-essential notifications. Most apps don’t deserve your immediate attention. Turn off anything that isn’t work-critical or genuinely useful. Instead of being interrupted fifty times a day, check things on your own schedule.
Decision fatigue
You make hundreds of small decisions before you even get to work, what to wear, when to leave, what to eat, which route to take, which messages to answer. None of them feel like a big deal, but the mental load snowballs. By the afternoon, you’re wiped not because of big problems, but because of endless micro-choices.
The fix: Reduce choices where you can. Prep lunches the night before, set out clothes, have a default morning routine. The fewer decisions you make early, the more mental energy you save for when it actually matters.
Chronic “almost-sleep”
You know this one: you technically get enough hours, but the sleep itself is rubbish. You wake up groggy, hit snooze and feel like you’re never catching up. Often, the culprit isn’t the amount of sleep, but the quality.
Late-night screens, irregular sleep schedules, or “revenge bedtime procrastination”, staying up late because it’s your only me-time, quietly chew through your energy.
The fix: Aim for a regular sleep window and ditch screens 30 minutes before bed. And if you’re staying up late because it’s the only time you get to yourself, schedule some actual downtime earlier in the evening instead of sabotaging tomorrow.
The weekend that isn’t a weekend
Weekends used to mean rest. Now they often mean errands, chores, kids’ activities, fixing something around the house and then suddenly it’s Sunday night and you never actually stopped. When there’s no real recovery time, weekdays feel harder than they should.
The fix: Ring-fence a real break. It doesn’t have to be a whole day, even one protected hour of genuine downtime (no chores, no obligations, no screens) resets your brain in a way mindless “rest” doesn’t.
The constant multitasking
Men love to pretend we can multitask. Most of us can’t. Switching between tasks, emails, conversations and half-finished jobs, burns energy fast because your brain keeps shifting gears. You end up mentally scattered and more fatigued than you realise.
The fix: Work in small, single-task bursts. Ten minutes of focused effort beats thirty minutes of half-paying-attention. Shut tabs, silence the phone, finish something, then move on.
Low-grade clutter
This isn’t about becoming a minimalist. But constant visual noise — messy desk, disorganised garage, overflowing kitchen bench — creates micro stress your brain has to filter. You might not consciously notice it, but your nervous system does.
The fix: Pick one small space and clear it properly. Your desk. Your bedside table. The front seat of your car. Maintaining one clean zone gives your brain somewhere to rest.
No genuine downtime
Collapsing on the couch with Netflix or doom-scrolling isn’t real recovery. It’s passive distraction. Actual rest is anything that lowers stress, clears your head or brings genuine enjoyment: a walk, a hobby, the gym, fishing, reading, tinkering in the shed. Without that, you end up tired even when you’re “resting.”
The fix: Schedule proper downtime like you would an appointment. Fifteen minutes is enough. It just needs to be intentional.
