I’m committed to my job, and don’t mind the long hours. It’s a necessary sacrifice. Luckily, I don’t have a family competing for my time, and all my friends are work friends. I currently put in a lot of overtime as I’m managing several projects on the go, and growth in the last two quarters has been below expectations so we’re all feeling the pressure to prevent any more backsliding.

But lately it’s been difficult to keep up. I don’t know if it’s because I’m just getting older, or these last few months have been especially taxing. Not even the many cups of coffee that are part of my morning routine are enough to cut through the brain fog that has become a daily visitor. And I daren’t even eat lunch anymore because the post-lunch food comas had become so hard to fight that there were a few days I inadvertently spent hours sat in my office struggling not to fall asleep. Now I just keep a stash of caffeine pills and take a few for lunch, and more to help me work through the night.

I think the caffeine pills aren’t helping my mood though, because my colleagues told me that I have become much more ill-tempered this year, though I can’t say I’ve noticed. My job has always been stressful, so some irritation is expected. And they can’t blame me for shouting at them if they come to me with stupid questions, especially when I’ve only slept a couple of hours. Mostly it’s just some of the younger staff who are being overly sensitive, but I have no sympathy. Most of them go home on time regularly, no matter how far behind targets their teams might be. And they’re extremely cagey when asked to stay late or work at the weekend.

Do you have any practical tips for getting back some of my youthful energy so I can show the layabouts at work what real work looks like?