Hey,
During summer vacation, when most of my friends took the month off to rest, one of my closest friends had the same answer every time I invited him anywhere.
The gym. Climbing. A walk. Anything.
"I am tired."
I would look at him, genuinely confused.
Because I knew how his days unfolded.
Sleeping until noon. Eating. Scrolling. Sleeping late. Repeat.
How could he possibly be tired?
If anyone should be exhausted, it was me. Waking at 5am. Working all morning. Training at the gym. And still having fuel left to burn.
But here is what I have learned.
There are two kinds of tired.
Tired from doing something. And tired from doing nothing.
They are not the same. And only one of them is real.
The Question Nobody Asks
Have you ever noticed that your parents never say "I am tired" the way our generation does?
In my entire life, I have heard my father ask for a week off maybe once or twice.
Do they never exhaust? Of course they do.
But they keep moving.
So why is our generation perpetually drained?
A recent survey found that 24 percent of Gen Z said they "always" feel tired, the highest of any generation. Only 5 percent reported they are "rarely" tired. Meanwhile, 18 percent of baby boomers said the same.
The younger generation, who should have the most energy, reports the least.
Something is deeply wrong.
The Thief We Invited Into Our Pockets
The answer is devastatingly simple.
Your brain functions like a phone battery. You start each day at 100 percent. Each context switch, each notification, each scroll drains a percentage. The average person checks their phone 96 times per day.
You are not resting when you scroll.
You are bleeding.
That fuzzy exhaustion you feel after doing "nothing" all morning? That is digital energy drain in action. Your brain is still evaluating, processing, and reacting to content, even when it feels like you are relaxing.
Every minute on short-form content is another percentage stolen from your daily capacity.
You work for 30 minutes. You "reward" yourself with 10 minutes on social media. Even if you stop exactly at 10, you have already surrendered a portion of your mental reserves.
By evening, you are empty. And you have no idea where your energy went.
Social media is junk food for the mind. It brings junk thoughts and makes our minds heavy and burdened without our knowing. Our brain is processing every reel, every comment, every post. Mental exhaustion is as tiring as physical exhaustion.
What Happened When I Stopped
Last year, by accident, I stopped using my phone.
It broke. I never fixed it. I never replaced it.
And something shifted.
I have more energy now than I have ever had in my life.
Here is what my days look like:
Wake at 6am. Train for two hours. Walk over seven kilometres. Work all day. Time for family. Time for friends. Go to bed with fuel still remaining.
I could push harder. But I choose to rest so I can perform well the next day.
This is not a good week. This has been my rhythm for almost a year.
I will say, there are still things that drain my energy. Responding to client emails, for example. As a one-person business, I have to be quick.
But even those moments remind me why I do this.
Like this email I received yesterday:
Messages like this refuel me more than any rest could.
Why Our Parents Never Complained
I think I understand now.
Our parents did not have a device in their pocket silently draining them between every task.
They worked. They rested. Real rest. And they woke up ready to work again.
We work. We "rest" on our phones. And we wake up more depleted than before.
Nothing drains energy more than checking our phones compulsively every few minutes. It is such a massive energy vampire that I cannot emphasise it enough.
The phone is not rest.
The phone is a thief dressed as a companion.
One More Thing
I have never consumed an energy drink in my life.
Not once.
And I probably never will.
Because I have learned something that no drink can teach you:
Energy is not something you consume.
It is something you protect.
One More Energy Hack
You know what else drains energy?
Chaos.
Not knowing what to do next. Scattered tasks. Goals floating in your head with no home. Waking up and wondering where to even begin.
That mental clutter exhausts you before you even start working.
Planning your life, having everything settled, knowing your next step, this gives you energy. It removes the fog.
It lets you move without resistance.
This year I started YouTube.
So I switched from my favourite Second Brain 6.0 to Creator Brain 4.0, built specifically for content creators.
I am starting to love it just as much.
Both systems do the same thing for me: they remove the chaos so I can protect my energy for the work that matters.
If you want that same clarity, 28% off both planners and all the premium templates until the end of January.
Official Store 👉 olsnotion.com
My recommendation? Second Brain 6.0
You're a Content Creator? Creator Brain 4.0
Thanks for reading.
Osama (OLS)
P.S. — If you are always tired, the answer is probably not more sleep. It is less scrolling. Try one week without short-form content. You will not recognise yourself.
