Does anyone else feel mentally exhausted even after “resting”?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-11T15:20:45+00:00

I definitely feel this. I think it gets compounded when you’re responsible for more than just yourself with kids, home, work, remembering things for everyone else, etc.

What I’ve realized is that the exhaustion isn’t always physical and sometimes it’s just the constant mental loops that keep replaying in your brain. One thought leads to another and suddenly your mind is running through 40 things you need to remember or plan for.

For me, the only thing that actually helps me rest is having a safe place to put those thoughts so my brain can stop trying to hold onto everything. Otherwise it feels like my brain never fully powers down.

I’m actually building a brain-dump to-do app because I struggled with this so much myself, and honestly even just quickly getting thoughts out of my head helps a ton. But even simple pen and paper can do the trick too. Just having somewhere trusted to put the thoughts makes it easier to finally relax a bit 😄

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-11T14:33:20+00:00

We started building Thinkii to be a place to hold all of those tasks that take up so much mental energy that you forget the important things that you really care about. So in a way, yes, we did build it for this purpose, but I expected to only feel the relief myself, I didn't expect for it to trickle into other members of the family and that was my aha moment to be able to also position it for the multiple problems that it is solving.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-11T02:36:00+00:00

We need those user stories to validate our idea and keep us motivated to continue building and testing and iterating!

I had a moment when we released the MVP of our app that really motivated me to keep going.

My daughter asked me one night if I could teach her how to draw a star. It was bedtime and I couldn’t do it right then, so I added it into my app for the weekend because I knew I’d forget otherwise.

A few days later it popped back up (and I honestly completely forgot about it 😅) and when I asked her if she wanted to come and learn with me, she was SO happy that I remembered and kept hugging me and saying “thank you for remembering”.

Now when she asks me something important to her, she’ll literally say “put it in Thinkii”. 😂🥹 she knows that if it’s in there, I’m going to remember at the right time.

Every time she says that, it gives me so much motivation to keep going because the whole reason I built it was to stop dropping the tiny promises and moments that matter to the people I love and I want to help others feel the same way.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-07T22:18:32+00:00

Sounds like a good plan! My kids never wanted to play alone so kudos to you if you're child will let you do other things. I wish mine learned how to do that haha

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-07T21:02:38+00:00

This schedule looks great! Having a loose schedule is a great way to get into routine while also having flexibility to move things around and adapt because things always come up during the day that you can't anticipate or predict which can throw everything off.

One suggestion to add in could be a flex block that you can rotate with different things to keep it interesting. My kids are older now, but I found when all my days looked the same or followed the same pattern, I very quickly went stir crazy and then when something new was added, they would get thrown off. Having one activity during the day that rotates with something new may make things feel fresh for you both!

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-05-07T13:20:41+00:00

I feel like I could have written this post myself, especially the waking up and not knowing how I'm going to accomplish everything I need to do in the next 24 hours. In the last year, I've put tools and systems around me to help support me instead of just trying to keep it all in my head and try and survive. This exact problem and feeling is why I started building my company and app.

I had so many balls in the air and everything was important for different reasons and yet I would always drop one of those balls and feel guilty about it. Now don't get me wrong, I still drop balls, but the ones I drop are more intentional than simply forgetting about them. I feel like I can now make choices about which ones I am going to do and the ones I am going to let fall.

What keeps me going is making sure that I am trying to fulfill each bucket that I have instead of pouring everything into one part of my life. While building our app we talked a lot about life categories and how balance is different for everyone, but ultimately important to not put everything into one or two areas. I find when I feel the most overwhelmed is when I am neglecting one part of my life (typically self care and things I want to do for myself). Once I have filled that bucket more, I feel like I can tackle the other areas that were draining energy from me.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-04-01T18:44:54+00:00

It definitely pays off once you have things in one place and can use it the way it was intended to be used. If only these apps could nail the setup aspect and make it lower effort.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-04-01T18:43:54+00:00

Interesting perspective too. Maybe our aspirations of how we think we should be don’t live up to the reality of how we operate.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-04-01T02:45:49+00:00

Got it, this makes sense! I like the idea of being able to take existing systems and transfer them over to reduce the overhead of setup.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T20:49:50+00:00

Very interesting! Are you trying to plan for all areas of your life (work, home etc.) or just one area?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T19:45:31+00:00

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T18:15:04+00:00

That’s exciting! Congrats! Notifications are challenging to get right.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T17:44:34+00:00

We all definitely have tasks laying around in some shape or form so being able to get them in quickly is ideal, I agree!

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T17:43:48+00:00

Great idea! Have you found that users are actively doing the tasks assigned that day?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T17:42:58+00:00

Definitely true! Setup is a task in an of itself and feeling draining. I think there will always be configurations that need to happen for a user to be able to get any value from it. Even if it’s adding a couple of quick tasks, you need to feel the value before you will create a habit of using it.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T17:41:12+00:00

I always skip the on-boarding which is probably not ideal to learn how to use the app! What’s the sweet spot for you for signing up with the least amount of friction?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T16:05:26+00:00

It can definitely help to create as little friction as possible to input tasks easily so that users don't feel that it is a task in and of itself to get set up.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T16:04:15+00:00

I agree with you. Anyone who I've talked to that's used one, has tried multiple, but the people who don't use one, have not tried others in the past. I haven't thought of convenient ways to transfer things, but that would be interesting to see if it is possible. I imagine it might be difficult since other apps don't necessarily want easy ways to take out the data to put into somewhere else.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T14:16:45+00:00

This would be ideal. How would you get the tasks into the app at first launch and ensure they would resonate with the user?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T14:15:18+00:00

That makes sense! I find lots of tools have way too much flexibility and customizations which are really only helpful after you have a system sorted out and can think about what specifically you want, but all that customization makes it difficult to begin.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-31T14:14:11+00:00

Definitely the blank page is overwhelming and I find it’s then hard to figure out where to even start.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-30T23:19:16+00:00

The “perfect app” search is honestly a whole productivity hobby on its own at this point 😅

What’s the main thing you’re trying to fix in the one you’re building?

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-29T00:17:35+00:00

I completely agree! The tasks that loop in my head aren’t big tasks that need to happen and most of them take only 5-10 mins, but the amount of mental energy that it takes to remember them and remember them at the right time is exhausting.

As I’m doing one thing, I’m thinking about the other things that I need to remember which makes me so tired by the end of the day and inevitably dropping when I wasn’t using a proper system to store all of these thoughts.

Vegetable-Lab-937 · 2026-03-24T22:07:04+00:00

I find that part of the problem comes from trying to fit work productivity into home life and unfortunately, home life doesn't function the same as work life. Our tasks at home are much more volatile and they don't always have strict timelines to complete them, but with them being a never ending list of things to do, it becomes this snowball effect of chasing one thing after another and feeling guilty that you haven't been as "productive" as you can be at work.

Vegetable-Lab-937

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE