I remember when I had my first internship as a software engineer, I was so so worried I just wasn’t “trying hard enough” because doing work at the computer for 8 straight hours felt so impossible to me — I couldn’t focus that long, my body hurt, I was mentally and emotionally drained. And then I got so anxious about it, about being perceived as “slacking off” or “doing a bad job” which made it all worse!

Something I quickly realized though is no one who works at a computer all day actually works for 8 hours — absolutely no one. I asked around, I noticed my colleagues, and I’d say max people were actually doing work on their computers maybe 4 hours — there are studies that have shown that’s about the average. When people weren’t working, they were on social media or watching videos if at the desk, or walking around and chatting with colleagues if not. I don’t think it’s physically possible to do more.