If those days go into all-nighters, you might have bipolar disorder. I went undiagnosed for years, and didn't believe it myself until I charted the moods with the help of roommates and a doctor. I began to notice being happy at inappropriate times (funerals), and sad at others (weddings). My moods would mysteriously cycle and I really had to take advantage of the upswings.

I went undiagnosed for such a long time because managers would often point at me as an example of startup dedication, and then when I crashed and they got disappointed I would jump to a new startup.

Now I stick to a schedule and never deviate from it. When I do, the monster returns.

I don't have an answer for you, but I have a very similar experience. some days I wake up and it's "go time", sifting through source files and crushing multiple bugs in eight hours, often forgetting to eat lunch! other days I'll try over and over to start working, but every time I look at a line of code, I feel an immense pressure to alt-tab to the browser or get out of my chair and pace around my apartment. if nothing else, it's good to know other people are like this.

I've tried to examine correlations between my focus at work and my sleep schedule, diet, social life, etc. and I don't really see anything. sometimes my best weeks of work will coincide with eating bad takeout and staying up til 2am playing factorio every night. sometimes I go to bed at 10pm, eat three healthy meals a day, and accomplish absolutely nothing at work.

Hear hear for 2am factorio

Seems like a strange comment for the article but since you made it,

For me its not that I don't feel like doing work on most days. Instead I have periods where I am super uber productive and days where I feel completely exhausted. I can't tell if its a mental thing or rather there's actually something physically wrong Lol. My mind tends to be blurry like its rebelling and if I force myself to work hard I start feeling feverish. I have trouble figuring out if I'm not working hard enough or working too hard.

I wonder if its also like that for some of the successful startup founders out there too

I really connected with how you said you are feeling because it is how I have been feeling. I work for a small innovation group (not a startup), so my work environment is flexible. I am also trying to bootstrap a startup project in my free time. I will have days that I am super productive and can get through a ton of work, but then I have other days that I just can't bring myself to work. It feels weird cause when I force myself to work I get way less done, so I then feel like it is pointless cause I get such little done compared to when I am in the mood for the work. I don't really know how I should feel about it cause I feel guilty on the days that I don't get as much done, but it feels like a waste of time and is draining to just sit there and force out a small amount of work.

I don't know whether this is true, and I'm writing this out of curiosity and not bad faith, but the most parsimonious explanation for this being the top comment is that both the writer and voters assumed (as I did before reading) that the essay was about time-of-day work rather than time-of-project-lifespan work.

But it's a good point! Faith fluctuates by day, and those low-faith days are when a small project is abandoned. I think graham's solutions (supportive friends, ambitious city, historical examples) are a good way to hold the faith when the general public and the project itself don't seem to warrant it.

For me after significant journaling and recording, it seems to be when nutrition, sleep and stress are all correctly managed. I can even have several days in a row that are optimal for deep work if I'm careful, but life likes to throw in a wrench from time to time of course.

The big things for me have been to eat a very nutritionally heavy breakfast (I hate eating breakfast, it still takes me forever) and to calorie count both to make sure I'm getting enough and to make sure I'm getting a decent balance of carbs/protein/fat. For sleep, going to sleep early and having wind down time so I sleep well (tea and a book are a winning combo for me there usually).

Stress is of course the difficult one we have the least control over. Exercise is a huge help but that can also change up the nutrition equation. Even then, it's still easy for bad stress days to also muck up the sleep side of the equation and it can take days to get that sorted out.

What's the perfect environment?

That differs from person to person and you'll have to find out for yourself.

I enjoy the late afternoon hours when most of my colleagues are already gone, the phone rings not as often and I can put some music on headphones. Takes me about 15 minutes till I get into the flow state and am highly productive.

Likewise and I have to add that mornings I am usually not very productive anyway, regardless of the environment. I've been working from home for the past few Covid months and the bulk of my work is done in the afternoon. That's not very convenient for me as I'd like to enjoy my time off after 5, but I usually end up past that to take advantage of the momentum built.