In my previous startup, I jumped on the AI coding train and fully immersed myself in running agents instead of writing code. 🤖 At first it felt incredible. I was 10x more productive, doing in a fraction of the time all the things I’d wanted to do. Hard changes became easy, and I was producing more code in days than I used to produce in months. 🚀

But at some point, I broke. I’d sometimes spend one or two days just lying in bed, mentally exhausted, needing to do anything except work. I’d take days off mid-week because I simply couldn’t keep going. This went on for weeks, until I needed an entire week to recover. Eventually I couldn’t even look at the code anymore - I’d start my computer, open my IDE, look at the tasks in front of me, and still couldn’t get my brain to focus. I needed a longer break, 4 to 6 weeks, before I was ready to work again.

AI fatigue is real. More people are starting to talk about it. 🧠

What I took away from it:

  • I can spend about 3 to 4 hours a day prompting agents. The rest of the day is needed for recovery and for my brain to catch up.
  • I have to force myself not to work in between. My brain keeps processing everything anyway, so that time isn’t wasted.
  • Taking care of myself matters more now than ever: regular exercise, walks in the park, healthy food, limiting caffeine ☕, finding ways to relax, and spending time with people - real conversations, with people who are physically there.
  • I can push past these limits for a while, but there’s no free lunch. Doing more today eventually means doing less tomorrow, or worse.

Have you experienced AI fatigue yet? 👇

Originally posted on LinkedIn.