comet

Living alone sucks. The transition period after a long relationship ends also sucks. No amount of advice from anyone can fill that void for you. Having said that, you have to at least give yourself a chance to go out there and stay in the real-world as much as possible. Some ways to do that would be to just walk around your city/locality/town aimlessly every day before or after your remote work time since there is no reason for you to stay at home beyond that time - have a step count goal - don't go back home until you hit that goal, treat yourselves to local food, make small talk with random strangers, get back on dating apps - meet people for fun. Staying outdoors, moving at all times or as much as possible can do wonders. Also, since you work remote, consider moving to a different place to work. Good luck.

Patent attorney here. I think fulfillment comes from people whom you work with first than the work itself. Rarely does one find good work with good people. I've been lucky that way. My work allows me to use my technical skills, my writing skills, and my 'laywering' skills during prosecutions. Every day is a new day discussing ideas, inventions, or just writing about it - what we call 'patent applications'. To add to that, I work with the best team one could possibly ask for where we demand the best from each other always and we're always learning from each other. Our offsite outings are a blast as well each year!

Agreed, in my little experiment, I made it a point to do little everyday towards my goal, if not a lot, with no pressure on how much I achieved in a day. The idea was to build consistency. It's surprising how well this approach worked for me. Just filling in the "What did you do today?" bit kept pushing me forward and kept me motivated.

I think the whole "be-the-hardest-worker-in-the-room" holds good only when you're so into your work that you forget what time it is. Otherwise, it definitely becomes a chore and a health hazard.