Hey guys,
I'm in a dilemma, and I'd like to consult with you.
I run a 6-figure marketing agency, scaling to 7 figures this year. These increased marketing activities are very mentally taxing for me.
As a way to wind off, I like to play games. Particularly, Dota 2. A game I used to play 20 years ago, one I still enjoy.
This leisure time is one of the things that helps me unwind and not think about the business after I've drained my battery on it; any other input in business would be unproductive.
However, I found that the morning after playing a few games, I feel even more mentally fatigued. I assume this is because I've exhausted 100% of my mental capacity, and then a gaming session, which pushes it to 110% or more, draws on reserves from another day.
My dilemma is that, for me, games are one of the best ways to unwind and not think about the business. But games are also what drain my energy for the business.
I wanted to ask you, entrepreneurs who also enjoy gaming: how do you approach this? Did you just quit gaming, or how did you reorganize your time?
Posted by krokodilce
35 Comments
Is it relaxing, if it’s draining you?
Maybe game for shorter sessions.
Yep, in order to get to the next level you can’t play these kind of games unfortunately. I used to play HoTs a lot. I usually have a few breaks, Sunday; Friday sometimes for this.
Involuntary quit gaming due to not finding games that would:
a) not be. as you said, mentally fatiguing
b) entertaining enough to not be boring
I reorganized my time. I have plenty of hobbies, and I had zero desire to give any of them up. If you are 100% drained at the end of the day then you aren’t delegating or simplifying correctly. If you are always at 100% an emergency will be brutal. Always leave extra capacity for the bad days. Don’t quit gaming, establish a good work life balance
Yeah i was like this with league. I had to quit gaming
I’ve been there honestly. Games feel like rest but they’re not actually rest, especially something like Dota. That game is constant decisions, pressure, adrenaline. It shuts your brain off from work, yeah, but it does not let it recover.
What clicked for me is there are different types of off. Anything competitive still hits the same mental system I need for work. So I didn’t quit gaming, I just boxed it in hard. No ranked. No long sessions. And never on nights before heavy days. Sounds boring but the next day fog mostly disappeared.
Swapping some sessions helped too. Walking with music. Light gym, not chasing numbers. Even mindless YouTube. Feels less satisfying in the moment but you wake up way clearer.
Timing matters a lot. Gaming when you’re already mentally cooked is the worst combo. If I play now it’s earlier in the evening, strict stop time, and not every day. Maybe two or three times a week. Otherwise it leaks into tomorrow exactly like you described.
I don’t think quitting gaming is the answer. It’s more accepting that some games are mentally expensive and you have to budget them like energy, not time. Business drains you, Dota drains you, stacking them back to back overdrafts tomorrow.
Also random thought. Intense games wreck sleep quality even if you fall asleep fine. That alone can explain the morning fatigue.
Short version. Keep gaming, just treat it like caffeine. Nice, useful, enjoyable, but wrong dose at the wrong time messes you up the next day.
I discovered cozy gaming. My Nintendo Switch games allow me to shutoff most of my brain.
Now I split my time cozy gaming vs. something more strategic/intense.
My buddy got me into fortnite almost a year ago and I play it almost daily. I find it challenging, socially rewarding, and a lot of fun. Plus there’s a bunch of nostalgia bait on the regular with game cosmetics. It checks a lot of boxes for me, especially since I’m so engrossed in my visit that I don’t have much time for a proper social life.
Admittedly I got a little too into it around Kate summer and it became a major distraction. But I put some guardrails around when and how much I play and it feels fairly balanced now.
Do you actually enjoy it or are you addicted to the little dopamine rush?
Why not try 2 weeks off from it and see if you feel better or worse, if you feel better without it, it’s probably not all that important to you in the first place.
Every addiction is an escape from reality. If you need to game longer than 30 mins a day, ask yourself what you’re running away from.
I got back into battlefield 6 when it released, and it started wrecking my sleep. Not worth it.
And those dopamine hits make everything else boring in comparison. I think it’s fine every now and then on a weekend with friends, but gaming every night is a recipe for disaster.
Reading is the perfect way to unwind before bed
I play Warzone the Casual thing! Best moments of my life at the moment.
Though I am just starting on my SaaS so stress is not coming from SaaS.
The main reason of my stress right now is I am finding it hard to land a job. Everything I am doing now is adhoc from long term clients who kept me around. Other than that I haven’t landed a new job for a whole month and I apply daily.
Thankfully I got friends who play with me when they got home at night. I think it is the only thing keeping me sane right now.
During daytime though I work on improving my SaaS while looking for jobs I am qualified at.
Doing my best to put on a happy face in front of wife and kids but deep down I am at breaking point which is what gaming kind of helps to keep at bay. Laughing with my buddies makes me forget how tough the world can be even if it’s just an hour a day.
Doesn’t Dota takes loads of time to play? I used to play DayZ, a different game where you can spend thousands of hours but I just don’t have the time for that.
A friend of mine introduced me to Fortnite, which I thought is for kiddos, but it is actually perfect, if you have 1 or 2 friends to play with. We play every other night, for 1 hour. One round can be anywhere between 10-20 minutes, which is perfect. Helps me to disconnect from business, as it requires 100% concentration.
I think there are very different types of games. Try AstroBot, for example – I find that much more mentally relieving and say Eldenring taxing.
Also consider mindfulness meditation.
Play a more relaxing game
You literally choose the game with the most toxic community ever !! I ain’t judging cause i come back to Dota 2 all the time but it is mentally taxing with the long games and shitty players and Broken new characters.
But you can never escape from dota 2.
gacha games
The problem is specifically Dota 2 man.
I had to quit competitive shooters for this exact reason. You think you’re ‘unwinding’ because you aren’t thinking about business, but you’re actually just switching from one high-stress cognitive load to another. Dota requires insane focus, macro-management, and adrenaline. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between ‘crunch time at the agency’ and ‘ranked match at 11 PM.’ It’s all cortisol.
Try switching to a single-player game or something turn-based for weeknights. Save the sweaty ranked matches for Friday night.
Research about dopamine and stress triggers and you’ll see it’s not very “relaxing” for your body and mind to play comp games in the evening.
I had my company for 20 years sold out 8 years ago… Computer repair, networking, etc. I’d run the 27″ monitors with three client projects going at the same time.
It was exhausting even though i loved it.
In between, if i got stuck or just cloudy etc I’d play quake arena for 20 mins max. Set a timer, blow up a bunch of shit and kill bots (not other humans, they were tough, i work for a challenge, i play games to be a god)… Mindless, easy, “clearing”.
Maybe limit your time and play on easy mode.
Not gonna lie, the problem might be your choice of games. Dota 2 is one of the most complex games ever created. It might feel like it helps you unwind, but playing it at all is bound to be mentally taxing. You might need something more relaxed to make it work.
If you want to keep playing Dota, then perhaps try Turbo, though those matches can be just as taxing as regular ones at times.
Having the similar situation, I was playing dota in high school (it was a wc3 map at that time) and I was almost having a grade retention in high school. Whenever I install it back, my productivity reduces drastically.
I don’t think this necessarily has much to do with entrepreneurship, but more to do with just well, being an adult/busy person with a taxing job
Personally this is why I stay away from pvp and competitive games. I prefer more chill games; games don’t necessarily need to be hardcore or competitive for me to enjoy them. It’s discouraging because I don’t have the time I did in my early 20s to spend hours learning pvp mechanics to keep up
Shutdown timer helps, play one game, go to bed. As for circlebrain, notebook next to bed to write ideas down. I can also recommend to switch to crush or Tetris. Busy hands free the mind.
As someone who plays League casually (used to play wayy more when I was younger), don’t – and I can’t stress this enough – *don’t* go to bed straight after grinding games. You will sleep way worse which will affect your mental Performance the next day.
playing game will drain your mental energy, it is not really a mean to rest
I found star citizen to be pretty fun, been long time since I played it however I remember how relaxing it was driving my ship in space then stopping in the middle of nowhere just to walk around my ship to look out my windows. Then I would fly to a planet and land in a populated city with other people and chat at some virtual bar or whatever, was fun. Game has no loading screens so I was hooked.
DotA is one of the most mentally draining game mate.
I have a rule with gaming. If I can’t pause it and walk away, I’m not playing it. 60 employees, and a large service business. After many years I know what games to stay away from. Any game that pulls me like a “have to” than I am out.
Just play old school RuneScape. I’m also a business owner and I wind down with this game. I don’t know what it is, but running in circles to train my Agility level really helps me wind down.
Yeahhh, I’m a sweat in FPS games but I just had to dial it back as my company scaled or I woulda lost my mind.
Switched over to some calmer games like MMORPGs where I can just vibe and actually let my mind relax. Still wanna do something more engaging than watching Netflix or whatever and they hit the spot.
I also stop playing at least 30 mins before I start my bedtime routine and always go for at least one night walk to clear my head.
I think you should watch this video called “why this made me stop video games forever” by a channel called Alex Becker tech.
We are in the exact same situation of agency size and gaming habit if dota ahaha
I write this after losing two games and heading to bed at midnight knowing tomorrow mornings going to be so full on. 😂
Just commenting for reflection time in the morning and to see what others recommend!
I stopped playing for a few years but came back to it maybe 2 years ago. Played a lot less and I only do turbos.
It certainly picks up more hours when I’m on holidays and post holidays for a bit.
Tbh I think I need to restrict it to weekends only as others have said. But man I really don’t enjoy many other games that aren’t pvp or as intense.
Love the strategy, love the team work, I don’t even mind the community.
But yeah it’s certainly a disservice to other parts of my life.
I tried baulders gate 3 wow…. Amazing story, gfx, game play but it’s so fucking slow.
Single player games don’t hold my attention to well. But I guess that’s the point? Haha
I had the same realization: games help me escape work, but not recover from it.
Once I separated those two, things got easier. Some days I need escape, some days I need actual rest.
Fellow dota 2 entrepreneur
I have old friends that basically play dota 2 and arc raiders all day. I’d rather play solo or with others because they take that shit way too seriously to the point of getting toxic. The games themselves are pretty tense.
That’s why I got myself a VR headset and been cycling through some of the best VR games and trying out some old classic. Right now I’m doing Doom 3. Another positive about VR is that I don’t normally do more than 40-60 minutes because it gets a bit headachy after hours, unless maybe if you’re used to it. This gives me the break I need, to get back to work.
I balance it out with exercise, and taking family out somewhere. Through the years, when I really was feeling mentally down, I would go on for runs. Eventually ran about 10-12 miles a few times. It helped understand that sometimes I tell myself I’m tired and done, but I could always can push a little further. That had a positive effect on other metal activities. Now I have a walking treadmill, kettlebells, dumbbells, pull up bar and a bench.
We should hop on some game some time. Maybe you’ll be able to help me out with marketing.