At times, I've used to be a productivity nerd with elaborate systems (now I mostly rely on experience and common sense) and also I've spent many months cumulati

At times, I've used to be a productivity nerd with elaborate systems (now I mostly rely on experience and common sense) and also I've spent many months cumulatively on gaming and "unproductive" endeavors. Today maybe I'm not doing anything sure-fire revolutionary, but I'm okay with my work, and I don't have to view my day job as the most meaningful part. The real life is often structured in such a way that there's little reward for (more) work. And your official position and environment matters so, so much. It's quite hard to get into many academic/industrial places where something actually happens, especially if you didn't spend your whole life checking the specific boxes expected by hiring committees for that particular domain. I would say this is the biggest block, when we raise that OP question. I'd also say it may be good, if you can, to spend some time detaching your mind from your local environment. Then you may be in a better mental state to make larger decisions about where to direct your time and effort. In my experience (and also my friends') there is a big threshold when you finally exit academia and your decisions suddenly start to matter, you aren't dependent on one bureaucracy etc. Although I'd advise to milk your studies for the credentials you can get. Maybe I've learned some resource management (it's brutal in NetHack) and such from games, but in truth I don't know.