An imagined future can become a standard no actual afternoon is allowed to meet.

An imagined future is edited. It contains the good parts of a life without the weather, the tiredness, or the ordinary hour in the middle of the afternoon, and no real day can compete with it. Held as a standard, it makes actual living feel like a permanent shortfall.

When you notice the comparison, add the missing parts to the imagined version before judging the real one. Give the fantasy an unremarkable Wednesday. What is left after that is often a smaller, more achievable thing you could actually pursue.