How do you know whether to push on with a difficult task or step back and call it a day?

A natural way to answer

I tend to judge it by the quality of what I'm producing rather than the hours I'm putting in. If I'm still making genuine headway, I'll press on. But the moment I feel myself spinning my wheels — going round in circles with nothing to show for it — I take that as a clear signal to step away and come back fresh.

Key phrases to use

• flogging a dead horse — wasting effort on something that has no chance of succeeding“Trying to revive that idea is flogging a dead horse.”
• spinning my wheels — putting in effort but making no real progress“I felt like I was just spinning my wheels all afternoon.”
• banging my head against a brick wall — trying hard to do something with no success, in a frustrating way“I've been banging my head against a brick wall with this bug.”
• grind to a halt — to gradually slow down and stop completely“Without sleep, my productivity grinds to a halt.”