alt Hacker NewsOne thing I've noticed myself, if you are not sufficiently challenged for a while it can be extremely difficult to surmount the next challenge. Peak "abilities" for me in whatever categories has always been when I had enough work in front of me to just chug away like a machine, and enough trust where I didn't need to stop and constantly explain myself but could just work uninterrupted towards the goal. Skills would grow like wildfire and tasks would be completed sooner than expected.
Unfortunately very few jobs are structured to take advantage of that. So many blockers and distractions from you getting into actual deep work.
At my previous job, the most productive time was when I was serving my notice after resignation, I got 6 months worth of work done in two. Without all the status updating meetings, "quick questions", overtime due to incidents, and whatnot, I got a lot done.
It was a bit ironic though, as most of the work I did during that time was ultimately shelved, as I can tell by looking up public DNS entries, probably due to other people exiting or the team being reorganized.