Do you wake up each morning feeling drained and struggling to get to work? Do you feel like your energy is totally depleted by the time the weekend hits? You’re not alone, but you don’t have to keep feeling that way. Here are some tips to help get you through the work week and still feel like you have some energy left in the tank on the weekend.
1. Take Small Breaks
Your work probably allows you to take breaks every so often. Be sure to take advantage of those. Not only will you be more productive and alert, but you will also feel less tired by the time the work day ends. The most productive people take at least a short break every 30 minutes. That habit allows you to not feel too drained by your work and to constantly enjoy feelings of being refreshed and invigorated.
2. Eat Smaller Meals
You have probably noticed that when you eat a large meal, you feel lethargic afterwards. This is due to the way heavy meals can trip your body’s sleep impulse, making you feel like you need to lie down. It is tough to get out of that sleepy funk, so you want to avoid getting there in the first place. Try to eat smaller meals, especially for breakfast and lunch. Even better, if you can eat additional small snacks throughout the day, your metabolism will activate repeatedly and give you a boost of energy every time it starts up. Your body thinks it is time to burn energy each time you eat, so it will give you energy to work with for each snack. Just be careful about spending too much time eating and losing out on productivity.
3. Reduce Some Chores
Are these some responsibilities that really drag down your energy levels? Think about what those could be in your life. For some people, it is cleaning the house, and for others it is cooking food for the family. Whatever it may be for you, there might be ways to give the responsibility to someone else or just get out of doing that chore every so often. If it is food preparation that saps your energy, why not prepare meals in advance, making a lot of food at once? Or you can buy prepared food occasionally. Some of these methods might be expensive, but if you can afford them, you can save some energy for the things you really want to do.
4. Focus on a Sleep Schedule
How much sleep do you get each night? If you are like most people, it probably isn’t enough. If you feel like you always wake up tired, then you should analyze your sleep schedule. Count up how many hours you get of sleep each night. Don’t count when you go to bed, but rather count when you put away the screens and actually fall asleep. Those screens you use late at night could be disturbing your sleep schedule. Experts recommend that you turn them off at least 30 minutes before going to bed. Instead of looking at something on your phone, you can try reading a book, listening to music, or having a conversation with a family member.
5. Reduce Stress
Did you know that stress is a major energy vacuum? You might be getting enough sleep and not working too hard, but are you worried about a lot of things? If so, then that anxiety can sap your energy and become mentally exhausting. That’s terrible for your energy levels, and this is why depressed people seem so tired all the time. The mental exhaustion is simply overwhelming them while they are going through emotional problems.
What can you do to reduce stress? You can determine where the stress is originating from and deal with those areas of your life. You can also take occasional breaks and listen to relaxing music. Make sure the kinds of entertainment you enjoy are not stress inducing but are stress relieving. Spend less time doing the things that cause stress and more time enjoying your life. That sounds simple, but what stresses one person may not stress another person, and everyone needs to find out what their stressors are in their own lives.
6. Exercise Regularly
It may seem strange to us to think that exercising can give us more energy, but our bodies can be pretty weird. If you have a low level of activity, your body will adjust for that and not provide you with much energy. If you keep up a relatively high level of activity, though, then your body will try to provide energy for those activities.
By exercising a little bit throughout the week, you can increase your energy levels and feel powerful and invigorated even during days you don’t exercise. Once you get used to an exercise routine, and you don’t overdo it, you will feel energetic partway through your workout and perhaps even afterwards. That change in your body can give you energy all week long.
7. Eat Healthy Food
You probably knew that diet was going to be somewhere in this list, and we have placed it all the way at the bottom, so you can skip this part if you like. However, you should know that diet plays a crucial role in how much energy you feel you have. If you eat foods that are heavy and filling, you will feel slow and tired. If you eat sugary foods, you will feel the energy crash later on. If you are not getting enough fiber and protein, you will have trouble keeping up your energy. By eating a healthy diet, you can transform your body’s base energy levels and have energy on tap to use when necessary.
Just see if making some of these changes in your life doesn’t improve your energy levels and help you feel better each and every day.
