Effective Ways to Boost Your Energy Levels For the Day

We often feel overworked and exhausted from the day’s events. Such feelings are used as an excuse to procrastinate. As this predicament becomes more of a pattern, an addiction even, we lose the ability to take accountability for our actions. Continuing to blame “the lack of energy” should not be our main coping mechanism when we can’t get work done. Indeed, certain methods and habits can help avoid this obstacle, allowing us to make healthier choices and be more mentally stable. 

1. Get Enough Sleep. Sleep is incredibly important; it shouldn’t be deprioritized, even if you haven’t completed all your desired tasks throughout the day. No, it is often much better to go to sleep early, feel rested when you wake up, and do the work the next day. You will get so much more work down after your valuable sleep than if you tried to work through the night. There is an obvious correlation between sleep and tiredness. Not only that, but it tends to steer our minds toward more lazy and risky decisions. You shouldn’t receive too much sleep, or else it results in the opposite effect. Rather, you should try to get ample sleep where you feel very rested but not overly. 

   
   

2. Take naps throughout the day. Yes, naps throughout the day seem counterintuitive, since it seems that time is being wasted on a commodity that we receive already at the end of the day. Yet, sometimes a quick rest is necessary for us to be at our maximal functionality. Trying to work while you feel so close to dozing off while forcing yourself awake is quite a struggle. Taking naps encourages work extensions to be more productive once they are initiated. This explanation is similar to the concept of studying several hours straight on a single topic. We shouldn’t do that, of course, because we would get overworked. Not taking naps is a lot like this; sometimes, if we don’t take naps between work sessions, we are continuing those work sessions with a brain that has already been worked to its extent. Therefore, napping can help accommodate such.

   
   

3. Eat a sufficient breakfast. It isn’t just a myth that breakfast is the most important meal of the day; actual science helps justify this claim. If one skips breakfast, their blood sugar level drops until they eat again. During that period, they will have low energy to do anything. When they finally eat, they will be so hungry that they might end up eating too much, making them feel uncomfortable afterward to do any work as they feel overstuffed. The nutrients your brain needs to function daily would be stripped, leading to lower ability of cognitive functioning. However, what you eat for breakfast is simultaneously crucial. By prioritizing the consumption of vitamin-filled and more nutritious foods, you can prevent a blood sugar crash that could lead to a greater degree of hunger and tiredness. It’s not just about how much energy the food gives; it’s also how long that energy can last. 

   
   

4. Develop Time Management Skills. The lack of time management is increasingly a factor in the reason we find ourselves overworked. Not maintaining a proper order of events, and slacking off in our duties, leads to a rush to do all our desired tasks at the last minute. Not only is this inefficient, it becomes more of a long-term, unhealthy addiction. Lacking time management skills can alter your thinking to prioritize small, temporary rewarding behavior versus long term rewards. To put this into perspective, we put off our duties because the short term award of not having to do anything (under the belief that “there will be time later”) is more appealing than the long term award of getting the task done. When the task is finally completed, the amount of energy that we just consumed prevents us from going on to do anything else. If we work on our time management, we can most likely offset such negative consequences. 

   
   

5. Limit the amount of caffeine you intake. Caffeine seems so addicting because it supposedly offers a great boost in our energy for multiple hours. As our adenosine receptors are temporarily blocked, our produces more adenosine in response. As a result, when the amount of caffeine becomes insignificant, we feel more tired than before. Although some may be able to develop a long term tolerance to caffeine, more research is needed before making a solid conclusion. Therefore, though drinking caffeine moderately won’t be quite detrimental, it is in our best interests to not get addicted to it. If that happens, when we don’t drink caffeine, we immediately feel tired. 

   
   
   
   

These are just a number of methods that can help offset continuous feelings of being tired day to day. Keep in mind that not all of these methods will be suitable for everyone. For example, one might be extremely tolerant of caffeine, feeling that its energy boat advantages overcome the later feelings of drowsiness. Creating an orderly cycle of our energy usage is a crucial tool for success.