Things I have tried...
I was always a low-energy kid, but I was ambitious and determined. As I grew up, I had to figure out a way to increase my energy levels to manage the long list of things I had planned. For my benefit, I started to learn nutrition.
This blog post is about a few things I have tried over the years to keep my energy level up and live a fuller life.
💤Prioritizing sleep
There was a time when I thought sleeping less was an essential habit for being productive. I was young and dumb. My body has proven to me that it was wrong. Sleep is crucial for maintaining high energy throughout the day. Sleep quality is as important as the time we spend sleeping.
When I was a teenager, I used to sleep from 9 pm to 1 am and spend the rest of the time just doing random stupid stuff. As a woman, it wrecked my hormone balance later. Once I realized sleep is crucial to our mental and physical health, I started implementing several habits to maintain sleep. Considering sleep as a priority rather than wasting time has changed my energy levels.
You can find detailed blog posts about how to build a healthy sleep routine on this blog. The most significant change has to be made in the mindset. A few resources that helped me to understand the importance of sleep are,
⛅Getting sunlight and some movement in the morning
Sunlight sets our circadian rhythm. So spending some time outside right after you wake up will set your internal clock, and you will naturally fall asleep at around 16 hours after waking up. You will feel more awake once you get exposed to sunlight.
I noticed the change when I started working from home. Even though I was not traveling to work, I would feel tired throughout the day, but I wouldn’t be tired enough to fall asleep at night. Once, I built a habit of stepping outside on the balcony right after waking up, and I started feeling more awake. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out the Hubermanlab podcast.
Moving your body, even for 10 minutes in the morning, will make you feel better. You can take a short walk outside or do an indoor workout from YouTube.
📆Scheduling the tasks throughout the day
This is something I started when I started working. I work as a data scientist. So I have to break down and solve problems on my own once the issue is given to me. When we are in school, we have a structure to our life that disappears once we start adulting. More responsibilities come up, and decision-making takes a lot of energy.
Scheduling tasks and time blocking will help you a lot in two aspects:
- Reducing decision fatigue to pick a task when you have a long list of things to do
- Focusing on a task without getting sucked by endless distractions and procrastinating
🥗Having a balanced diet
I think this is the most important habit for keeping up a steady level of energy. Learning essential nutrition and how food affects our minds and bodies immensely helped me. So I have noticed that having a breakfast heavy in carbs will crash my blood sugar levels and make me tired. So I ensure to include more protein, fat, and complex carbohydrates rather than sugary cereals for breakfast.
When it comes to food, everyone’s body is different. It took me a long time to realize that I react to gluten and dairy. So the only way to figure out what works for you is to listen to your body. Eliminating the food group, you react to will help you greatly in terms of energy.
Having a low-carb breakfast and lunch and including more carbs in the dinner works well for many people. Then again, it depends on your body.
📵Avoiding technology for at least an hour after waking up
This has helped me a lot to stay sane, I used to scroll through my phone right after I woke up, and it made me feel so drained from the morning. We live in an attention economy. An unlimited amount of things compete for our attention all day long. Having a morning routine and avoiding my phone and tablet for the first hour of the day has helped me organize everything in my head and start the day with some structure.
🍴Meal planning
Since I have some dietary restrictions and like to eat intentionally, I can’t just grab something to eat and get on with my day. But cooking takes a lot of energy and time. Meal planning and meal prepping can help with that. So I started to plan all my meals for the week and get groceries based on the list. Now I don’t have to spend energy thinking about what to cook every day.
☕No caffeine after 2 pm
A lot of people are caffeine-sensitive, including me. For those folks, caffeine after noon can wreck their sleep schedule. I grew up in a culture where we have tea in the evening with a snack. So I used to have coffee or tea in the evening for an extended part of my life, and I developed issues with my sleep. Avoiding coffee in the evening has helped me a lot.
Conclusion
So many of these habits are to improve your sleep quality, which is not random. Sleep is so crucial to a healthy life. Diet plays an important role too. Living mindfully is getting harder and harder these days.