Even watching our favourite TV show or turning on a light at night can leave us exhausted.
Have you ever wondered why you are often left with little or no energy in the evening? Perhaps it’s because of harmless habits that many people don’t even pay attention to.
Imagine that energy is a glass of water with a hole in it. There are two ways to keep it full: keep refilling it or fix the hole.
To keep your energy levels high throughout the day, you can adopt more healthy habits, such as eating right, exercising regularly and getting enough sleep. Or you can eliminate bad habits that take energy away from your life.
1. Watching too emotional series and shows
An abundance of complex and emotionally exhausting content can lead to mental exhaustion. All because we often identify with the main characters, imagine ourselves in their shoes and feel what they feel.
“These experiences allow a person to see the world differently and access emotions they couldn’t experience before.” – explains Leela R. Magawi, MD, psychiatrist.
However, strong emotions can lead to overexcitement. Suppressing the signals of overexcitement requires even more mental effort, which means we get tired faster. And this is true for both negative and positive experiences, as they activate similar connections in the brain.
How to solve the problem
Carefully choose content and note how you feel while watching it, as well as over the next hours and even days. This will help you find the triggering themes that cause excessive excitement.
Another way is to limit the number of too emotional films, series and shows and dilute them with calmer and more neutral ones.
2. Taking long breaks between meals
Our bodies get energy from what we eat, and carbohydrates are the main source of energy. Qualified nutritionist Caroline Lacey notes that some parts of the human body, such as the brain, can only use glucose, the simplest carbohydrate, for energy.
In addition, our bodies store some glucose in the liver for when blood sugar drops, for example between meals.
When we eat more carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates, our blood insulin levels rise. After a meal, it peaks and the amount of sugar in the blood may decrease. This makes us feel tired and empty.
Uma Naidoo, board-certified psychiatrist and nutrition specialist
How to solve the problem
Usually, experts advise eating every five hours, but everything is individual and depends on many factors. It is better to always carry snacks with you, such as healthy protein bars, nuts or fruit.
3. Leaving a mess on your desk
Working in disorder hurts our attention span. As a result, we take much more time on the most basic tasks and they eat up energy.
How to solve the problem
Keep your desk in order – let each thing have its own clearly defined place.
I suggest spending 10-15 minutes each workday cleaning your desk with relaxing music. This will create a new useful and positive behavior pattern.
Leela R. Magavi, M.D.. Pediatric and Adult Psychiatrist
4. Too much of planning ahead
One quick look at a calendar with five or more tasks for each day can make you feel anxious and reluctant to leave the house. Your energy is running out, and you haven’t even begun to get things done yet.
Planning ahead helps you allocate the right amount of time for each task and make sure you don’t forget anything. But too much forethought robs you of flexibility and forces you to live in the future instead of the present.
Dr. Tyson Lippe, MD, Austin, TX | Psychiatrist
How to solve the problem
Use planning only in certain areas of life: for work tasks, important meetings or family celebrations, doctor’s appointments. The rest of the time, try not to burden yourself with unnecessary chores.
“Allocating free time for hobbies, vacations, or even doing nothing helps you feel like a free person in control of your life.” – Tyson Lippe points out.
5. Opening too many windows in the browser
The huge number of tabs overstretches not only the computer but also the brain.
Switching from one tab to another creates the illusion that you are doing an incredible amount of work. In reality, you’re not fully engaged in any of the tasks, so you can’t be truly effective.
Rena Mafi | Neurologist
How to fix the problem
Regularly monitor what you open in your browser. Ask yourself if you need that tab right now and if so, why. Any page that isn’t work-related can be added to your reading list or closed – it’s probably just a distraction.
6. Answering incoming calls immediately
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have proven that it takes us more than 20 minutes to regain concentration after any distraction. And phone conversations definitely fall into that category.
Calls can take a lot of energy. Not only does your nervous system have to switch to another task, but you also have to “process” a conversation where you can’t see the body language and facial expressions of the person you’re talking to. And this puts extra strain on the brain.
Rena Mafi | Neurologist
How to fix the problem
Before you press the green “Accept Call” button, stop and think about whether it’s a good time to interrupt what you’re doing and whether you’re ready for a conversation at that moment.
Rena Mafi advises asking coworkers, family and friends to send you a “pre-emptive” message before the call. This gives you extra time to figure out if you want to talk or not, and saves you from thinking that you now have to rush to find a free minute in the midst of work or home.
7. Leaving tasks halfway through
You are probably familiar with this situation: today you have a lot of things to do, you have almost finished one of them, but suddenly something more urgent appeared. As a result, the original work had to be postponed for later and you had to plunge headlong into the new task. But that’s not how the brain works. A small part of your attention is involuntarily “put aside” along with the unfinished task.
When your attention “splits”, your brain starts working twice as hard. It thinks not only about the new task, but also about the one you had to temporarily abandon.
Rena Mafi | Neurologist
The more often this happens, the more resources the brain wastes. No wonder we feel tired long before the end of the day.
How to fix the problem
Unfortunately, there’s no way to protect yourself from new errands, but there are a couple of tricks to help your brain deal with them more efficiently.
Rena Mafi suggests working with the settings on your phone or computer and regularly checking for new messages only when you really have the chance to do so.
You can also set aside more time for a task than you need. That way, even when new things come up, you can finish previous errands on time and only then deal with the next one.
If these tactics don’t work, try sketching out a plan of what needs to be completed in the previous task when you can get back to it. This will save you a lot of thinking, because you’ll already have a strategy for what to do next and you’ll be able to tackle the assignment much faster.
8. Slouching
Poor posture puts extra strain on muscles, joints and tendons. As a result, the body needs more energy, leading to fatigue.
How to solve the problem
If it is difficult to maintain the ideal posture on your own, use special tools: a comfortable office chair with a suitable backrest, an orthopedic pillow or even a corrective corset.
9. Not breathing correctly
This is most often the case when your head is clogged with many thoughts and problems. Shallow breathing reduces the amount of oxygen entering the body – and therefore the blood, organs and cells. This can trigger connections in the brain that lead to fatigue.
How to fix the problem
Every time you feel stress kicking in, take a few deep breaths in and out. It’s best not to wait for your morale to deplete and do breathing exercises during work breaks and at the beginning and end of the day.
Try diaphragmatic breathing. Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen. Breathe in through your nose while bulging your belly and keeping your rib cage still. Exhale through slightly compressed lips, tense the abs and let them return to the starting position.
10. Leaving small tasks for later
Replying to a text message, changing a burned-out light bulb, taking your pet to the vet – gradually all these small tasks turn into a huge list that makes your head spin. And even the simplest tasks seem impossible simply because of their number.
Constant thoughts like “I need to get this done already” can cause guilt and even anxiety.
How to solve a problem
Ideally, any task that takes less than five minutes should be done right away. If this is not possible, it is better not to rely on your memory, but to write down everything that needs to be done. This will help you feel more relaxed, because you will definitely not forget about it and will deal with the issue as soon as there is time.
You can allocate 30 to 60 minutes a week to work with such lists. This will replace the guilt with a feeling of productivity.
11. Keeping the lights on at night
Bright light during the dark hours of the day makes our brain think that the day is still going on. This inhibits the production of the sleep hormone melatonin and leads to insomnia and fatigue.
How to fix the problem
Try to reduce the brightness after sunset and turn the lights off completely at night. Try using warmer colors for lighting, closer to the red spectrum. It doesn’t affect the sleep cycle as negatively as others.
12. To follow other people's advice
Family and friends can advise you on the path of development, but their recommendations should always be adapted to your own goals and personality. Otherwise, you risk becoming a puppet for the realization of other people’s desires.
Blindly following the advice of others takes time and energy, and also leads to disappointment and even rejection of yourself or the situation.
How to solve the problem
Approach recommendations critically. Consider whether they will help you and how your life will change if you follow them.
For example, the popular claim that working with a laptop in bed is bad for your health doesn’t take into account the needs of people with chronic back pain or severe cases of anxiety. In their situation, this solution is much better than the standard trek to the office or sitting at a desk for hours on end.
Analyze the advice you receive, and if you do decide to follow it, don’t forget that you should implement other people’s recommendations into your life in your own way.