Habits play a key role in our daily lives, shaping behavior and having a significant impact on overall well-being and energy levels. Good habits, such as regular exercise, a healthy diet, and adequate sleep, help increase productivity and improve mood. However, not all habits are equally beneficial — some of them can quietly steal our energy, making us feel tired and unproductive. In this article, we will discuss them in more detail.
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What habits take away energy?
#1 Lack of sleep
Lack of sleep is one of the main causes of fatigue. Regular violation of the regime reduces concentration and worsens overall health.
What should I do?
The optimal length of sleep may vary depending on age and individual needs, but on average, the following amounts of sleep are recommended:
Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours per day
Schoolchildren (6-13 years): 9-11 hours a day
Teenagers (14-17 years): 8-10 hours a day
Adults (over 18 years): 7-9 hours per night
These recommendations can serve as a guide, but it is important to take into account the individual characteristics of the body. Quality sleep improves mood, increases concentration and strengthens the immune system.
#2 Constant use of gadgets
If you don't part with your smartphone, especially before going to bed, this can have a negative impact not only on your productivity, but also on your overall well-being.
What should I do?
Using gadgets properly requires balance and awareness. When using devices, it is important to set time limits to avoid fatigue and reduced concentration. Regular breaks help your eyes rest and reduce the risk of digital stress. Using gadgets in well-lit rooms and at a comfortable distance from the eyes also helps maintain health. Try to use gadgets for productive tasks and learning, not for fun.
№3 Malnutrition
Eating high amounts of sugar and high-fat foods can cause energy levels to spike, making you feel instantly tired after an initial rise.
What should I do?
Good nutrition is key to maintaining health and energy. A healthy diet is based on a variety of foods that include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and healthy fats. Eating small meals regularly helps maintain a stable energy level and prevents overeating.
#4 Physical inactivity
A sedentary lifestyle reduces energy levels, while regular exercise helps keep energy levels high.
What should I do?
Do physical activity! Exercising regularly helps improve mood, increase energy levels and strengthen the immune system. The main thing is to choose activities that bring you pleasure and correspond to your level of physical fitness.
#5 Perfectionism
Striving for perfection can be stressful and exhausted due to eternal dissatisfaction with the results of efforts.
What should I do?
Don't demand too much from yourself and compare yourself only to yesterday's self! Accept faults and recognize that the ideal is unattainable. Try to focus on the process, not just on the result, and value every step towards the goal. Practicing gratitude for what you have achieved, as well as realizing your success, will help reduce pressure.
#6 No breaks
Continuous work without rest leads to brain overload and reduced productivity.
What should I do?
Use techniques that help you concentrate to spend working hours most productively. For example, you might like the famous Pomodoro technique.
#7 Negative thinking
Constant worries and negative thoughts can take a lot of energy, worsening the emotional state.
What should I do?
Practice positive thinking and keep a gratitude journal. These methods help you look at life from a different angle and learn to notice more good and joyful things in it.
#8 Water shortage
Dehydration can lead to fatigue and cognitive decline. It is important to maintain water balance in the body.
What should I do?
Don't forget the importance of hydration: drinking enough water is essential for the normal functioning of all body systems.
#9 Watching emotional series and shows
Watching TV shows, we identify ourselves with the main characters, and often we cry with them. It would seem that there is nothing wrong with that, but an overabundance of emotions causes constant nervous overexcitation and mental exhaustion.
What should I do?
Choose content to watch consciously. Instead of a whiny soap opera, you can watch a high-quality comedy or an interesting documentary.
#10 Workplace disorder
Excessive things in the zone of active attention and concentration during the work process reduce focus and lead to rapid fatigue.
What should I do?
Get rid of the excess and put everything you need later in the drawer. Do not be lazy to clean the workplace regularly.
#11 Having too much to do
When there are too many plans in the diary, we feel anxious and lose energy before we even start the first task.
What should I do?
Set achievable goals. Remember that many tasks that look simple will eventually require more resources than meets the eye, so spend plenty of time.
#12 Open a bunch of tabs in the browser
Not only our computer, but also our brain does not like a lot of open tabs. Subconsciously, this is seen by him as a bunch of things that need to be done at the same time, and this makes him literally “smoke”!
What should I do?
Create a separate document and copy important links there that you don't want to lose.
#13. Respond to messages and calls right away
It is very difficult for the brain to switch between activities, and it spends a huge amount of energy on this! And if it seems to us that it is not difficult to reply to one small message in the messenger, it is not so at all.
What should I do?
Set aside separate time for calls and correspondence. It is better to do this in the afternoon.
#14. Don't finish it
We often start something but later, for some reason, put it off without finishing it and moving on to something else. At the same time, a tiny part of the brain continues to concentrate on the original task, trying to mentally complete it. This leads to a rapid consumption of energy.
What should I do?
Try to finish what you started, but if you can't, write down the unfinished steps in a separate notebook. This will help the brain “forget” about them for a while and quickly get back to them later.
#15. Putting off “little things” until later
Knowing that something won't take long, we often prefer to put it off until later. As a result of such “little things”, we accumulate a whole ton. And that already sounds scary!
What should I do?
Try to do small tasks right away. If it doesn't work out, writing everything down in a diary will help relieve the brain.
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