There’s that dreaded sound again, your alarm clock.
It means that your time to recharge is over, but you still feel exhausted.
You can hit the snooze, but you can’t sleep in today.
You ask yourself, ” If I slept eight hours, why is my energy so low?”
Not only are you tired during the day, but when you come home, you’re too tired to do what you want.
This article will teach you how to have more energy during the day, at work/school, and in the evening. These energy-boosting tips cover what to eat when to sleep, and how to plan your day.
Best of all, you won’t have a crash, and your energy will increase over time.
How to Have More Energy In the Morning
The best way to wake up full of energy is to get quality sleep. But you can still boost your energy naturally and instantly throughout the day.
1. Sleep at The Best Time
Why am I so tired even after lots of sleep?
Experts recommend getting between seven and nine hours of sleep, but not all sleep time is the same.
Your body cleanses itself and releases healing hormones between 10 PM and 2 AM. But if you are still awake at this time, these hormones give you energy at the wrong time. Then In the morning, you wake up tired and unmotivated, no matter how long you sleep.
For example:
Research shows that poor sleep quality can leave you mentally and physically exhausted and emotionally drained.
Action Plan:
- Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day. Your body will give you energy at the same time every morning.
- Stop using screens (phone, computer, TV) at least an hour before bed. The blue light from screens disrupts your natural body clock. It is also linked to poor sleep quantity, quality, and daytime sleepiness.
- Read a real paper book or journal before bed. Fiction books free your mind from thinking about your problems of the day. And writing your thoughts in a journal frees them from your mind.
- Practice mindfulness meditation to calm your mind. Meditation helps relieve stress, which can keep you awake.
- Remember your values when you are tempted to stay up late to work or watch TV. Is this activity better for me than the benefits of getting to bed by 10 PM?
Try these 35 sleep remedies in How to Fall Asleep Instantly | 35 Natural Sleep Aids and Remedies
2. Plan Your Day to Minimize Stress
Stress from overload is one of the largest energy drains.
But you can get more done with less time and energy with proper planning.
Before you start your work, make a list of your priorities for the day. If you feel overwhelmed with too many things to do, focus on one thing. No multitasking.
Your brain expects large tasks to require tons of energy. If you have a paper to write or a project to finish, you procrastinate because saving energy is a survival mechanism. You feel exhausted before even starting.
But you can trick your brain into giving you willpower by chunking large tasks.
For example:
Set a timer and work on your most important task for twenty minutes.
Your brain will perceive 20 minutes as less painful and motivate you to start. Best of all, 20 minutes is long enough to get in the flow. In the flow, you are in the moment. You lose track of time. You have momentum, and energy seems unlimited.
Most time and energy are lost in switching tasks because you lose momentum.
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Use a little energy to get your task going and take advantage of the momentum.
~Newton’s First Law.
Action Plan
- Focus on one task at a time and take advantage of the momentum.
- Take breaks when you’re tired, and fulfill your obligations, but don’t move on until it’s finished. If all you accomplished today is your most important task, then today is a success.
- Make a daily checklist to ensure that you take care of all your responsibilities in all areas of your life. Unresolved health, financial, and family problems can be an energy drain.
- Turn off your phone or notifications. And schedule a time for checking email and returning calls.
Plan Energy Recharging Activities
Plan for exercise, reading/learning. saving and investing, eating something healthy, and doing something fun.
Exercise and healthy food will give you long-term energy, and anticipation of excitement will inspire you. Reading and learning help you become more efficient with your time and energy. Money helps you delegate energy-draining tasks and minimize financial stress.
Action Plan:
- Plan relaxing activities between stressful tasks
3. Take A Cold Shower
A cold shower can give you energy faster than anything else.
Start your day with a cold shower if you want to wake up instantly. The shock to your system activates your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and increases endorphins and noradrenaline.
Endorphins lower pain perception and promote positive feelings like morphine or a “runner’s high.”
Noradrenalin prepares your body for instant action.
Unlike caffeine, cold showers give you energy every time and won’t keep you up at night. Instead, exposure to the cold will improve your sleep quality.
Action plan:
- Take a cold shower first thing in the morning to wake up instantly. Or, take one when you need a burst of energy.
Learn more about the health benefits of cold showers in 9 Cold Shower Benefits for Weight Loss.
4. Drink Water At The Right Times
Does water increase energy levels?
Think about the energy of a roaring river compared to a stagnant creek.
You are mostly water. When you drink water, it circulates nutrients through your bloodstream and flushes out toxins. When you are hydrated, you have the energy of a roaring river.
During the day, you lose water through urine, sweat, and breathing. And when you sleep, your body cleanses itself and flushes out toxins.
When dehydrated, your energy flow becomes stagnant like a slow-moving creek. Dehydration can affect your brain and mood and drain your energy.
So how much water should you drink daily to keep the river flowing?
Generally, you should drink about one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. But you may need more if you are in a dry climate, stressed, or exercising.
The best times to drink water are upon awakening, between meals, and after exercise.
Action Plan:
- Drink one to two glasses of water in the morning, especially before you eat or drink coffee.
- Drink water between meals, at least a half-hour before meals
Learn more about the health benefits of water in How Much Water Should I Drink A Day? | 17 Benefits
5. Eat This Breakfast At This Time Every Day
Your breakfast will determine your energy for the rest of the day.
The best breakfast combines natural carbs, lean protein, and healthy fat. Carbs give you quick energy, and protein and fat take longer to digest.
Choose carbs with a low glycemic index and a good amount of fiber. For example, berries have carbs, fiber, and a low glycemic index.
Vegan protein is the best protein for energy because it comes with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and minerals. If you don’t get these nutrients at breakfast, you will feel tired and hungry all day. You can also eat animal protein such as eggs, but don’t forget to add some fruits or vegetables.
You can get healthy fats from seeds, nuts, avocados, and eggs. Seeds and nuts such as chia seeds, almonds, and walnuts are also excellent sources of fiber and minerals.
What happens if you skip breakfast?
One study found that medical students who skipped breakfast or ate irregular meals were more likely to feel fatigued.
Your body expects to eat breakfast at a certain time. If you want all-day energy, don’t make it wait.
A recipe for all-day energy: wake up at the same time, eat breakfast at the same time, eat lunch at the same time, and go to bed at the same time.
Action plan:
- Eat a healthy breakfast, including unrefined carbs, healthy fats, and lean protein
- Eat breakfast at the same time every day
Further Reading: 17 Best Vegan Protein Sources For Weightloss
6. Save Caffeine For Your Secret Weapon
In the short term, caffeine can give you energy and increase alertness.
But why does caffeine decrease your energy over the long run?
Your body adapts.
Your brain becomes dependent, expecting a regular dose of caffeine. If this expectation is not met, you experience withdrawal symptoms, including headache, fatigue, nausea, and trouble concentrating.
You’ll need higher and higher doses of caffeine to get the same effect. But when you don’t, you will feel more tired.
Research shows that the best time to drink coffee is around 9:00 AM. At this time, your cortisol levels, a hormone that helps regulate energy balance, are at their highest.
Caffeine can keep you up late if you use it later in the day. And you will feel tired the next day and need more caffeine.
But used sparingly, caffeine can be your secret weapon.
Action plan:
- Save caffeine for when you need it most, like meeting a deadline.
- Use caffeine early in the day from coffee or tea, but avoid energy drinks.
How to Have More Energy During the Day
Your body has an almost unlimited supply of energy. But it’s efficient because its primary concern is survival. It will give you the energy you need depending on what you ask. If you sit all day, you will not get more energy until you start moving. Or if you never take a rest, your body will make you feel exhausted until you rest or crash.
7. Take Exercise Breaks
If you have to spend energy on exercise, how can exercise give you more energy?
Your body is efficient. It will give you little energy if it expects you to be sedentary. If you start moving, not only will it give you what you need, but it will also increase your capacity for the next time.
Exercise gives you energy in three main ways.
- Exercise helps circulate oxygen-rich blood and nutrients to your muscles. Think of the energy of the flowing river.
- When you exercise, your body produces more mitochondria in your muscles to help you continue the activity.
- Exercise causes your body to release epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones give you energy, promote positive feelings, and lower your pain perception. Otherwise known as the “runner’s high.”
A quick exercise is enough to give you energy. For example, an experiment conducted by Robert Thayer, Ph.D., at California State University, found that a brisk 10-minute walk increased energy for up to two hours.
Brief exercises that don’t require special equipment include:
- Walking
- Squats
- Jumping
- Burpees
- Yoga or Tai chi
Action Plan:
- Set the alarm to remind you to move every 30 minutes, even if it is brief.
- Walk around or do a quick exercise. If you can’t stand up where you are, peddle your legs like you are riding a bike or pretend you are climbing a ladder.
8. Avoid These Energy-Draining Habits
Smoking
Not only does smoking rob you of your health, but it also steals your energy.
First, the toxins in cigarettes reduce your lung efficiency and capacity. Because your body is trying to protect you from these toxins, it forms a barrier. Unfortunately, this reduces oxygen absorption and slows the amount of oxygen and nutrients transported throughout your body.
Second, the tobacco in cigarettes is a stimulant. Stimulants speed up your heart rate, raise blood pressure, and make it harder to fall asleep.
Alcohol
Alcohol is the worst of both worlds for energy.
First, alcohol acts as a sedative, making you feel tired.
Secondly, alcohol can disrupt your sleep quality. Even though some people use alcohol to help them fall asleep, they wake up more tired than if they didn’t drink and got less sleep.
Lastly, alcohol is also a diuretic, meaning that drinking before bed will make you have to pee more than normal.
Action plan:
- Decide if smoking is worth your health and energy and commit to reducing or quitting altogether.
- Drink responsibly and save drinking alcohol for special occasions.
- Find healthy activities or hobbies to replace the bad habits that keep you feeling tired.
Further Reading: How To Lower Blood Pressure | 21 Natural Remedies
9. Take a Micro Nap
A twenty-minute nap can help prevent you from feeling sleepy all afternoon.
The best time to nap is mid-afternoon when your sleep-wake cycle dips after lunch.
Sleeping in the daytime can confuse your internal clock, meaning you will have a harder time falling asleep at night.
For example:
One study found that napping for 30 minutes or less can improve daytime brain function, while longer naps can negatively affect health and sleep quality.
Planning a nap allows your brain to prepare, making it easier to fall asleep. Even micro naps as short as a couple of minutes are refreshing. Sometimes that’s all you need.
Action plan
- Plan to take a 20 to 30-minute nap in the afternoon if you are tired.
10. Write This In your Journal Every Night
What affects energy is different for everyone. Pretend you’re a detective, and look for clues to find what makes you tired.
Write down what you ate, how much you exercised, when you woke up, and your activities. Also, look at what you did the day before.
How did you feel during the day? Were you tired or full of energy? Was your energy steady during the day, or did you peak and crash?
After a few weeks, you will have a good idea of what gives you energy or makes you tired.
Make a list of your energy-draining activities and energy-restoring activities. You will not find these on Google. They are unique to you. Go over them with your medical provider to get a better picture of your health.
Plan your day based on your results.
Action Plan:
- Make a list of your relaxing activities and stressful activities
- Schedule relaxing activities between stressful activities
How to Get More Energy Fast
These tips will give you instant and lasting energy. Best of all, you can do most of them for free anywhere or anytime.
11. Catch Someone Else’s Energy
Energy is contagious.
Humans tend to match the mood and energy levels of those around us. Positive people are full of energy, while negative people are like energy black holes.
Send out an energy boomerang.
What you give comes back to you and in abundance. You can give energy with a smile, a sincere compliment, or a gift. You will attract positive people who share their energy.
When you are negative, you are an energy drain. You will attract negative people who steal your energy.
But you can break the cycle. People instinctively match your mood or energy or avoid you. Be positive, and you will attract positive people. Negative people will either catch your positivity or avoid you.
Seek the master of positivity and energy, a dog. A dog’s energy and unconditional love will recharge you instantly.
Action Plan
- Choose to be positive, and you will attract positive energy.
- Play with a dog
Read about the power of positivity in 1,000+ Positive Words to Write the Life You Want
12. Let Go Of Your Energy Anchors
What you hate owns you, your attention, energy, and thoughts.
Holding on to a grudge does nothing to the other person. It only harms you. If you want to get even with your enemies, forgive them, they will lose their power over you. Forgive, let go, and move on; you will get your energy back from the past.
In the video, learn how participants who participated in a simple 2-minute forgiveness exercise had more energy, could jump higher, and exercise longer.
Worrying wastes your energy on a future that hasn’t been written yet. Most of what people worry about never happens or isn’t as bad as they think.
Keep your energy focused on today. All that exists right now is in this moment, the past is gone, and the future is uncertain. You can’t change the past, but you will have more energy in the future, depending on what you do today.
Your brain uses up to half your energy. Save your energy for the good that you can do right now.
Action Plan
- Forgive, let go, and move on
- Read Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
13. Eat Energy Foods that Won’t Make You Crash
The best energy foods give you a slow and steady flow of energy.
Your body needs carbohydrates for energy throughout the day. Low glycemic index foods have carbohydrates that digest more slowly. But high glycemic foods have carbohydrates that digest quickly.
Low glycemic index foods are like a steady breeze that spins a windmill. Its energy is used all day efficiently without too many energy outages.
Meanwhile, high glycemic index foods are like windstorms. High winds provide a surge of energy. But the energy generated by the wind is more than can be used at the time, and the rest is sometimes destructive. And between storms, the windmill doesn’t provide enough energy.
When you eat, your body releases insulin to escort glucose (sugar) to your cells. Like a windstorm, the energy from high glycemic foods gets wasted in a brief spike of energy. Your body responds with more insulin, leaving you with less glucose than before you ate.
Low glycemic foods (GI of 55 or less) consist of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, low-processed grains, and low-fat dairy products. These foods will give you steady energy without the crash.
High glycemic foods (GI of 70 or higher) consist of processed grains such as white bread or rice, breakfast cereals, potatoes, and added sugars. These foods will give you a burst of energy followed by a crash.
Processed foods generally have a high glycemic index and high amounts of sugar, fat, and chemicals. but they also lack nutrients. These ingredients may give you a short boost but leave you more tired than before.
Whole foods generally have a low glycemic index and are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. These foods help prevent nutrient deficiencies that always leave you tired.
The sugar in fruit is fine for energy as long as it is a whole food. Fruit juice lacks fiber and is high in sugar. And the sugar from fruits in smoothies absorbs faster. Berries are the only fruits that remain low glycemic index foods when blended.
Action plan:
- Eat low glycemic index foods for lasting energy and nutrients.
- Avoid high glycemic foods that crash your energy.
How to Have More Energy At Work
If you want more energy at work, it will help to wake up earlier and do the following.
- Wake up two hours before work
- Drink two glasses of water a half-hour before eating
- Eat a breakfast of healthy carbs, protein, and fats
- Plan the day for success
- Practice good posture and deep breathing
- Exercise
- Get some sunlight
- Go to bed early
To stay energized at work, consider the following:
- Leave your home life and worries at home
- Start and finish your most important task first. Get in the flow
- Declutter your workspace
- Take quick exercise and water breaks
- Eat a lunch of low glycemic foods
- Keep low-glycemic snacks handy
- Take a short walk after lunch
- Save caffeine for important deadlines
- Get around positive people
How to Have More Energy After Work
You’ve made it through the morning and the workday. Now it’s your time. One of the best ways to have energy after work is to have something to look forward to all day.
- Leave your work at work.
- Plan to make a delicious healthy dinner
- Stay active, walk after dinner
- Work on a side business or hobby
- Read a fiction book
- Have a work curfew, stop working after a certain time to do something you enjoy
How to Have More Energy In College or School
Most people lack energy in college because they are not taking it one day at a time. Having more energy in school is easier if you follow these principles:
- Wake up two hours before class
- Study a little every day
- Sit up straight
- Participate in class and take efficient notes
- Take walks between classes
- Bring a water bottle to class
- Review your notes from the day
- Eat low-glycemic foods
- Stop wasting time and energy on social media
- Take quick study breaks every twenty minutes to move
- Get to bed by 10 PM
How to have more energy during a workout
The anticipation of feeling tired causes your brain to make you avoid it. You can have more energy during a workout with the following steps:
- Plan to go for 15 minutes (your brain accepts this short time, but when you start working out, you will get more energy)
- Warm-up and stretch
- Take water breaks
- Listen to energizing music
- Get an energetic workout buddy or accountability partner
- Track your progress
- Work with a personal trainer who encourages you and praises improvements
- Stop working out when you are exhausted, and take a day off if you need it
How to Have More Energy At Night
What if you work the night shift, have a deadline, or plan a night out? Your body will give you energy at night if you need it if you plan it right.
- Take a long afternoon nap.
- Stay in the light, either sunlight or artificial.
- Take a cold shower or splash cold water on your face
- Keep moving
- Eat a late low glycemic index snack
- Drink coffee late if you are still sleepy
9 Things That Leave You Emotionally Drained
- Getting to bed after 10 PM
- Eating high-glycemic foods
- Negative people
- Not forgiving or letting go
- Not drinking enough water
- Not moving enough
- Not planning your day
- Abusing caffeine
- Not having a big enough goal or purpose
How Will You Recharge Your Energy?
When you woke up this morning, the last thing you wanted was to get out of bed and face the day.
But today, you’ve learned habits that will give you all-day energy.
Everyone has the same amount of time but not the same amount of energy. Master your energy, and you will have an unfair advantage.
Having more energy will motivate you to not only get through the day but also to make progress on your goals.
What will you do to increase your energy?
