Chi or energy can be influenced in so many ways that it just takes a more conscious life- style to get more energy for your work day in many cases. Of course the more you think about it the more you want to improve your health and boost your energy.
Here are more than 50 ways to get more energy for your work day. Some are easier than you think while others take some time and effort but in the end just a few of these will help you to get more productive and happy at the same time.
Sleeping and Getting Up
Get up early and go to sleep early Your body notices when it’s already daylight outside and the quality of your sleep deteriorates. Also the best sleeping hours are around 10 – 12PM.
Switch off all your electronic devices for the night It takes energy to deal with all the radiation they emit. During the night you are even more vulnerable.
Don’t start and end your day with media like TV or computer Focusing on the screen is very energy intensive. In the morning you don’t have all of your energy yet available and you waste the little you have.
Stretch and exercise in the morning Movement requires energy but once you move your bodily functions get enhanced and thus you gain energy from within.
Eat a warm breakfast, porridge for instance It takes a lot of energy to digest food especially in the morning when your intestines are still half asleep. Eat something warm and easily digestible to get more energy and waste less on „heating it“ internally to „burn“ the calories.
Media consumption
Read books, at least a few pages each day Books, real books on paper, other than on screen media or even newspapers help you to focus and stay focused. Other media types offer so many distractions that your mind ends up jumping frantically from one thing to the next. Guess what is more exhausting?
Don’t read the news before work It seems that news organizations are earning money by amplifying the worst news. All the crimes, disasters and other depressing news are too much for most of us. Start the day with them and you’ll be depressed by noon.
Read only industry news in the morning There is an inherent need in us to know what’s going on though. You can read industry news instead or at least local news and you’ll feel informed as well but without feeling like a wretch.
Read self improvement blogs Read self improvement blogs like Zen Habits, Positivity Blog, Think Simple Now. They are a great source of inspiration in the morning and will empower you in many cases.
Check Facebook, Twitter and mails once in the morning and then switch them off Otherwise you’ll end up checking for new messages and updates all the time. Also the more you reply the quicker you get more responses. A the end of the day you will be very tired without having accomplished anything real. Smalltalk is better at parties.
Be choosy about what you consume No single person can consume all the information it gets served throughout the day. You got to minimize the sheer number of messages you receive and protect yourself from the onslaught of information. Get rid of your TV set or at least switch it off.
Listen to energizing music Music can elevate our minds and make our hearts rejoice. It’s also a source of energy in the less strict sense. Listening to the kind of music that fits your mood can make the difference. Stereomood is a tool that simplifies the process of finding it significantly.
Use a big but not too big display without reflections Mind your eyes. Too small, dark or reflective screens will make them hurt in the evening or the long run.
Eating and Drinking Habits
Don’t eat in the evening or at night Otherwise the food waits all night inside your stomach, degenerates and the toxins in it make you feel bad. Then in the morning you need all your energy to digest it finally.
Avoid milk and sugar Both cow milk and sugar, especially white sugar make you feel weary and dizzy. Save energy by substituting them with rice milk or honey.
Eat often but not a lot at once Instead of eating a huge meal for lunch consider eating several smaller meals. Even a sandwich or fruit counts as a meal but eat warm as well, so at least a soup should be included in your daily diet. Eating a lot at once means a lot of work for your body.
Leave the office by foot to eat out or take walk afterwards Make sure to move using your muscles and getting some fresh air at least once daily. Going to the cafeteria is not enough but a good start. Getting pizza to your desk is a recipe for obesity and low energy levels.
Eat warm cooked food at least once daily Many people in the West assume that eating salads or raw food is healthy. It’s not. You need a huge amount of energy to split it up and to burn those calories. You wouldn’t eat raw meat either would you?
Avoid deep frozen foods Deep frozen foods, even those that have been warmed up are still “cold” inside. So your body needs to warm them up. In the end you often need more energy to digest it than you get from it.
Avoid microwave foods Microwave foods are even worse than frozen foods. The microwave heats food by accelerating the electrons so that they fall out of their place. In the end the food has been destroyed on a molecular level and is worthless from the standpoint of Chinese medicine and Chi.
Avoid caffeine as in coffee, cola or energy drinks Caffeine does not provide energy it just makes your body use up energy that was saved for later. So you end up having less energy in the future or even at the same day. The caffeine you consume the more you will “need” of it as you use up the credit you have in your energy bank.
Eat fruits and vegetables seasonally (no oranges in winter) Some fruits an vegetables are “cold” while others are “warm”. It means that they cool your body or not. Eating oranges in winter does exactly that, cool you down from within even though it’s cold already outside. Few people eat ice in winter. Oranges and the likes are almost as bad.
Drink water (not soft drinks) throughout a day Cola is not only bad because of the caffeine, it’s also the sugar an other ingredients that effectively not only cost you energy but also make you more thirsty. Drink tap water instead, it’s healthier than bottled water and soft drinks in most places.
Purify your water (so called reverse osmosis is best) Tap water is the best thing you can drink, it’s cheap, healthy and has much less impact on the environment. Still it can get even better when you use a filter. Reverse Osmosis filters can even purify your water down to the energy level of the water molecules.
Avoid alcohol, when drinking it drink water additionally Alcoholic beverages don’t actually quell your thirst. They make your body even more thirsty. You can even dehydrate due to consuming too much alcohol. So at least drink a glass of water after each beer to compensate the water you lost.
Activities
Take a shower in the morning While taking a bath might actually drain your energy taking a shower revives.
Ride a bike to work Cycling daily to work sounds might seem a bit hard to accomplish to some but it actually reduces the risk of obesity and heart disease like no other sport so that in the long run you gain more energy than you spend.
Play with children and/or pets It’s not an accident that cats and dogs are some of the most popular topics on the Web. They are not only entertaining, they often have more energy than we have and it’s contagious. Just watching them. Playing, even more so with kids, is even better.
Take a walk outside in the park at least once daily We knew all along but recently scientists have proven that taking a walk once daily is actually good for you. Also walking in the park or woods is better than doing it on a busy street. You can recharge your batteries walking.
Stand up from your desk at least every two hours At least stand up and move around in the office every two hours, even getting yourself something to drink might suffice to make your blood flow faster again.
Work
Focus on one task at a time, don’t multitask Scientists have proven it: multitasking is the worst thing you can do to productivity, it takes you longer to perform actual tasks and the quality of work is worse without focus. Did I mention that multitasking is stressing you out while focusing does not?
Sort and answer emails once daily, preferably at the end of your work-day Reading emails in the morning is like reading bad news but even more frustrating. You also have to run errands and complete lots of menial tasks then. Your day is ruined right from the start. Read your emails at the end of the day and insert the tasks into your todo list for the next day. Don’t get caught up in a “call and response” series of sending email back and forth.
Do creative work first Instead of wasting your time on email start the day with creative work as long as you have enough energy to actually be creative. The menial tasks and errands can wait until you are too tired to be creative.
Do interesting stuff not just the urgent things or those that make money Urgent and important tasks are not the same. Urgency is often induced by outer forces while you assign importance yourself in many cases. What’s really important to you?
Do the administrative work in one large chunk, don’t spread it throughout a day Like email checking many other tasks have to be done but they distract you from the really important work. The best thing to do is doing these all at once during a separate time- frame. Otherwise you end having an energy leak throughout the day.
Finish your work at a set time each day Some people assume that working long hours and staying late in the office is a good sign. It’s nonsense though: when you’re tired after 8 or more work hours you break more than you get done actually. You can do the same work (without messing it up) in half the time the next day. When you stay late you won’t have the energy on the next day either as you don’t have enough time to relax then.
Use a flexible office chair and change your siting position frequently The human body is not made to sit all day. In fact it’s very unhealthy and it also reduces the amount of energy that flows through your body. Even without taking energy into account you’ll notice that your back and joints will hurt after siting for a few hours. Make sure your chair is flexible enough that you can move in it and change your position frequently.
Chat with your co-workers from time to time Humans are social creatures. Without seeing others and talking with them you start to feel isolated after a short while. A smile or a joke from a co-worker can boost your energy for hours.
Delegate as much as you can Some people want to do everything themselves, even things they are not good at. This is a waste of energy. Focus on the work you’re best at and delegate the other tasks to those who are good at them.
Declutter your workspace by removing everything that is unnecessary Searching for your pen, papers or icons and bookmarks is both a waste of time and energy. Tidy up your desktop, both the virtual and the real life one and you’ll be much more efficient.
Health
Go for a swim once a week Swimming is a sport that will make your muscles ache the first few times but from then one it will actually boost your energy like no other sport.
Get a massage A massage, especially one performed according to Chinese traditions will make your Chi move again. You get more energy and your body relaxes as well.
Practice Chi Gong and Tai Chi As the names already suggest both Chi Gong and Tai Chi aim to move and preserve your Chi.
Try acupressure, acupuncture or moxibustion (heating) of your meridians These three techniques known from TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) can all stimulate the meridians the needed for energy supply and movement in your body.
Practice Zen or other meditation Zen and other forms of meditation allow you to calm down, focus and regain strength. While Zen might be a bit rigid for some there are countless other meditation techniques.
Do some Yoga Yoga is not just a sport, it’s a holistic art of training your body and soul. It’s hard to explain the positive effects of Yoga on energy flows. You need to try it to understand.
Mindset
Smile – Smiling might be the most obvious thing to do but how often do you really smile at others? How often are you the first person to smile? It’s a huge change. Start smiling at people first and notice the change in their reactions.
Take risks Daily routine is important and saves time and energy but never taking risks actually makes you complacent and the energy wanes. Take calculable risks. Don’t cross a street with lots of traffic.
Break free from the routine While taking risks, even small ones is not something everybody is prepared to do, breaking free from the routine is far easier than that. Just take another route to work, or get up half an hour earlier to visit a cafe before work from time to time and you’ll notice quite a change.
Focus on solutions not problems Once a problem appears it doesn’t make sense to dwell on it. Make sure to move on and either tackle it or circumvent it. Only very few problems are bad enough to despair.
Do what you love not just what you get paid for Work that makes money is not always the most rewarding one. That’s why we still have children, poetry and charities. Don’t forget what’s really important while earning money.
Don’t react emotionally Learn from people, by honestly respecting them for their positive aspects and not repeating their mistakes
Try to be positive no matter the circumstances Most of us in the Western hemisphere are materially privileged yet we are even less happy than beggars in India. It’s not that our situation is worse it’s mostly how we perceive it. Be positive instead of complaining.
Always remember your goal What is your goal in life? Many people don’t even know. Those who do and who have chosen the right one for them have almost limitless amounts of energy to go after it when they remember it.