A healthy body allows you to cultivate a motivated mind. You can try all the visualization and planning techniques in the world, but if your body’s dopamine balance is out of whack then it’s going to be difficult to make serious changes in your life.
Luckily there are a few biological hacks you can use to make sure that your body is running like a well-oiled machine, allowing you to develop new mental habits much easier. And this is what you are going to discover in today’s post.
Most people never take care of their health and body seriously until they suffer chronic illness or when they fall sick.
If you are serious about being productive and staying motivated all the time, you need to keep your body healthy at all times.
I believe that getting motivated and staying productive is all about energy management. Everyone has 24 hours and no matter how well we learn to manage our time, we cannot have more.
Therefore, it all depends on how we use our time rather than how we can make more time for our work.
Think about it, if you are feeling tired and sleepy all the time, do you think you can perform better and do well in life and at work? Not at all.
It is better to have 2 hours of quality and energetic time to deliver great work than to have 5 hours of lousy time where you feel tired, sleepy and exhausted.
What you want is to produce great work. And with better energy level, you can perform better and deliver better results.
So here are a few ways how you leverage on your biological built to keep yourself energetic and motivated.
1. Exercise Regularly
Feeling like you lack energy can be a big inhibitor to personal success. What is the use of pushing yourself to be more motivated if you simply don’t have enough gas in the tank?
Taking up regular exercise is one of the best ways to boost your energy levels. Exercise can:
- Increase endorphin levels. These naturally produced hormones help your body to carry out tasks that require a lot of energy.
- Improve your cardiovascular health, which stops you getting tired easily.
- Improve your sleep quality, which is vital for having enough energy throughout the day.
- Oxygenate and stimulate your blood flow. This gives you energy and a sense of aliveness in life.
- Besides that, exercise also helps in reducing stress and makes you happy.
When you read the book, What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, written by Laura Vanderkam, you will find out that most extraordinary people spend their morning time exercise.
Successful people such as PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, etc, spend their morning time for exercise; don’t you think you should do so as well?
2. Use Coffee as a Nootropic
A nootropic is a substance which is used to increase cognitive function in healthy individuals – improving their performance in tasks which require memory, creativity, and motivation.
Coffee is the world’s oldest nootropic and has been used to boost energy levels for hundreds of years.
It is so effective as an energy booster that Navy SEALS use it to improve their performance when undergoing training that involves sleep deprivation.
Even when I’m writing this article right now, I’m actually drinking a cup of coffee at Papparich, a local coffee house in Malaysia. And there is also a Starbucks just opposite where I am right now.
A recent study conducted by Couponbox showed that the price of a Starbuck’s coffee can vary widely depending on where you live, so if you’re lucky enough to live in the Netherlands where a cappuccino is only $3.65 then this could be a cost-effective way to boost your motivation.
Sometimes, I would prefer to get out of my house and work outside at a quite coffee shop. The coffee is nice and the environment can boost my motivation to work better.
Do you know that white noise or the background noise can improve your productivity? Furthermore, if the environment is good, you will be able to get more productive work done than staying at your home office.
Change your environment once a while to discover what works the best for you.
3. Take Breaks
When working on a task it can be tempting to try and bust out a marathon session to complete whatever work you have to do.
However, many people might benefit from breaking their work into smaller chunks and taking regular breaks in order to stay motivated.
The famous Pomodoro Technique advocates breaking your work day into 25 minute chunks with 5 minute breaks in between, with longer breaks every 2 hours. The logic behind this is to take 25 minute ‘sprints’ and focus yourself completely on your work, taking the time to unwind during the breaks.
If you have difficulty staying motivated for long periods of time, try out this method and see if it makes a difference in your productivity levels.
We need willpower, motivation, and energy to operate and function properly in life. Our energy and willpower level is just like our mobile phone battery bar.
In the morning, our energy and willpower are fully charged. We have higher motivation and are more productive. However, as we go through our day, we use our willpower and energy.
And for most people, they might feel sleepy and find it difficult to concentrate in the afternoon. This is because they have consumed most of their willpower and energy.
Thus, we need to recharge and replenish our energy – through taking breaks and rests.
This is why the Pomodoro technique can be effective if you use it correctly. It schedules breaks into your workday and allows you to recharge your energy and willpower to go further into your day.
4. Improve Your Diet
Just like a lack of exercise, a poor diet can leave you feeling lethargic and unmotivated.
Whilst sugar can give you a quick rush of energy, it apparently drains your energy levels on the long-term. Eating a big breakfast is a good idea as it gives your body fuel to be productive throughout the day.
And don’t try to skip breakfast. No matter how busy you are, try to grab something to eat.
Breakfast is considered the most important meal of your day because your body has gone through fasting throughout the night when you sleep. And when you wake up in the morning, usually, your body has already digested all the food in your stomach.
Thus, you will feel hungry and if you skip your breakfast, you will have hard times focusing on your work at hand.
Try to eat more nutritious food. Take in more greens and eat more fruits. Try to avoid oily and heavy meals, especially in the afternoon and at night.
Studies suggested that it is better to eat a smaller portion, but more often.
When you take in too much of food at the same time, it will be difficult for your body to digest the food. And when your stomach has to do extra work, it makes you feel sleepy because you use most of your energy in digesting the food.
Conclusion
Try out these tips and see if your productivity levels and general mood improve.
Make it a commitment to exercise daily. You don’t have to spend an hour for it every day, just do a 15 or 30 minutes workout session. The key here is being consistent. So commit to exercising each day.
And remember to take breaks and get plenty of rest. If you want to perform and deliver outstanding work, you must make sure you have enough rest. Get at least 7 hours of sleep each day.
I hope that you have benefitted from reading this article here today. If you like what you read, kindly share it with others too.