INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

Tip #1: Drink your water. So don’t wait until you get that thirsty feeling in your mouth. By that point you are already dehydrated, which can impair your physical and mental functioning. Don’t fool yourself into thinking any type of liquid counts toward your water intake. Liquids like coffee or cola dehydrate you.

Tip #2: Avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates. Sugar and simple carbohydrates get absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. In response, your blood sugar rises, and your body secretes insulin to bring your sugar level back down. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t know when you’ve stopped eating the candy, so it drops you down into a low blood sugar level by taking too much sugar out of your body. This is why people who rely on sugar for energy have highs and lows throughout the day. But candy isn’t the only culprit. Simple carbohydrates, such as a white bread sandwich and some dessert at lunchtime, can cause your blood sugar to drop after an hour or two. To avoid this, incorporate more proteins and complex carbohydrates into your diet. They won’t trigger blood sugar highs and lows, putting you more on an even keel.

Tip #3: Eat small meals. Have six small meals over the course of the day instead of three large ones. When you eat a big meal in one sitting, it overwhelms your body, causing it to work harder to digest the food. As a result, the digestive process diverts blood away from your brain and your extremities and uses it in the digestive track. With smaller meals, your body doesn’t have to work as hard.

Tip #4: Evaluate your lighting. Cool white fluorescent light tubes have a terrible effect on how people feel and function. A better option is full spectrum light, as these simulate the wavelength of sunlight. Studies have shown that full spectrum lighting provides many benefits: headaches disappear and afternoon fatigue declines, while productivity levels actually rise.

Tip #5: Take walking breaks. Walking gets your blood circulating, helps you breathe better, and stimulates your brain due to the increased blood flow. Take a five or ten minute walk during the day. Walking outside will give you the extra benefit of fresh air. If you don’t have time to take a walk, run up and down the stairs for two minutes. That will give you the same benefits in half the time.

Tip #6: Meditate. Meditation is great for rejuvenating your body. Each time you meditate, you’ll feel like you just took a six-hour nap. By meditating for fifteen to twenty minutes twice a day, you’re keeping your body continually energized. If you do run into a slump, meditating for a quick five minutes can immediately re-energize you. Physiologically, when you meditate, you go into a state that’s similar to deep sleep. Your heart rate, breath rate, and vital signs are lower than the normal state of sleep, so in effect, you give your cells and your body a tremendous amount of rest in a very short period of time.

Tip #7: Take your vitamins and supplements. Several vitamins have an energizing affect on your body so take them every day. You get the maximum benefit from your vitamins when you divide your dose throughout the day and take them with a meal. For example instead of taking 100 milligrams once a day, take fifty milligrams with breakfast and fifty with lunch. By doing so, you get much better absorption and greater benefit.

Tip #8: Listen to some music. Music can energize you, but choose carefully. Some music can actually weaken your system and fatigue you. Find some music you enjoy. Upbeat music can get your body into a more upward stance. If you are listening to music with lyrics, make sure they are positive and motivating.

Tip # 9: Take time to breathe and stretch. Deep breathing is another way to give yourself an energy boost. Your cells require an exchange of air in the lungs to get the waste products out of the body. If you’re not breathing enough, you’re getting a build-up of waste products. By doing some breathing exercises during the day, you’ll get a lot more fresh air into your system, your cells, and your brain.

Try this exercise: Breathe in slowly, filling your lower belly and stomach first, then the chest, and finally the shoulders while counting to seven. Then exhale slowly, starting to exhale at the shoulders first and finish with the stomach, again while counting to seven. Do this three to six times. When you do, you are dramatically increasing the exchange of fresh air in your body. Equally important is to stand up and stretch. When you stretch and move, you not only increase the blood flow in your body, but you are also stimulating the lymphatic system, which removes waste products from your body and only functions from muscular contractions. So if you are sitting for hours at a time, you are actually building up waste products in your body.

Tip #10: Handle negativity. Negative people and images can have a draining effect on your energy. Conversely, if you spend the day surrounded by positive people and images, you can feel energized by them. Make a conscious effort to stay positive. Replace any negative thoughts with a positive statement.