Tag: why am i always tired and have no energy

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Alert Energy Exercise Focus Productivity Study Studying

How to Stay Focused In Three Easy Steps

As Easy As One, Two, Three

Just start…

There are a thousand and one different things competing for our attention at any given moment. Most of the time we naturally block out all that noise and tune in to what we turn our attention to.

But sometimes it can be really difficult to focus on something that we should or want to focus on. Likewise there are times when we don’t or shouldn’t focus on a particular thing but we nevertheless find it extremely difficult to not turn our attention to it.

I’ve tried various ways to help get my mind focussed on what I need to whilst putting aside issues that are more of a distraction rather than a must do, and in this post I’ll share three ways that have helped me to improve my focus.

Stay Focused
Photo by @jesslharbin via Twenty20

The Draining

Competing priorities are a daily occurrence to me. Family, work, study and personal health are all vying for centre stage in my mind. When I’ve been busy in the past I’ve just gone with the issue that’s more pressing at the time!

For example, if I have a work deadline that has to be done by Friday and it’s Thursday evening, then getting things done around the house will have to wait until Saturday. But if I also have to do the shopping on Saturday because the cupboards are bare, then shopping takes priority over the household chores.

Unfortunately whilst doing one thing my mind would partially be on having to figure out what I have to do next, which in turn takes focus away from what I’m doing, causing me to take longer than I would have if I’d just focused on what I’m doing at the moment.

Guilt and Competing Interests

At some point I would find myself doing a half hearted job, not feeling good about it and then rushing to get the next thing done. This would weigh on my mind and eventually I’d come to a grinding halt and do nothing or just feel so tired that I’d might as well do nothing.

Part of the problem is that by not prioritising what needs to be done and listing them down (either on paper or electronically) I was adding more stress than I needed to myself every day and then wondering why I wasn’t feeling as productive as I could have been.

Another part of the problem was due to feeling tired. A lot of the time I found that when I felt the most lethargic I would tend to procrastinate more than usual before starting a task. All the time I spent delaying starting would make me feel guilty and that eventually would make me feel more tired, which made it more difficult for me to start.

Overcoming

Being as stubborn as I am, it took for some subtle changes to be forced upon me for me to realise that without too much effort I could feel better and think clearer with more focus!

Had I listened I wouldn’t of had to feel. My lack of focus wasn’t just a focussing problem, but rather a warning from my body to change how I went about things.

These are the relatively easy steps I had to take to get my focus back on track:

  • Consistently have 7-9 hours of quality sleep.
    Sleep is a basic human need. As you know we need it to function “normally”. The problem is that we can undervalue just how much we need a good nights sleep; especially whilst studying or working. For many, (including myself), it becomes one of the first things that we sacrifice in order to reach our objectives.

Nicole Bieske, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International Australia, has stated the opinion of her organization thus: “At the very least, sleep deprivation is cruel, inhumane and degrading. If used for prolonged periods of time it is torture.”

Sleep deprivation – Wikipedia

So why do this to ourselves? Be nice to yourself, and get more sleep. I did, and I believe that doing this was a significant factor in improving my focus.

  • Enjoy a healthy lifestyle
    Eating healthly, moderate exercise and reducing your stress are all helpful ways to improve your focus. How? Directly and indirectly by helping you to sleep better and by making your body more resilient. For example just a 20 minute walk can aid with improving your sleep quality, whilst at the same time improving your blood circulation, which also aids concentration and keeping you alert.
  • Take a break when you are tired

I know when I am getting sleepy
MYTH.
People are very poor judges of how tired they are. As a result, they often drive when they are drowsy, and struggle through the day not realizing that they are far from their best.

Wiseman, Richard. Night School: Wake up to the power of sleep (pp. 294-295). Pan Macmillan.

Be aware and look out for the classic signs of tiredness – lack of motivation, tiredness, difficulty concentrating. The difficulty here is being aware of these tell tale signs. Thankfully our Apple Watch app, V-CAF Stay Awake Stay Alert, notifies you at the times when your alertness levels are decreasing, so that you can concentrate on getting on with the task at hand. Since using the app I’ve found it invaluable in helping me to know when I’m not focussing at my best. When the alarm goes off, I take that as a cue to have a break (usually, I take napping breaks, or go for a walk), after which I feel more energised and ready to continue from where I left off.

Summary

Your lack of focus may be due to being tired and/or overworked and not realising it. It’s one of the many signs your body sends you to warn you to change what you are doing.

Take note of how much sleep that you are getting, if you are exercising regularly enough and eating healthily.

And also remember to take regular breaks when you feel yourself getting overly tired.

Afterword

“If you don’t get enough sleep then you’ll struggle to concentrate, become accident-prone, lack willpower, and become less productive. Worse still, you will increase your chances of becoming overweight, having a heart attack, and dying early.”

Wiseman, Richard. Night School: Wake up to the power of sleep (p. 295). Pan Macmillan.”
Categories
Energy Fatigue Productivity Staying Awake

Let’s Break Up Your Day And Be More Productive

Do Your Day Your Way

I have to admit that I find it difficult to
stop what I’m doing when I become extremely focussed on something.

On a few occasions this has worked out well for me as it made it easier to get things done. I feel ultra productive and at the top of my game.

But too often after stints like that my energy levels crashed to depths that had me feeling like I needed a week of sleep just to get back to normal!

As I became older my patience for this boom – bust cycle was at its lowest and I made it my mission to figure out what I could do to reduce the likelihood of repeating this draining chain of events.

Lets Go
Photo by @sennnnnya via Twenty20

The Lead Up

The typical scenario goes like this. I take a long time to get into the work that I’m doing. I keep on going knowing that at some point I’ll figure out what I’m doing and get most of the task completed. I get to the previously mentioned point and work like crazy. Finally I finish the work but at the end I feel exhausted and glad that it’s over. Then I get the new stuff that needs to be done and the process repeats.

Although it’s great to get the work done, the process can seem overly stressful at first, until you get into the flow and then work seems effortless. The problem is the after the work is done part.

What’s the point of doing all that work just to feel too tired to appreciate the time and effort put in? If you know that you have this work pattern it can be very discouraging to start because of how much effort it takes to get to the flow part.

Boom Then Bust

In the past I’ve found that just by doing something does help to start the process but the effort of starting can prolong the time it takes to get to the really productive part of the work cycle.

Then once in the productive phase, because I want to get things done, I found it difficult to stop because I didn’t want to risk loosing the moment that I worked so hard to start. This is good for my productivity targets but bad for my energy and sense of well being.

The fact that it took me so long just to get started, as well as the fact that at the end of my work stint I felt so tired was proof that something needed to change as the way that I was working was not sustainable.

During my research I found that I was displaying classic fatigue symptoms that if left uncorrected would become worse and eventually could get to the point where I would not be able to function “normally”.

Some of the signs of fatigue are:

  • Fuzzy thinking
  • Slower response times
  • Productivity declines
  • Lethargy

Hacks

Thankfully once I identified that maybe I was fatigued, it was a not so simple matter of trying out things that could correct it without having to take prescription drugs or visit a doctor.

By the way, if you feel that you may be suffering from fatigue and you’ve exhibited the symptoms for a while, make an appointment to see your medical advisor or doctor just to make sure that you are not suffering from anything that could seriously affect your health and well being.

So with that said, here are three possible causes of my boom-bust work style and how I addressed them.

  • Sleep Deprivation
    Was I getting enough sleep? I decided to use a sleep tracker on my Apple Watch to see the quality and length of my sleep. Apparently we humans need between 7 and 9 hours of good quality sleep a day. During my tracking period I was getting between 5.5 and 7 hours a day. So it was fairly clear to me that I would have to increase the times that I’m actually sleeping and not lying in bed trying to get to sleep.
    A fix for that problem was to increase the amount of exercise I did, changing my routine from every other day to everyday. This worked fantastically and had the beneficial side effects of making me get more healthy and boosting the quality of my sleep.
  • Work Patterns
    Setting up a daily routine helps with structuring my day and getting my mind ready to focus on what it needs to. I realised a while back that I’m more of a morning person when it came to certain tasks, so it made more sense to me to structure my work around that. Further I found that working to my circadian rhythm helped with my focus and productivity. As an example of my typical day, I structure my more intense, hard thinking type work to be worked on during the mornings and my more routine work after lunch. If I start working at 09:00 then I make a point of finishing for the day no later than 18:00. I stick to this schedule Monday through Friday and I believe that it has made things so much better. When I’ve worked longer days or stray from the schedule, I notice the difference immediately.
  • Time on Tasks
    This was my major issue and correcting this noticeably increased my productivity whilst at the same time helping to correct my boom-bust work cycle.
    Our brains like any muscle or body part for that matter, when used to excess becomes tired and non responsive. Any physically or mentally demanding tasks will take its toll on us. Because we sometimes overlook the amount of time that we spend working on a task (which is what I do all the time), it is very easy to burn ourselves out without noticing.
    To correct this we must insure that we take regular breaks throughout the working day. When and how you structure this is deponent upon your own work circumstances, but luckily for me my workplace is fairly relaxed when it comes to taking breaks (as long as there isn’t an impending deadline, but that’s for another post). Up until recently I was just using the Pomodoro technique of working for 20 -25 minute blocks, taking a ten minute break, then back to another block. This worked well but didn’t account for the times when my alertness levels weren’t so great. Now days I rely heavily on our Apple Watch app,V-CAF Stay Awake Stay Alert, to notify me when my alertness levels drop so that I can take a natural break at the times when I need it most.

Review

Ultimately for me to change my work cycle of boom then bust it meant that I had to change my attitude to taking breaks whilst working and making sure that I did the things that promoted habits that would encourage me to get enough sleep whilst helping me to focus better throughout the day.

So as the picture in this article suggests, take some time out and go for a walk instead of sitting at your desk all day trying to get everything done at once.

Afterword

“No matter the risks we take, we always consider the end to be too soon, even though in life, more than anything else, quality should be more important than quantity.”

Alex Honnold

Categories
Energy Focus Productivity

Pause, Stop & Start

Pause, Stop & Start

Three steps to closer to clearer focus…

Life can feel as if it has its own momentum with meetings, timetables, meal times and our list of things to-do can seem endless. We can go weeks, months or years knowing that we are stuck in a rut and need a new direction, change of scene or some type of action that calls us out of our comfort zone. In our minds we carry solutions to problems and sometimes even talk ourselves out of the solution before we have even fully realize them! With so much chatter in our daily lives, we can get lost in the cacophony.

Pause, Stop & Start
Photo by Allie Lehman @alliepal

Call it what you will but the universe always has a way of grabbing our attention and giving us moments to pause. It can be in the form of hearing a few notes to a forgotten song, a smell that reminds us of someone or even a taste that transports us almost instantly to a memory held inside us. Whatever it is, it gives us a moment to pause. Just like seeing amber at the traffic light we make a quick intuitive decision. Slow down and pay attention to what is being communicated or rush on with the belief that it’s too late to stop – regardless. With V-CAF there is a gentle reminder to take care. The beauty of the pause is that we can lead ourselves to the stop. A place not of failure but a chance to check-in with our authentic self and consider whether our actions are from deep within. Sometimes busy is an excuse in disguise. It is not easy but there is joy in connection to purpose and not the ego driven taskmaster of the mind.

In Closing

Many of us as children found amazement and wonder in everything. Try to discover this again and start to see & feel the precious gift of the present moment. There is something to unfold in even the most mundane tasks or surroundings when you start to connect all of your senses and give yourself permission to be fully alive. So next time you have an ‘amber’ moment, decide if you are going in the best direction or take a deep breath and turn onto a new road.

Categories
Energy Focus Productivity Staying Awake Tiredness

Be Productive, Give Up Workaholism!

Be Productive, Give Up Workaholism!

Love Working, Hate Workaholism

It’s easily done. You have a tight deadline, the works not finished but you reckon if you put the extra time in now, you can salvage your reputation and get everything done.

There are times when you just have to burn the midnight oil to get things done and it’s understandable. But recently I’ve been noticing that people seem to think that this type of effort is normal if you want to get things done and get ahead.

Officially corporations, government bodies and global institutions talk a good talk about work life balance, but honestly, does that ring true with your everyday experiences?

Are over worked and over stressed employees really as productive as those in charge think?

Be Productive, Give Up Workaholism!
Photo by Tim Gou @punttim on Unsplash, Gastown, Vancouver, Canada, Busy people at a coffee shop

Feeling Compelled

Have you ever found yourself staying at work for longer than you needed? That includes skipping lunch, coming in early and staying late and cancelling holidays.

Or how about agreeing to an unreasonable deadline and not having a plan outside of working long hours until the work is done, to meet it?

During these difficult economic times it can be challenging to say no to the impossible deadlines; or working within your limits instead of the arbitrary hours of what the workplace culture dictates (outside of your contracted hours, of course).

If you are either one of the lucky few that like your work so much that you just can’t tear yourself away, or if you feel that you must be seen to be a ‘good worker’, workaholism can be very destructive.

What’s The Cost?

Compulsion is a horrible condition to have. It robs you of your self esteem and makes you feel like a hostage to your own life.

The time that you spend doing work related tasks is time taken away from:

  • Doing the things that can enhance your life
  • Time taken away from loved ones
  • And time stollen from your self worth.

Everyone who can work should work, but as with the case with most things in life, balance is key. An unbalanced work life often leads to:

  • Increased stress
  • Sleep disorders
  • Depression
  • Low productivity
  • Relationship breakdowns

Balance cannot be achieved through a dictate from up on high, but must be actively pursued. What that means is that you must make more balanced choices in order to improve your quality of life.

But How Can I Change?

The first step to implementing any kind of long lasting valuable change is to truly acknowledge that a change is needed in the first place.

Without that, change can still be achieved but you risk making your task more difficult than it needs to be, and you can find yourself just going through the motions.

Still, sometimes going through the motions actually helps you to implement the change anyway, so above all just start.

Implement any of these points as you see fit to help you stay the course and become more productive.

  • Plan you work and break it down into manageable chunks.
  • Where possible aim for more reasonable deadlines.
  • Include down time in your work plans.
  • Prioritise getting enough good quality sleep.
  • Take regular breaks when working on your tasks. We created an Apple Watch app called V-CAF to help you with that. It alerts you when you start to feel tired reminding you to take a break and reenergise yourself before getting back to work.
  • Stay hydrated.
  • Set hard to break after work appointments with your family/friends and block the time in your work calendar.

A Brief Summary

We’ve gone over a lot so here’s the summary:

  • Workaholism reduces productivity and increases stress.
  • Time spent obsessing over work tasks is time taken away from other priorities in your life.
  • Make a commitment to change your work life balance and implement steps (like those listed above) that will help you stay the course.

Hope

Workaholism is a drain on your health, your personal life and work life!

To increase your productivity you may have to decrease the amount of work you do.

The choices you make regarding your work life affect all areas of your life. Hopefully you’ll choose a balanced life.

Categories
Focus Productivity Study Studying

How to Beat Tiredness, Stay Awake, Stay Productive

Beating Tiredness, Staying Awake, Staying Productive

That’s what we do…

Recently I’ve been working long hours and not getting enough rest. Even though I know better, I’ve just pushed through.

My deadlines were tight and something had to give. Unfortunately it’s been my sleep. 

As sleep wasn’t an option I had to find quick fixes that worked for the short term without being too harmful to my long-term health goals.

Let me share them with you.

Trying to beat tiredness, trying to stay awake and trying to stay productive
Photo by Tim Gouw @punttim on Unsplash Full focus at a coffee shop

When Sleep Is Not An Option

There are times when getting any qualitative sleep is just not possible. Whatever the cause the reduced amount of sleep that we get eventually makes us feel tired.

The best option is to get more sleep. But when we can’t what should we do? 

The Problems With Not Getting Enough Sleep

Not getting enough sleep is a sure fire way to kill your productivity! 

Sleep loss equals loss of productivity:

And it seems that more people are willing to concede that tiredness is affecting their productivity at work:

Tiredness and fatigue epidemic is affecting employee work productivity

Quick Stay Awake Fixes

Okay, so what can one do? I found the following tips helpful, but the number one fix is to get more quality sleep and schedule your work priorities appropriately!

  • Take a break every 20 – 25 minutes
    Step away from your desk, go for a walk or talk to a colleague.
  • Work standing up
    if you have a desk that can raise then great. If not, work leaning on a cabinet or raised coffee bar
  • Use a gadget
    Set the alarm on your smart phone to alert you every so often, or if you have an Apple Watch use an app like V-CAF . It senses when you’re likely to fall asleep and alerts you automatically
  • Drink coffee or an energy drink
    Just be careful you don’t have too many and stay under the 400mg limit (or 3 to 4 cups of coffee per day)
  • Drink water
    By keeping your brain hydrated you help reduce the effects of tiredness and increase your ability to focus

Review

Hopefully these tips will help you be more productive when you are feeling tired and have a tight deadline.

Don’t forget:

  • Make sure you have a short break every 20-25 minutes
  • Work standing up
  • Use gadgets and apps like V-CAF to alert you when you’re most likely to fall asleep.
  • Don’t drink too much coffee, but have some non the less
  • Drink water to help you focus 

Be More Productive

Thank you for reading this article.

But what’s more important is that you take the steps to prioritize organizing your sleep patterns so that you get more qualitative sleep.

In the meantime I hope that you find my suggestions useful.

Categories
Caffeine Side Effects Sleepiness Staying Awake Tiredness

Would You Pay For Worse Sleep?

Would You Pay For Worse Sleep?

A good night’s sleep is priceless

We humans like the effects that caffeine has on us. It is one of the worlds most consumed stimulants and can be found in a variety of food, drink, and medical supplements.

However, there is a growing body of evidence that points to caffeine being responsible for interfering with our sleep and may be responsible for daytime sleepiness. 

Customer experience
Photo by Toa Heftiba @heftiba on Unsplash Customer experience, Camber Coffee, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

I’m Tired, Where’s The Coffee

It’s common for us to associate coffee and caffeine with alertness. So much so that we have hundreds of coffee phrases such as “Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it’s hard to go back to sleep” and  “I don’t have a problem with caffeine. I have a problem without it.”

For many people a coffee first thing in the morning helps wake them up and sets them straight for the day, but by the time they get to work they need another, then another.

What most don’t realize is that it might be the caffeine that is making them feel tired in the first place!

Increased Tiredness

Various population-based studies suggest that ingesting more than the recommended daily limit for caffeine can be linked to daytime sleepiness. 
Ohayon MM, Malijai C, Pierre P. Guilleminault C, Priest RG. How sleep and mental disorders are related to complaints of daytime sleepiness. Arch Intern Med 1997;157(22):2645-52.

A Sleep Habits and Caffeine Use study of workers for the French National Gas and Electricity Company found a link between an increase of consumption of caffeine and the decrease of time spent in bed. The association suggests that caffeine is shortening sleep.
Sanchez-Ortuno M, Moore N, Taillard J, Valtat C, Leger D, Bioulac B, et al. Sleep duration and caffeine consumption in a French middle-aged working population. Sleep Med 2005;6:247-51.

Daily moderate to low usage of caffeine can interfere with your sleep and contribute to some people’s insomnia complaints; but stopping caffeine consumption can cause people to experience excessive sleepiness.

Decrease Tiredness

If you don’t consume a lot of caffeine then cycling your caffeine intake will keep you balanced without affecting your energy too much. That is, enjoy your caffeine product as usual but take a couple of days a week where you don’t have any. 

If you do consume a lot of caffeine then it may be best to gradually wean yourself off over several weeks. If you suffer from withdrawal, use the following:

  • Keep yourself occupied.
    By keeping busy you will have less time to think about your cravings.
  • Exercise.
    It helps lift your mood and helps you to have better quality sleep.
  • Have a sleep routine.
    Choose a time to go to bed and to wake up and stick to it. Be mindful of falling asleep during the day, and use a tiredness monitor like V-CAF. V-CAF will notify you when you are most likely to fall asleep, helping you to stay awake during the day.
  • Eat nutrient rich foods and drink plenty of water.
    Fuelling your body with the right foods and drinking water helps raise your energy over time.

Review

Over reliance on caffeine is causing us to deplete our energy levels. Reducing our caffeine intake or cutting it out completely can help reverse this trend but may initially make us feel even more tired.

Withdrawal tips:

  • Keep busy
  • Exercise
  • Stick to your sleep routine. 
  • Use a tiredness monitor, like V-CAF to keep you awake during the day.
  • Eat whole foods and drink plenty of water.

Conclusion

Your body deserves the best treatment that you can provide. Using caffeine ultimately takes from you and gives very little back.

Spend your time and energy on the things that will help enhance your life, not on things that cost you money and give you suffering.

Start giving back by following the advise in this post and making the right lifestyle changes.

You deserve it.

Categories
Fatigue Focus Staying Awake

How Can I Stay Awake?

I Need to Stay Awake II

More wide awake tips…

I’ve recently been extremely busy and had fallen behind on some of my tasks and also had a new bunch of tasks to take care of too.

I decided to put more hours in to get the work done but found that as I was working I just couldn’t stay awake!

This had the knock on effect of making me have to work longer to catch up with my work, which in turn made me feel more tired.

I eventually got the work done and what I want to share with you was what I learned by having to go through that difficulty so that it may help you if you ever find yourself in that situation.

Must-stay-awake!
Photo by Matthew T Rader@matthew_t_rader on Unsplash

Drowsy Whilst Working

Many of us go through phases where we feel too tired to get the job done but we do somehow. In my own life I’ve experienced this as a student, employee, employer and parent.

Even though we get through these phases and complete the tasks or goals that we have to achieve, the experience is far from pleasurable. Over time if we repeat these cycles it can become extremely difficult to motivate ourselves to even attempt to get things done.

This is bad as we can start to attribute these feelings with the tasks that we have to do, making us feel resentful and depressed.

What Tiredness Costs You

Having feelings of resentment because you are tired whilst working (or studying) makes the work more difficult than it needs to be.

Feeling tired makes it difficult to do basic cognitive functions such as paying attention, concentration, accuracy and memory recall, which results in less than stellar performance and less productivity – leading to feeling even more resentful and frustrated. 

Over the long term this can lead to mood disorders and chronic diseases, causing harm to your career or long-term life goals. 

Mix and Match

There are a myriad of techniques that you can use to get you over that hump when you’ve got to get some work done. 

But what I found that worked surprisingly well was mixing and matching the following techniques. The beauty of this is that everyone is different so it gives you the opportunity to tailor it to your own needs as you see fit, giving it more chance of success because it is your work that you put the effort into.

  • Motivation
    This is probably key to making all the other steps work, or work better. Give yourself a target that if you achieve you’ll get a reward of your choice. Make multiple or incremental goals to help motivate you to get through the difficult parts.
  • Give yourself time limits
    Set a time limit for blocks of work or study, say three twenty to twenty-five minute periods, using the Pomodoro technique, or other themed timer app (I use Forest).
  • Use a tiredness monitor or alarm
    Even though you are tired, use a tiredness alarm like V-CAF that notifies you when you are going to nod off. That way you can stop where you are and refocus yourself and wake yourself up so that you have full concentration until the next alarm.
  • Drink something (not alcoholic)
    For me water is best, but there are other alternatives to caffeine based energy drinks such as B vitamin products, herbal and protein supplements. And of course there are caffeine drinks and products too, but these are my last choice.

Review

What eventually worked for me was to motivate myself with a reward, drinking water and using the tiredness monitor.

You are free to try the same or make your own mix, as long as you try something to get over that hump.

Once again:

  • Motivate yourself by setting goals that give you a reward if completed
  • Give yourself time limits, use tools like The Pomodoro Technique or Forest to help focus on the task at hand
  • Use tiredness monitors like V-CAF.
  • Drink water, energy drinks, coffee – whatever works for you

Conclusion

The key here is to set your own goals and use your own system to get the results you need.

Nobody knows you better than yourself.

Categories
Caffeine Exercise Sleep Tiredness Weight Loss

Difficulty Staying Awake?

Do This Every Day To Conquer Tiredness

Be Victorious

Whenever I ask my friends and family how’s things going, a significant amount of the responses I get back state that they are tired.

Looking at a few of the headlines out there seem to suggest that tiredness is becoming more common than ever before:

The reasons why exhaustion and burnout are so common, BBC

The exhaustion epidemic, The Guardian

The Fatigue Epidemic, Honor Society

The reasons for why this appears to be a growing trend are numerous and are beyond the scope of my understanding, what I do know from personal experience are that there are measures that we can take personally to help beat tiredness.

Conquerer
Photo by Robin Corps on Flickr Fighting

Tiredness Today

Although tiredness appears to be a growing trend, I personally believe that it has always been a factor in a lot of people’s lives. The difference today is that with social media and the Internet people are more willing to talk to others about how they really feel.

Of those that seek medical advice, many come away feeling disappointed as they were expecting a magical cure to something that is fundamental to the human experience.

Holding Me Back

Tiredness reduces your ability to fully appreciate life. It reduces your productivity; alertness and can affect your mental health as well as your relationships and social interactions.

If not dealt with effectively, tiredness can manifest in numerous ways in your life:

  • Lack of confidence
  • Loneliness
  • Increase in risk of being involved in an accident
  • Stress
  • Depression
  • Weight gain

What Can I Do?

The one thing that you can do every day to reverse this condition in your life is to commit to yourself to take action to overcome your tiredness. 

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes, but there are steps that you can consistently take to help yourself overcome your tiredness. I know it’s not a very popular message these days, but by taking responsibility for your response to the problem, you empower yourself to eventually succeed in overcoming your tiredness.

Here are some steps to help you on your way:

  • Sleep
    Make sure you get enough quality sleep. Deep sleep is quality sleep. This helps you feel less tired during the day and helps your mind and body prepare for tomorrow. How do you deep sleep? See the next point.
  • Exercise
    Just 25 – 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 4 hours before you go to bed can make all the difference to your sleep. It can help you fall asleep faster, improve your sleep quality and help you sleep longer. Also, the effects of exercise on your sleep can be seen to benefit you immediately, on the same night. 
  • Be aware when you are tired
    Notice the signs of tiredness in yourself and act appropriately. Tiredness alarms like V-CAF subtly notify you when you are most likely to be tired. Best of all it’s tailored to you.
  • Eat healthily 
    don’t eat processed foods, reduce your sugar intake and avoid caffeine in all it’s forms.

Review

The points outlined in this article aren’t easy, especially if it means a big lifestyle change, but at the same time they are not so hard. You can do this.

The most difficult part is agreeing to take responsibility and start.

  • Increase your quantity and quality of sleep. 
  • Increase your exercise (amount or intensity or both)
  • Be aware with your tiredness (use a tool like V-CAF)
  • Eat healthy 

What Will You Do?

Thank you for reading this far. This was a bit of a tough article, but hopefully you can see the benefit of a little tough love 😉

Take control, stay awake and stay alert.

Categories
Alert Caffeine Fatigue Staying Awake Tiredness

Tired of Being Tired? So Was I

Tired of Being Tired? So Was I

We shall overcome…

For most of life from my teens I can remember feeling tired to the point of distraction.

School was difficult because I felt like I was constantly fighting to stay awake. By the time I went to University I was known for falling asleep at the back of lectures.

One lecturer even called me out and asked if I found his lectures boring, and another student shouted out “Don’t worry Dave, he does that to everyone”!

Drinking more coffee and taking caffeine pills actually made things worse. Things finally came to a head at work when one of my colleagues told our boss that I would nod off briefly.

Tired of being embarrassed about being tired I decided to take back control of my life, and with the help of another colleague who also had a similar issue, we decided to share what we have found that works and to let you know about a tool that we built to help people like us stop being embarrassed, to be more alert, and to be more awake.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working? Hahaha
Photo by Murray Barnes on Flickr Working Hard, or Hardly Working? Hahaha Funny, what? Tom, sleeping

Tiredness and Productivity

Tiredness during work hours has reached epidemic levels. The problem is that most don’t like to talk about it as it could show them as being unprofessional.

According to research conducted by Westfield Health, 86% of those who took part in the study believe their colleagues, including managers, do not understand the potential consequences of fatigue and lack of sleep and only 9% say their workplace would accept tiredness or fatigue as a genuine reason to call in sick.
Open Access Government, Tiredness and fatigue epidemic is affecting employee work productivity 

Tiredness affects everyone. No matter how skillful, knowledgeable, or proficient someone is in his or her profession, nobody is exempt.

Not Seen in the Best Light

A lot of people will not admit to being tired at work due to how they would be perceived by their colleagues.

However, this can be at the least detrimental to productivity, and at worst dangerous or even fatal as tiredness directly influences people’s physical and mental abilities needed to complete even simple tasks.

The affects of tiredness in the workplace include:

  • Reduced or lack of motivation
  • Slower reaction times
  • Diminished alertness
  • Poor concentration
  • Lower hand eye coordination
  • Difficulty in retrieving and storing information in memory
  • Inefficient information processing and
  • Poor judgment

Tired people can also become quick to anger and therefore potentially dangerous to themselves and others.

What We Found That Works

The secret to beating tiredness during working hours is to efficiently manage the different layers that cause you to be tired. 

Use the techniques outlined below togetherto help manage your tiredness and eventually overcome it:

  • Get more sleep
    Sleep longer and deeper. Most people need about 8 hours a day to be fully alert. But everyone is different. Use a measuring tool to find out the quality and quantity of your sleep. I use Pillow to track my sleep.
  • If you are in a sleep deficit, grab a few minutes nap when you can
    If it’s possible, have a 30 minute nap. It’s been proven to increase alertness whilst at the same time reducing tiredness. Use your lunch break to catch up.
  • Use a tiredness alarm
    V-CAF is an app that alerts you to when you are most likely to be tired and fall asleep. We developed it in response to our need to stay awake whilst working, studying or traveling. Used with the other tips in this article we’ve been able to increase our own productivity and feelings of accomplishment. Available only on the Apple Watch (at the moment).
  • Use Stimulators
    This includes modafinil, amphetamines and caffeine. Caffeine didn’t work for me too well as my tolerance levels were/are quite high. Speak to your medical advisor or doctor about the other two.
  • Drink Water
    Water helps keep you hydrated and helps you to focus more easily.
  • Move 
    If possible stand at your desk, or go for a walk. The act of moving will get your heart pumping and help your brain to be more alert.

Review

This is a very sensitive issue for a lot of people, which is why I decided to write about it. By facing up to what we feel we are weakest at, we help strengthen our resolve to overcome it.

So, summarizing the steps we can take to overcome tiredness at work, or school:

  • Get more sleep
  • If possible have a nap (30 minutes)
  • Use V-CAF to alert you to when you are most likely to fall asleep or be tired
  • Drink water
  • Move

Closing Thoughts

There is no need to be embarrassed about being tired. Many people in the workplace feel tired, but try to hide it by drinking too much caffeine.

By taking the step to confront your tiredness, you are putting yourself back in control of your mind, body and life.

Categories
Caffeine Exercise Side Effects Weight Loss

Caffeine, Energy & Weight Loss

Caffeine, Energy & Weight Loss

Got to watch my figure…

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is on the rise. Not a day goes by without someone telling me about how good it is for weight loss and that they feel more energized. 

Whilst no stranger to IF I wanted to know if drinking caffeine would help me burn away those love handles faster and if there are any cons to this approach.

Starving
Photo by voidstern on flickr hunger

Caffeine and Weight Loss

For a lot of people drinking black coffee (or energy drink) and intermittent fasting works.

Reduced hunger, faster fat burn, more alert, what’s wrong with drinking caffeine?

Caffeine and its Potential Problems

Caffeine can affect some people rather negatively. The affects on your mind and body depend on how much caffeine you drink daily, your age, fitness and gender.

Some of the harmful side effects are:

  • Addiction to caffeine
  • Anxiousness
  • Poor sleep
  • Abdominal pain
  • Heartburn

Also, that alert or awake feeling is caused by caffeine tricking your brain into believing that the levels of a chemical called adenosine (which tells the body how tired you are) are reduced.

By blocking your brain’s cells ability to know how tired you are, neuron activity increases which alerts the pituitary gland to release hormones that tell the adrenal glands to increase production of adrenaline.

The Miracle of Water and Exercise

There are many ways to overcome this problem, but the first one is to take action and write something.

If you are used to drinking coffee or energy drinks, you may experience withdrawal symptoms if you stop.

The key here is to keep going and use some of the tips outlined below, which will not only help with your withdrawal symptoms, but also increase the benefits of your fast.

  • Exercise
    Over time exercise can boost your energy. Deep sleep will be more common and that alone will make you feel less hungry and more alert. Also your body will become stronger and mind more focused. For more information read Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John J. Ratey 
  • Drink more water
    your brain is mostly water. Drinking more will improve your concentration, help balance your mood and emotions, increase blood flow and oxygen to your brain and help prevent headaches. And as a side benefit can increase your metabolism by 24-30%.
  • Use a tiredness monitor or alarm
    by knowing when you are feeling tired you can take control of your mood swings and act accordingly. V-CAF is an Apple Watch app that alerts you when you are most likely to be tired.
  • Preserve
    Keep track of the days that you complete a fast without caffeine and set yourself goals. Take things a day at a time, and over time you will reap the benefits.

Summary

On the face of it caffeine and intermittent fasting seem to be a match made in heaven. However, I’ve outlined that you can in fact get better results naturally, it is just a little bit more uncomfortable at first, but you will be in control.

Try these tips:

  • Exercise more
  • Drink more water
  • Track your tiredness (with tools such as V-CAF)
  • Track your progress using the above mentioned tips

Your Choice

You’ve made it to the end, congrats.

To reap the benefits of your hard spent time you must act on what you’ve learnt. Nothing beats informed practical application and now you have the advantage. 

Use the points highlighted in this article as you see fit, but please make sure you have fun whilst doing it.