Number One: Ditch Your Seat
**Ditch your seat** in the last decade, daily fatigue has become an increasingly common problem for people around the world. **Fifteen percent** of women say they feel noticeably tired on a daily basis, while over ten percent of men fall into the same category. Now that means in the US alone, tens of millions of people are exhausted all the time. So what's the problem? Why are so many people struggling to keep their energy levels up?
Well, one answer is hiding behind something you do for hours every day. You do it at work, you do it at home, you even do it when you're out with friends. If you haven't already guessed, I'm talking about **sitting**. The average American sits for over six and a half hours of their eight-hour workday, and it doesn't stop there. When you get home, you lie down for another couple of hours watching TV or you sit back on the couch while you're reading a book. Without realizing it, you're spending eight to twelve hours a day sitting on your backside.
Now, all that sitting is having a **major effect** on your energy levels. **When you sit for long periods of time**, your body slows down, and you start feeling lazy. So if you want to stop feeling tired all the time, then you need to **stand up and get your body moving**. A 2013 study found that short bursts of activity are one of the most effective ways to stimulate your body and your brain. Whenever possible, try to squeeze in fifteen to twenty minutes of exercise. **Yeah, I know it doesn't sound like much**, but that little burst of activity can give you energy for hours.
Number Two: Cut Your Daily Coffee
Around ninety percent of people in the U.S. consume some sort of caffeine on a daily basis. **Drinks like coffee, tea, and soda** pump your body full of milligrams of caffeine, giving you a much-needed burst of energy for a few hours. Your nervous system goes into overdrive, your heart beats faster, more blood rushes into your brain and muscles, and feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine improve your mood, concentration, and productivity. **So it's no surprise** that so many people rely on caffeine to make it through the day.
When you're feeling tired or unmotivated, you might turn to coffee or an energy drink to pick you back up, and it probably will. But that sudden burst of energy might be hurting you in the long run. Most people only pay attention to the short-term benefits of caffeine. They experience that increase in focus and productivity, and they get hooked. But over time, caffeine can have a major impact on your natural energy levels.
Just think about it. **If you're constantly relying on coffee to give you energy**, won't your body have a harder time feeling energetic on its own? Oh, and that's not all. Caffeine consumption also worsens the quality of your sleep at night. Caffeine makes it harder for your body to relax and gradually wind down. **One study found that caffeinated drinks actually delay your biological clock.** You'll naturally start falling asleep later, and it'll take even longer for you to enter a deep sleep. Remember that your body uses deep sleep to encode new memories, detoxify, and get ready for the next day. So by drinking too much caffeine, you're preventing your brain from functioning at its best.
So if you want to stop feeling tired all the time, just decrease the amount of caffeine that you drink each day. You don't have to immediately cut all caffeine out of your life—that'll just make you feel miserable and even more unproductive. But you should gradually lessen your caffeine intake. Just try ordering smaller cups of coffee or drink one less soda each day. Little by little, you'll feel more energetic than ever, and it won't be because of the coffee.
Number Three: Pinpoint Your Stress Patterns
Fatigue doesn't always come from something you did wrong. There are tons of other reasons why you can't shake that stress and negativity, but it isn't always easy to figure out what exactly is stressing you out. **That's why some people use a stress journal to pinpoint the stressors in their life.** A stress journal is a place for you to write down everything that stresses you out each day. Are you worried about a presentation at work? Are you anxious about your relatives coming to visit?
It's important to consistently keep track of every stressor because your journal will help you identify the patterns of stress. Okay, let's say you're hanging out with a toxic friend of yours when after just a few hours, you're left feeling frustrated. So you go to write it down in your stress journal, but when you look back at the last few times that you hung out with that friend, you realize something—they're constantly adding more stress to your life. When you see that kind of negative pattern, well then, you know that it's time to make a change. **It might be hard at first**, but over time, you'll notice a huge difference in your stress and overall positivity.
Number Four: Eat More Iron
If you're feeling tired all the time, then you may want to take a closer look at the stuff you're putting into your body. Many people struggle with fatigue because they aren't eating enough iron. **Iron is something you'll find in foods like beans, whole grains, nuts, and leafy greens**, and our bodies can't function without it. We need iron to create a red protein called hemoglobin, which gives your blood its trademark red color. But that's not the reason hemoglobin is so important. This protein transports oxygen to every nook and cranny of your body.
So without the right amount of hemoglobin, your organs and muscles just can't do their jobs. Your muscles will feel weak, your brain will feel foggy, even your lungs will feel weaker. When so many things are going wrong in your body, you can't help but feel tired and sickly. Oh, but the good news is getting rid of your fatigue may be as simple as eating a few more vegetables each day. That extra serving of iron could be the difference between laziness and productivity.
Number Five: Excite Your Mind
Are you feeling trapped or bored at work? Have you lost touch with your favorite hobbies? Sometimes fatigue means you're just not feeling inspired. When you're constantly doing things that you don't like, well, it drains your energy. It makes it ten times harder to dedicate yourself to your work. The simple truth is you can't force yourself to feel passionate if you're stuck in a field that you hate.
**If you wake up every morning dreading going to work**, well, it doesn't matter if you incorporate every healthy habit on this list—that frustration is going to sap your enthusiasm. That's why you should look for opportunities to get excited. **It doesn't matter if it's a new project at work or a hobby that you're trying on the side,** just make sure you feel challenged and inspired as often as possible.
Number Six: Shrink Your Meals
Most of us have eaten three meals a day for our entire lives: one in the morning, one in the early afternoon, and one in the evening. But these three meals may be weighing you down more than you think. The vast majority of people are hungry more than three times a day. We're hungry the first thing in the morning, so we eat breakfast. But what happens when you get hungry a couple of hours later? You still have three more hours until lunch, so you force yourself to wait. But by the time lunch rolls around, you're not just hungry anymore—you're starving. So you eat way more than you need to.
Now, normally, you should feel energetic after a meal, but instead, you feel even more tired and sluggish than you did before. **Chances are, you just want to take a nap and sleep off that giant meal.** That's why you should replace your three large meals with six or seven small ones. When you're feeling hungry, don't make yourself wait—eat something small. **Give yourself a little burst of energy without feeling the need to overdo it.** That way, you can reap the benefits of a well-portioned meal instead of eating yourself into a food coma.
Number Seven: Think About Your Breathing
How often do you stop and think about the way you breathe? Probably not very often. Many of us go days or weeks without thinking about our breath, which is pretty strange if you ask me. Breathing literally keeps you alive, yet it fades so easily into the background like blinking your eyes or pumping your heart.
**So how does paying attention to your breath keep you from feeling tired?** Well, believe it or not, a few minutes of careful breathing will leave you feeling clear-headed and re-energized. All you have to do is sit up straight, take a big breath in through your nose, let the oxygen fill your lungs, then take a big breath out. **Sounds pretty easy, right?** If you can do that 10 or 15 times, then you'll feel physically and mentally revitalized. The sudden flow of oxygen will give your body a boost in performance while that moment of relaxation gives you a chance to de-stress.
Oh, and the best part is you can use this trick as often as you want. Breathing will always be good for you, so don't be afraid to take a breath whenever you're feeling tired.
| Action | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Sit Less | Increases energy and reduces fatigue |
| Reduce Caffeine | Improves sleep quality and natural energy |
| Track Stress | Identifies stress patterns and improves positivity |
| Eat More Iron | Boosts energy and reduces tiredness |
| Excite Your Mind | Increases motivation and reduces fatigue |
