Breaking Habits That Drain Energy

Want to improve your energy levels?

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to achieve that is to look at the things in your life that are draining your energy and remove them. Rather than being an additive way to improve your energy, this is a ‘subtractive’ method. In other words, you are improving your energy by doing less and not by doing more – which is considerably easier when your energy was low to begin with and taking on new challenges can be exhausting.

But which habits should you break if you want to get back your energy? Here are some of the top candidates.

Tea and Coffee

If you use caffeine to power you through the day, then this is something you should look at stopping right away. Caffeine can actually severely hamper your energy levels and may even be what’s making it so hard to get up in the morning.

When you drink caffeine, it emulates the molecule ‘adenosine’ in the brain. This is a molecule that builds up over the day and which eventually comes to make us feel tired and groggy. However, because caffeine emulates adenosine, it can ‘plug’ the adenosine receptors thereby rendering it inert. The result? An artificial feeling of energy and drive.

But this eventually leads to tolerance and dependence. The brain produces more adenosine receptors to counteract the perceived lack of adenosine and as such you need more caffeine to feel normal. This leads to withdrawal and that withdrawal is one of the things making you feel so groggy in the morning!

Smoking

Nicotine is a stimulant and is even used as a nootropic. But when you smoke, you also inhale a huge amount of harmful gasses which can severely damage your lung capacity. Eventually, this can lead to a greatly impaired VO2 Max which makes it hard to simply move around without coughing and splurting. Try using vaporizers to break the habit.

Procrastinating

Procrastinating wastes your valuable time without giving you the ‘permission’ you need to properly rest. Worst of all is procrastinating late at night and watching YouTube for instance into the small hours because you can’t be bothered to get up and get ready for bed.

Try to take the attitude of either being ‘off’ or ‘on’. Walk or sit – don’t wobble. In other words, when you notice your productivity start to wane, embrace it and use it as a chance to properly recharge so you’ll have more energy to get up and go later.