Many cases of tiredness are due to stress, not enough sleep, poor diet and other lifestyle factors. Try these self-help tips to restore your energy levels.
If you feel you're suffering from fatigue, which is an overwhelming tiredness that isn't relieved by rest and sleep, you may have an underlying medical condition. Consult a GP for advice.
A good way to keep up your energy through the day is to eat regular meals and healthy snacks every 3 to 4 hours, rather than a large meal less often.
Read more about healthy eating.
You might feel that exercise is the last thing on your mind. But, in fact, regular exercise will make you feel less tired in the long run, so you'll have more energy.
Even a single 15-minute walk can give you an energy boost, and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity.
Start with a small amount of exercise. Build it up gradually over weeks and months until you reach the recommended goal of 2 hours 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, such as cycling or fast walking, every week.
Read more about starting exercise.
Find out the physical activity guidelines for adults.
If your body is carrying excess weight, it can be exhausting. It also puts extra strain on your heart, which can make you tired. Lose weight and you'll feel much more energetic.
Apart from eating healthily, the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to be more active and do more exercise.
Read more about how to lose weight.
Many people don't get the sleep they need to stay alert through the day.
The website of the Royal College of Psychiatrists has information on sleeping well.
Tips for sleeping well include:
Stress uses up a lot of energy. Try to introduce relaxing activities into your day. This could be:
Whatever relaxes you will improve your energy.
Read more about how to relieve stress.
There's some evidence that talking therapies such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might help to fight fatigue, or tiredness caused by stress, anxiety or low mood.
See a GP for a referral for talking treatment on the NHS, or for advice on seeing a private therapist.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends that anyone feeling tired should cut out caffeine. It says the best way to do this is to gradually stop having all caffeine drinks over a 3-week period.
Caffeine is found in:
Try to stay off caffeine completely for a month to see if you feel less tired without it.
You may find that not consuming caffeine gives you headaches. If this happens, cut down more slowly on the amount of caffeine that you drink.
Although a couple of glasses of wine in the evening can help you fall asleep, you sleep less deeply after drinking alcohol. The next day you'll be tired, even if you sleep a full 8 hours.
Cut down on alcohol before bedtime. You'll get a better night's rest and have more energy.
The NHS recommends that men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units a week, which is equivalent to 6 pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine.
Try to have several alcohol-free days each week.
Read more about how to cut down on alcohol.
Sometimes you feel tired simply because you're mildly dehydrated.
A glass of water will do the trick, especially after exercise.
Read about healthy drinks.
Need a lazy day? It happens to the best of us. In these busy times, taking the occasional lazy day isn’t just alright but much needed.
But if you find that you’re taking lazy days more often than not, and you’re having trouble getting things done, it could be a sign that there’s something going on.
A lack of passion for your job, an overwhelming to-do list, and even an underlying medical condition are just some of the things that can interfere with your desire to get things done.
We cover all the bases here and tell you how to stop laziness so you can be more productive.
“How can I stop laziness?” The answer may not be as cut and dry as you’d expect. While some people may be more prone to being lazy than others, even highly productive people can find it challenging to get things done sometimes.
Here are some tips to help you get rid of laziness and get a grasp on your productivity.
Setting unrealistic goals and taking on too much can lead to burnout. While not an actual clinical diagnosis, the symptoms of burnout are recognized by medical professionals. Job burnout can cause exhaustion, loss of interest and motivation, and a longing to escape.
Avoid overloading by setting smaller, attainable goals that will get you where you want to be without overwhelming you along the way.
Perfectionism is on the rise and it’s taking a psychological toll.
One 2017 study that looked at college students between 1989 and 2016 found an increase in perfectionism over the years. Researchers noted “young people [are] now facing more competitive environments, more unrealistic expectations, and more anxious and controlling parents than generations before.”
This rise in perfectionism is causing people to be overly critical of themselves and others.
It’s also led to an increase in depression and anxiety.
Another smaller study of college students concluded that expecting perfection was related to avoidant coping, which causes you to avoid dealing with stressors.
Negative self-talk can derail your efforts to get things done in every aspect of your life. Telling yourself that you’re a lazy person is a form of negative self-talk.
You can stop your negative internal voice by practicing positive self-talk. Instead of saying, “There’s no way I can get this done,” say, “I’ll give it my all to make it happen.”
Planning how you will get something done can make it easier to get there. Be realistic about how much time, effort, and other factors are needed to meet your goal and create an action plan. Having a plan will provide direction and confidence that can help even if you hit a hurdle along the way.
Take a moment to think about what your strengths are when setting goals or gearing up to tackle a task.
Try to apply them to different aspects of a task to help you get things done. Research has shown that focusing on strengths increases productivity, positive feelings, and engagement in work.
Patting yourself on the back for a job well done can help motivate you to keep going. Consider writing down all of your accomplishments along the way in everything you do, whether at work or home. It’s a great way to boost your confidence and positivity, and fuel you to carry on.
Many people believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. But not asking for help could be setting you up for failure. A 2018 study found that people who don’t ask coworkers for help were more likely to be dissatisfied in their jobs and had lower levels of job performance. They were also perceived less favorably by their employers.
Asking for help improves your chances of success and helps you connect with others who can encourage and motivate you.
We all have our favorite distractions we turn to when we’re just not feeling like doing a task — whether it’s scrolling through social media or playing with a pet.
Find ways to make your distractions less accessible. This can mean finding a quiet place to work, like the library or an empty room, or using an app to block sites that you scroll mindlessly when you should be on task.
We tend to avoid jobs that we find boring or tedious. Chores like cleaning the gutters or bathroom will never be loads of fun, but you can make them more enjoyable. Try listening music or a podcast, or put on your fitness tracker to see how many calories you burn or steps you get while performing these tasks.
Getting a job done is a reward in itself, but some people are driven by external rewards. Focus on what you’ll gain from getting something done, like getting closer to a promotion, or reward yourself for a job well done.
Celebrate the end of a big project with a night out or invite friends over for drink after a day of cleaning.
When it comes to how to stop laziness, making some healthy changes can be the best way to go.
Are you wondering “how can I stop being lazy?” Some foods increase your energy and keep your blood sugar stable so you’re less likely to feel sluggish and lazy. High-protein foods do this, such as:
Nutrition and productivity are linked. Steer clear of foods that drain your energy because they’re slow to digest or cause blood sugar spikes. These include:
Along with numerous other benefits, exercise is a surefire way to get rid of laziness. Just a few minutes of exercise can increase energy levels, improve mood, and reduce anxiety, stress, and depression — all of which can make you feel drained and unmotivated.
Try a short walk or bike ride to combat that lazy feeling.
There are many things you can do to sleep better at night — from avoiding screen time just before bed to limiting nap time during the day.
Aim to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night to feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead.
Stress can drain you so you feel too mentally and physically exhausted to do anything. Finding strategies for coping with stress can help improve your mood and give you back the energy and drive to get things done. Time with loved ones, cuddling a pet, and soaking in the tub are just a few ideas.
The benefits of drinking water are endless and many can help fight laziness. Staying hydrated can boost energy levels and brain function. It also helps maximize physical performance. A few sips of water can also help perk you up if you’re feeling sluggish.
Increased energy levels thanks to improved circulation and oxygen are just a couple of the benefits of quitting smoking.
Quitting can also boost your immune system, improve your sex life, and lower your risk of several serious conditions.
Quitting smoking can be difficult, but your doctor can help you create a personalized plan of action.
Sometimes it’s not laziness, but a symptom of an underlying condition that may be stopping you from doing the things you should. If you find you’ve lost interest in doing things you would normally enjoy and don’t have the energy or focus to get things done, talk to a doctor.
Many mental health conditions can cause symptoms that you may mistake for laziness, such as lack of motivation, chronic fatigue, and social withdrawal. These conditions include:
Medical conditions can cause changes to your energy levels and prevent you from being able to function the way you normally would.
Examples of these are:
Laziness isn’t always a bad thing, and everyone deserves a slow day now and again. Figuring out how to stop being lazy may be as simple as changing the way you approach certain tasks and adopting healthier lifestyle.
If you’re having trouble finding the energy and desire to do things more often, speak to a doctor to determine if an underlying medical condition may be responsible.
July 14, 2017, 15:30,
when learning to brush his own teeth or lace up his shoes. And in the school of idleness they even declare war. Suffice it to recall that on the flyleaf of the primer there were in bold type proverbs like "Laziness is worse than illness.
" Modern doctors have something to answer both folk wisdom and those who consider laziness the fruit of spoilage, improper upbringing and bad heredity. According to doctors, laziness is a disease, or rather, its symptom.
An obsessive alarm clock, coffee on the run, sitting in front of the computer all day... Go to a foreign language course, sign up for a gym or swimming pool, meet college friends - all these plans are again and again postponed until later .
What is it: banal laziness and lack of willpower? Most likely no. Constant lethargy, lack of motivation, irritability and absent-mindedness can be symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Surprisingly, a disease that causes insurmountable laziness in a person most often affects workaholics.
Read also
Fighting depression: yoga and pet therapy for stress and bad mood
Chronic fatigue syndrome was first described by American doctors in the mid-eighties of the XX century after they examined thousands of patients who complained of constant lethargy , irritability and apathy.
It turned out that almost all of them lived in big cities and worked hard.
"From a medical point of view, laziness is a completely natural reaction of our body. If a person constantly works at the limit of his strength, the brain tries to protect itself from a stressful situation. And the unwillingness to do anything can slow down a workaholic," says therapist Elena Tikhomirov.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is like a speed limiter in a car. Exceeded the allowed limit - and a signal starts beeping in the cabin, warning that moving faster is life-threatening.
When the "speed" of our life is exceeded, the body produces stress hormones - adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol. In extreme situations, these substances help a person quickly navigate and escape from danger: they speed up the pulse, increase blood pressure, and stimulate the brain. That is why a person begins to think faster, becomes more resilient, can withstand cold, hunger, and even blood loss. But for our benefit, these substances work only in situations that really threaten life and health.
Usually this is a short period of time, and when the danger is left behind, relaxation sets in.
From a medical point of view, laziness is a completely natural reaction of our body. If a person is constantly working at the limit of his strength, the brain tries to protect itself from a stressful situation. And what can slow down a workaholic is just the unwillingness to do anything
Elena Tikhomirova
Therapist
If there is no relaxation, the constant high level of stress hormones causes hypertension, insomnia, disorders of the heart and stomach, and rapid skin aging. After a few months of living in such a rhythm, the resources of the body are depleted, and the person feels lethargic, overwhelmed, indifferent to everything, that is, lazy. But he has to keep going.
“Sometimes a person pushes himself too hard: “I have to be better than others”, “I have to get more than others”, “to be better than others, you have to try harder,” says psychologist Pavel Volzhenkov, — as a result, a person breaks the balance of work and rest, drives himself to such an extent that he leaves three to four hours to sleep.
Working at this pace is like trying to run a marathon at the speed of a sprinter. Meanwhile, the main rule of long-distance runners is the ability to distribute forces. Therefore, doctors recommend that workaholics reduce their workload by at least twenty percent in order to really achieve success at work and at the same time stay healthy.
Another serious cause of constant fatigue and apathy is chronic sleep deprivation. Workaholics often neglect sleep and either work at night or do things they don’t have time to do during the day: meet friends, go shopping or go to the movies.
But in the evening, the brain starts producing the hormone melatonin, which makes you want to sleep. Melatonin is both our doctor and worker: while we sleep, it restores strength, strengthens the immune system, and slows down the aging of the body.
Read also
How to survive a gloomy summer without emotional losses: advice from psychiatrists and psychologists
It is most active from twelve to three in the morning.
With a lack of sleep, the production of melatonin decreases, the biorhythms of the body go astray, which is why we cannot fall asleep, even if we are deadly tired, and in the morning we wake up with difficulty and feel overwhelmed.
“Nature created a person so that his brain would rest at night and work during the day,” says cardiologist and therapist Nizami Guliyev, “during sleep, the brain processes and assimilates the information it has received during the day, as if making room for a new one. If a person does not get enough sleep ", but at the same time it works at the usual intense rhythm, the brain is simply not able to process information quickly. It's like a computer with a small amount of memory that was forced to download a heavy video. It will do it very slowly."
After a night spent on the next project, the body will tend to rest and resist the flow of new information. Working in this state is perceived as a traumatic factor from which one must hide. So, the surging laziness and desire to do anything, if only not work, is quite natural.
Lack of physical activity can also cause laziness. When we spend the whole day at a sedentary job and our body is essentially inactive, the number of impulses from the muscles to the nervous system decreases, the blood is poorly oxygenated. As a result, the working capacity of the brain decreases, memory and concentration deteriorate. And we feel lethargy, weakness and ... unwillingness to work.
If a person does not get enough sleep, but at the same time works in the usual intensive rhythm, the brain is simply not able to process information quickly. It's like a computer with a small amount of memory, which was forced to download a heavy video. He will do it very slowly. and if this is not possible, get off one stop earlier from home and walk a couple of kilometers on foot. Get a dog and walk it for at least forty minutes in the morning and evening.”Research scientists have shown that regular and moderate physical activity improves short-term memory and concentration by almost thirty percent.
So companies that provide their employees with discounted memberships to fitness clubs actually provide a higher efficiency of their work.
"...similar to an English spleen, in short: Russian melancholy"
But what if a person has no health problems, gets enough sleep, moves enough, does not work hard, and yet strives with all his heart for idleness? It turns out that he is the same lazy person? Not at all. Most likely, such a person is simply not doing his job or is experiencing psychological stress.
Read also
Tea won’t drink itself: what to do so that work doesn’t bring you to depression
this or that action, - explains the psychologist Pavel Volzhenkov, - in fact, a person simply defends himself if he does something that he does not like. For example, if a person goes to work that does not bring him satisfaction. "
Laziness as a result of satiety with life or greenhouse education, according to psychologists, is extremely rare.
More often it is a shield with which a person closes himself from the need to make an important decision for himself.
After all, it will entail changes in the established life, uncertainty and, possibly, failures, which people always try to avoid.
So, if bouts of laziness periodically come over you, do not rush to scold yourself, but rather try to figure out if you like what you are doing. And when you decide to change, don't forget what Confucius said: "Choose a job you love and you won't work a single day in your life." Probably the best guide for lazy people is difficult to come up with.
Karina Saltykova
How to stop being lazy and take control of your life
We dare to assume that there is not a single person in the whole wide world who has never been lazy. After all, even a true workaholic at least once in his life gave himself a slack and spent the whole day doing nothing. But an isolated case is trifles, compared with chronic laziness, which simply needs to be fought. We tell you how.
Self-hypnosis
This method really works.
All you need is to force yourself to take on the most difficult and unpleasant work that you constantly put off until later. How to force? Yes, just tell yourself that you will work for 5-10 minutes and quit if you don’t feel like it. As a rule, when a business moves from a standstill, a person has a motivation to finish it as soon as possible and never remember it again.
Planning
This method will be useful to absolutely anyone. The more carefully you write down your day, the more things you will have time to redo. The work plan must be drawn up the day before, for example, in the evening - before the working day. When planning, remember to alternate between mental and physical work, plus remember to include five-minute rest breaks ( (see also : "To Do This: How to make a to-do list that will help you stay focused").
Reward
For self-hypnosis to work, you need to promise yourself a reward for the work done. For example, you can treat yourself to a new thing, your favorite sweet, entertainment.
But remember, the amount of remuneration should correspond to the amount of work - the more you did, the more you got. You can always come to the method when your existence turns into a lazy seal day.
Gradually, you will develop a conditioned reflex "work - prize" and, perhaps, the reward will no longer be needed, and you will start doing everything automatically.
Organize your space
Sort out your desk - put away unnecessary items, put documents in folders, put books and magazines in their places. It is important that there is order around, otherwise it will distract you from work. In the end, you will do nothing and will only find excuses for yourself.
Chunking
Breaking down large tasks into smaller ones helps you tune in. For example, you need to do general cleaning, but laziness does not allow you to get down to business - divide it into small tasks and distribute it over a week (for example, today you clean the kitchen, tomorrow - the living room, on the third day - the bedroom, etc.
). So, you will be less tired, and the cleaning will be better. The same can be done with large work projects, presentations, speeches, and the like.
Training
Some things you just need to accustom yourself to, so that they become a habit, and you do them with ease. For example, such matters include morning exercises, early rise, household chores, reading books, and compiling important documents. At the beginning it will be very difficult, but actions regularly repeated through force will soon not make you remind yourself.
At first glance, this is a very strange piece of advice, but it actually works. This, first of all, refers to laziness at work. Very often, from overwork, people begin to be capricious, lazy and put off everything for later. But after resting for a couple of weeks in another country (or in a boarding house), not remembering work and household chores, you will gain strength and recharge your batteries for another year. If you can’t take a vacation or go far away, you can unload and shake yourself up in other ways - go in for extreme sports or sign up for some interesting courses.
