Beneath the guise of harmless habits, real energy “black holes” often lurk. Get rid of the following 8 meaningless things in your life to find new strength for priority tasks.
Cluttering your desktop
Working at an overloaded desk leads to increased inattention: dozens or even hundreds of items can be in your field of vision at the same time, which requires more effort from you in the name of concentration. As a result, fatigue sets in faster, and tasks take more time. If you justify the piles of work by the lack of a suitable place, spend a quarter of an hour ordering suitable organizers on marketplaces. Let’s be honest: spreading stacks of documents mixed with candy wrappers, drafts and office supplies are not the norm. Cleaning will be as simple as possible when each item has its own permanent place.
ou are interrupted
Putting work aside and stretching your legs is certainly useful, but it is also harmful if you take “coffee breaks” in the middle of the work process. Have breaks become a form of procrastination for you? It is important to stop working after completing a subtask so as not to waste time on re-immersion. This also applies to multitasking: “jumping” from task to task, you not only get more tired and accomplish less, but also encounter the phenomenon of “attention residue” – the brain uses some of its resources to work on unfinished processes in the background.
Watch “edgy” shows
The goal of TV people is to attract and hold your attention for as long as possible: as a result, all the “forbidden” techniques are used – they try their best to evoke emotions and form an attachment. Excessive viewing of emotionally charged TV shows can lead to overexcitement and mental exhaustion. Try to spend your “quota” of emotions on real life, which seems boring only in contrast to oversaturated TV programs. Do you feel empty after watching a particular show? For starters, try to avoid topics that particularly grab you.
Slouch
Incorrect posture puts additional strain on the muscles, joints, and ligaments of your body. The body has to spend more energy to compensate for the unhealthy position, which leads to fatigue. Exercises to strengthen the back muscles will help correct your posture. However, all means are good. The use of bandages, an ergonomic chair, or a lumbar pillow will “tell” the body the correct position and will be an appropriate first step towards solving the problem and will help to consolidate the result.
You open dozens of tabs
Are you the type of person who closes browser tabs only when they reach their maximum number? It’s time to give up this bad habit. Wandering from one necessary tab to another among other useless ones, you waste energy along the way, instead of focusing on studying the necessary information. If you accidentally find a “diamond” while surfing the Internet, add the page to your bookmarks and click the cross. Make sure that only those tabs that are needed for your current work remain open, and not everything that you managed to use this month.
You put off minor matters
Most small tasks can be accomplished in just a few minutes. Instead of feeling angry about having to devote all your energy to more important tasks, indulge in the pleasure of freeing up your brain’s working memory right here and now. Make a doctor’s appointment, reply to a text message, change a light bulb. The psychological burden of a pile of insignificant plans disproportionately depletes mental resources. Uninvited thoughts about what you haven’t done yet can cause a feeling of shame and increasing anxiety.
Over-planning
Planning allows you not to waste time and achieve your goals. But everything is good in moderation. Excessive regulation of your schedule deprives you of flexibility and forces you to live in the future, mechanically completing tasks from the list just to complete them no matter what. The quality of life in this case seriously suffers. The solution to the problem will be to include in the schedule the maximum possible number of “windows” of conditionally free time. You will definitely figure out what to spend it on without a feeling of helplessness and pressure of circumstances.
Fall asleep with the light on
Exposure to bright light at night suppresses the brain’s production of melatonin, a sleep hormone necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. The habit of falling asleep with the light on can make unwanted adjustments to the sleep-wake cycle: lead to insomnia, poor quality of night rest and subsequent loss of strength. You can adjust the “settings” of circadian rhythms with the help of the same light: dim the lights in the evening in advance and turn on bright lights in the morning (if daylight is not available). In the evening, it is advisable to stop using your smartphone in advance or switch it to night mode to avoid the blue light of the screen.