Tag: energy

Energy and Productivity

You know what I’m struggling with lately? Really noticeable low energy levels. I’ve been on a mission to tackle this. Starting with a visit to my family doctor, to ensure all of my blood levels were normal. My iron is a bit low, so I’ve started on daily iron pills to help improve that. But that can take up to three months to see any effects. So I was wondering what else can I do? I’m going to be tested for low b12 levels. I think this could be a culprit because I really don’t eat a lot of meat or animal product, of which is the major source of b12 in human diets. So that could also be a contributing factor.

But I wanted to know what else I could do to optimize my energy levels on a daily basis, especially when I needed them to be heightened, specifically in classes and at work.

So I went on an internet mission to see what I could do to, to a) improve my energy levels but also b) increase my productivity.

Here is what I’m testing out:

  1. Increase in super foods throughout the day
    –>Adding chia to my breakfast either in overnight oats, smoothies, or scrambled eggs
    –>Mid morning snacks filled with healthy fats and protein by way of home made muffins inspired by Oh She Glow’s Pumpkin Muffins, and adding some almonds to the mix.
  2. Planning out lunches and dinners for the week. I tried to crowd source some easy, grab and go lunch ideas, and Sunny Lenarduzzi suggested a quinoa salad. I’ll be putting that together early this week, and alternating that with my homemade barley and veg soup.
  3. Dinner I’m trying to limit the amount of meat I consume. So ranging with options of homemade pizza, with dough from Bowen Island Pizza Co (Friday night’s treat), veggie stir fry, and turkey tacos among a few others. I hope this also helps me save energy from having to worry about “What’s for dinner”.
  4.  A morning routine-I came across this video from Chase Jarvis care of Sunny Lenarduzzi on Twitter, who talks about how is prioritizes his times into 90 minute chunks. He also links to his top 6 morning routines that keep him at his best. Take a look at that video and let me know what you think. What I’m taking away from them are:
    –>WALKING more. I scheduled in a weekly walk for my boyfriend and I this past week, and we walked for 40 minutes! I was impressed with us, and thought we were really cute, so I want to continue this. I also want to try to add it more into my day-to-day
    –>WATER-I need to get into the habit of carrying my water bottle around more. I want to constantly be sipping on water.

I’m still on the hunt for a few more productivity resources that I can use to improve my days. These are the ones that I will be starting with to focus my energy levels.

Do you have any resources you recommend or that you tune to? Please leave a comment and let me know!

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Narrowing My Focus

Going back to school this past September, has really opened my eyes to a sense of balance. There are four main areas that are top priority for me:
1. School-doing well
2. Personal relationships-maintaining them and treating them properly
3. Wellness-taking care of my health through physical activity and proper nutrition
4. Financial-my back account desparately marks it’s level of importance in my priorities

What I’ve really been noticing is that I am not managing these areas very well. Physical activity has absolutely fallen to the wayside. Nutrition, is creeping its way back up, especially with the support of my boyfriend. Financial, absolutely forced it’s way back in. Personal relationships are currently coasting, I’m not putting an extreme amount of energy into it but they are holding strong. And school. Well school is needing the majority of my time and energy, but it is not getting as much as I want to or need to give it.

I read a post last week, from where I cannot exactly remember but it was from Elizabeth Gilbert, that esentially examined where her energy goes. She originally identified as a low energy individual but upon reexamining her life she found that she was just putting energy into places that were absolutely draining.

This got me thinking. I have also identified as a low energy person. I love my naps. I always have thought there was something wrong with my physiologically causing this. At first, poorly controlled diabetes. Then I got on top of that so it couldn’t be the cause. Then I had low, but not anemic levels, iron. I haven’t addressed this, because I am very inconsistent with medication that requires me to take pills. But as I’m not anemic, I’ve deduced that the level at which I preseve my energy levels to be is far too extremely low to be attributed solely to this. My energy levels are a constant staple in my mind, but often at the very bottom of the priority list of things I need to address. So when I read this post from Elizabeth Gilbert, I stopped and looked at where my natural level of energy was going.

I don’t drain my energy obviously, to myself. I devout most of my time to school. I’m an older student now and realize how I best study, and the enormous amount of time that is needed. But even so, I realize I’m not the most efficient with this time. I need to commit to figuring out a better strategy to retain and understand the most information but also have energy remaining to address the other areas that are a priority for me.

This thought process has really shed light on where and how I spend my time. Have you heard of that saying “We all have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce.”? Well I am working on figuring out HOW to be as efficient as possible. It is more of an ongoing process, now that I’m focused on a goal at school. Hoping too that the learning curve is quick as I wrap up my first semester back.

Have you thought much about where your energy goes? Are you spending your time on your top priorities? Leave a comment, I would love to know!

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