Ever hit that afternoon slump where you feel fatigued and unproductive? I know that I often do, but how do you prevent it or deal with it so can still be productive?
Here are a few tips to help prevent that slump and deal with it more effectively:
- Eat breakfast – eating a good breakfast will definitely make a different and set your blood sugar off to a good start for the day. If you, like me are one of those people who don't really like eating in the morning make yourself a smoothie. You can use fruit juice, yoghurt, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, ice cubes, nuts (soak overnight to help make a creamier texture), dried fruit or even powered vitamin drinks and flax seed oil to create a tasty and extremely nutritious mix that you can drink on the run. Other great options are minute oats, cereals, fruit salad, boiled/poached eggs on toast.
- Organise – deduce when your most productive time of the day is and schedule your most intricate tasks for then. Do all the things that take the most amount of concentration during those times. For me, I find that I am at my peak in the mornings, before one and in the evenings, after 5pm. Therefore I schedule my day around this starting with doing any assignments or work activities, cleaning and organising before 1pm then in the afternoons I get out of the house and do any errands I have leaving the evenings to study.
- Eat lunch – at this point you body needs more fuel to get through the rest of the day. Eat a good lunch in proportion to your appetite and make provision for a light snack later. Something simple like trail mix or dried fruit and nuts will do the trick to stabilise your blood sugar throughout the afternoon. The whole crux of the solution is the keep your blood sugar at an even keel and not to allow for sudden drops and rises.
- Take a lunch break – don't work through lunch. You need to take a break from your work/studies or you will get tired quickly. Even if it is just 20mins away from your desk, you need time to recharge and break away. Go chat to a colleague, read a magazine, have a smoke break outside.
- Change of scenery – go outside, get some fresh air, go to the bathroom and freshen up. Get away from your work for a just a few minutes. Let your mind rest and think of other things. Also, getting up and walking around will get the blood pumping once again and oxygen to all the parts of the body.