Home Remedies for Energy: 9 Best Ways to Boost Productivity and Mood

​​Being in a mental rut can harm our health, productivity, and mood. Constantly bombarding ourselves with tasks, either through procrastination or just straight-up overworking ourselves, can give way to heightened levels of stress and anxiety. So, let’s look at nine ways to help boost our productivity and mood.

1. Sleep Well, Work Better.

Sleeping is a fantastic, and probably the easiest, home remedy to boost energy. Our mind and body are interconnected, so keeping one healthy ensures the other will do the same. A good start is maximizing sleep quality. Sticking to a structured sleep routine that provides our body with at least 8 hours of sleep will ensure consistent energy levels during the day. But for this to work, you must stick to a specific bedtime and wake-up time. Inconsistent sleep patterns can fuel sleep disorders, and are almost as harmful to the body as little to no sleep.

2. A Healthy Body Means an Optimized Brain

As mentioned above, our body and brain are interconnected. We have talked about resting our bodies, but what about fueling them? Well, certain foods that are high in vitamin B12 — one of the main vitamins known for energy enhancement—can help boost energy levels, giving you the fuel needed to get through the day. Fish, meat, poultry, and other dairy products are high in B12. Incorporating this vitamin into your diet can help power both your mind and body, helping you take on whatever life throws at you. A balanced diet full of vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and complex carbohydrates is the best way to support your body.

3. Stop Working, Start Walking

We know this may seem counterintuitive, but taking a step back from a task or assignment can actually help you get it done quicker! Physical activity is not only crucial for the body, but it also promotes mental well-being. And Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean maxing your deadlift between workouts paragraphs  – it can be something as simple as going for a walk around the block or doing some quick yoga or tai chi. Just Simply getting your body moving helps relieve symptoms of stress which can significantly inhibit productivity. Before you even start your work, early morning workouts have been said to get your mind and body prepared for the day. Regular exercise can also support healthy blood sugar levels, grow your muscles, combat stress hormones, reduce tiredness, and promote better sleep.

4. Put Down the Phone

Social media, texting, and phone calls ranked as the 4th biggest workplace distractions only behind bathroom breaks and talking with coworkers. We’ve all been there: a text message alert or a Twitter notification goes off, and you are instantly entranced into the endless rabbit hole that is your cell phone. There are a bunch of simple ways to prevent this from happening. For starters, make lifestyle changes to keep your phone and work separately. This can go as far as keeping it in a different room, whatever prevents you from distracting yourself. Other methods, such as putting your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and “Airplane Mode,” can immensely cut down distractions without feeling disconnected.

5. Organize Your Workspace

For many, a cluttered workspace = a cluttered mind. Having a clean workspace can work as a productivity “placebo.” You can trick yourself into working harder when your surroundings are organized. Everyone has their own gauge on what is considered to be “tidy,” so do whatever you think is necessary. If it means just clearing off your desk, then go for it. And if “clean” means sanitizing all of your work materials, then do that, but just make sure not to overdo it; there is a fine line between organizing your workspace and plainly pushing off work. Find that balance. Find that productivity.

6. Be Conservative With Caffeine

Caffeine is the world’s most popular stimulant – and for good reason. A cup of strong coffee or tea in the morning perks you up and sharpens your focus, but it’s not without its drawbacks.

Moderate caffeine intake doesn’t typically pose any major problems for your productivity and mood, but too much of the stimulant certainly can. You might turn to more coffee as an afternoon pick-me-up, but more caffeine doesn’t always mean more productivity. In fact, caffeine use might actually lower your productivity and end up making you irritable before it ultimately makes you crash.

Why does too much caffeine sometimes negatively affect your productivity and mood? Two words: dependence and withdrawals. When your body gets used to relying on caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea, it starts intensely craving that next sip. That means you might feel cranky and mentally foggy until you have another cup.

To avoid withdrawals and maintain a healthy relationship with caffeine, try to moderate your intake and limit that intake to a certain time of day, and make sure you are still drinking enough water to prevent dehydration.

Try enjoying one or two cups of coffee or tea through the morning and very early afternoon, then cutting off your intake until the next day to ward off an energy spike followed by exhaustion.

7. Plan Your Day Ahead of Time

One of the most avoidable sources of feeling stressed comes from the lack of a plan for the day. Even if you love to live spontaneously, there’s nothing worse than forgetting to do something important, then remembering it at the very end of the day and feeling overwhelmed because you don’t have the time or resources to do it.

By using a digital or physical calendar to keep track of daily tasks, you’re taking a proactive step towards better productivity and an elevated mood. Why? Because humans forget things. We often need a visual aid to remember what we need to do each day, which is why calendars and to-do lists are so helpful.

Your daily agenda doesn’t need to be too specific to boost your productivity. All you need to do is write down anything you’re worried about forgetting, as well as anything that you know you need to get done by the end of the day. That way, you won’t be solely relying on your brainpower to keep the day organized and running smoothly, and you’ll have gentle reminders that can help you set expectations for the day.

8. Try Co-Working

The pandemic of the 2020s led to major changes in the way many people work. If you’re one of the millions of people who now work from home, you’ve probably had trouble staying motivated and focused while working on your own.

If you can’t seem to escape the distractions of your house, it might be time to check out a co-working space.

Co-working environments are designed to give remote workers a chance to connect, collaborate, and escape the isolation that often comes with doing your job at home.

There are numerous benefits of physically working alongside others even if you’re working on different things, including increased productivity and an elevated mood, which makes the co-working model even more attractive for many remote workers.

9. Reduce Distractions in Your Work Environment

We’ve already discussed the way your phone can sabotage your productivity at work. However, there are plenty of other potential distractions that might derail your focus and make it harder to get things done.

Factors like background noise, talkative coworkers, or even your family just walking around the house when you work from home can all make it harder for you to get your work done. Thankfully, there are easy ways to avoid these distractions.

Creating a noise-free space where you work can be as easy as using a high-quality pair of noise-canceling headphones, which can also solve the problem of chatty coworkers.

Conclusion

Feeling run down can have a lasting impact on our short-term productivity, leaving us feeling defeated and mentally exhausted. But simple changes to the way we carry on through the day can help boost productivity and increase energy levels. Simple changes to our sleeping patterns and diet are two vital ways we can achieve this added boost in energy. Other changes such as exercise and work habits can help maximize productivity without stretching ourselves too far. These tips do not have to be followed verbatim but should act as a guide in helping you navigate what best fits your lifestyle.

Sources:

How Sleep Satisfaction Can Affect Energy Levels | Sleep Foundation

Exercise and stress: Get moving to manage stress | Mayo Clinic

Using Planners and Calendars | UNC Learning Center