How to Stop Feeling Tired in the Afternoon

- It's 3:00 p.m. and your motivation to do literally anything has evaporated. You feel

tired

, you can't concentrate, and the thought of starting any of the tasks on your to-do list is mentally exhausting. In other words, you have reached the

afternoon

crisis and you are not alone. Millions of people around the world suffer from this wave of

tired

ness during the early

afternoon

every day, which is actually a problem for me because people who are tired tend not to watch YouTube for as long, so let me help you very quickly. . (creaking) Is this in the frame? Is this helping?

Are you awake? Well, I hope that helped at least a little. Let's go back to the video. As I just said, this is something that happens to millions of people. If you get tired in the afternoon, if you feel like you should go to bed but for some reason the sun is still out, well, that's an absolutely common experience. So what I want to do today is share a three-step process that you can follow whenever you find yourself in an afternoon slump, fighting that afternoon brain fog. Going over these things can help you regain at least some of your energy to tackle the rest of your to-do list before you call it a day.

But before we get into that, we want to answer the question of, why is this happening in the first place? Because there are definitely some controllable factors that contribute to afternoon blues, but some of them are natural. Part of this is due to something called the circadian rhythm, which is essentially this internal clock that helps keep our body's internal processes in sync with the day and night cycle, helping us fall asleep at the right time. And in doing some research for this video, I discovered that there are actually two parts of the day where we have an energy dip.

So, according to the Sleep Foundation website, for most adults, the biggest drop in energy occurs during the middle of the night, between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. m., which is the time when most people simply sleep soundly, snoozing as if nothing had happened. Stones don't actually sleep, but there is another drop in energy just after lunch time, around 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., when they start to crave that post-lunch nap. But another website I looked at, Science Daily, said this: "Strictly speaking, 'circadian rhythms are generated endogenously,' and although the definition of endogenously, and I'm not even sure if I pronounce it correctly, I didn't know what meant when I was doing this research, so I put it in there, "although they can be modulated by external signals" such as sunlight and temperature.

And keep this in mind for later in the video because what this means is that circadian rhythms are set, for the most part, internally. There's not much you can do to control them, but some things do affect them. And with that, let's move on to the first step of the process, which is refueling. Your body is essentially an engine and what you put into it, the quality of what you put into it, and when you fuel it all influence the energy you will feel at different times of the day. So in the afternoons when I start to feel tired, this is the first thing I think to do.

I want to eat something, drink something, and usually the first thing I reach for is a glass of water or a can of sparkling water. I think this is Michael Bublé's type. That's how you pronounce it, right, Bublé? And I actually like sparkling water a little bit more than regular water because when I was in college, I was super addicted to energy drinks and I kind of identified the reason for that. It wasn't necessarily the caffeine. It wasn't necessarily the taste. It was actually the fact that the energy drink, the colorful can and everything and the carbonation was kind of novel.

Somehow he injected a little excitement into an otherwise boring afternoon study session. And it was actually the power of habit that helped me differentiate these different reasons for my cravings for terrible, unhealthy energy drinks, because there was a part of the book where I talked about this afternoon habit of having to buy a cookie every day. Just one day and he started wondering what is the reward I get for getting this cookie? Is it the taste? Is it the energy boost? And I actually came to the conclusion that no, it's just this ritual that allows me to get it out of my desk and then gives me the opportunity to socialize with some of my coworkers.

So he just changed his habit of going to the water cooler or something so he could keep talking to his coworkers. So reading that really helped me identify the factors that caused my craving for those terrible, unhealthy energy drinks, the taste, the caffeine levels and also the novelty factor. And then I realized that sparkling water, especially flavored sparkling water like this, fills two of those three categories, and if I want caffeine, I can obviously drink tea or coffee. And I also want to talk about that because tea and coffee can be helpful in the afternoons, but you need to understand how the body reacts to caffeine later in the day.

There are studies showing that caffeine even six hours before bed can significantly negatively impact sleep quality, but each person's mileage may vary. So, some people can have a cup of coffee at four in the afternoon, while others, if they have caffeine at any time of the day that is p.m. In it, they will not be able to go to sleep. So again, do some testing if you want to consume caffeine in the afternoons. And you can also accompany it with a light snack. And if you are going to have a snack, the main thing here is not to resort only to simple sugars.

Do not especially opt for sweets or soft drinks, but also, if you only consume fruits and only eat simple sugars, this causes an increase in blood sugar level with a subsequent drop. So you want to combine it with some complex carbohydrates, maybe some whole wheat bread or maybe some protein, like a hard-boiled egg. In fact, my best friend Martin, who helped me write the script for this video, mentioned that you should put a hard-boiled egg inside a banana, which I sat there and thought for a second and I still can't imagine how they do it, but if any of you know what that means, put it in the comments below because I'm a little stumped.

Anyway, the second step of the process is to reset. This means stepping away from your desk and taking a break from your work. Now, for me, the best way to reset is to get out. If you remember earlier in the video, I talked about how the circadian rhythm is, for the most part, endogenous, I think that's how you pronounce it, but endogenously generated or controlled, but that there are some factors that you can use to influence it, being one of them sun exposure. So this is the main thing. Whenever I feel tired in the afternoons, I have a glass of water, maybe I make some coffee depending on the time, but the next thing is I go for a walk or take a break to go exercise or go for a walk skateboarding or skating, but whatever it is, I want to get out and get some sunlight exposure because exposure to light, especially sunlight, can be a cue to wake up the body.

In reality, sunlight is one of those external factors that really influences how the circadian rhythm is governed. And if for some reason you can't go out or you just don't want to exercise, you try to be as lazy as possible, you just get into that zen state of mind, at least let yourself go. Come back from work and take a short break to give yourself some intentional fun. Play a video game. But here's a word of warning. If a quick game of Overwatch or a quick game of Magic or whatever game that absorbs you often turns into just a few hours, then it's probably not a good way to take a break.

You want to get into something that doesn't absorb you, that doesn't distract you for a really long period of time. It just provides some mental rejuvenation. Another option could be to take a nap. Now, I did a whole video on naps about a year ago, and for me, naps aren't the most effective. I find that even if I take a 20-minute nap, where you're not supposed to fall asleep, you're not supposed to get groggy, I find myself falling into a deeper sleep and wanting to sleep for two or three hours. So it's a big waste of time for me, but again, your mileage may vary and many people get used to early or late afternoon naps.

In fact, that's why many countries have a nap culture. That brings us to step three, which is to refocus. It's time to get back to work and concentration is the key word here. I find that when I hit the afternoon slump, I often still have several tasks left to do and my brain just skims over them and nonchalantly tries to tackle each one, but I know there are a ton of them and that makes it difficult. very difficult to get into anything. And this is where a little bit of philosophy comes in for me, because a lot of people, when they talk about afternoon slumps, they're talking about the nutrition aspect, the sleep aspect, the circadian rhythm aspect, but I think the level of The interest you have in your work and how focused you are on it plays a big role in how energized you feel.

If you feel a little listless, if you don't really know what you're supposed to do, or you don't care, you'll feel tired because the brain and the body have a Two-Way Connection, right? Your body's circadian rhythm, your nutrition, all these factors influence your mental motivation, but they also influence the opposite direction. Your level of interest in your work, how focused you are, influences how energized and awake you feel physically. So if you can find a way, either intrinsically or extrinsically, to become more interested in a single task that you want to do, then you will feel a little more energized while doing it, so that's how I propose to motivate yourself externally.

First, choose a task that you have to do. You can't let your brain slide with indifference about everything. You have to focus on one thing. Second, clean your environment and prepare it for work. So clear your desktop, close any open programs that don't need to be open, close any open browser tabs, and then maybe listen to some good study music to get you into the work zone. Finally, set a timer for 25 minutes and do a Pomodoro session on the task. I find that the Pomodoro technique, where you set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on a task for the 25 minutes with no distractions or anything else coming into your focus field of vision, is actually much more helpful to me in general. in the afternoons than in the mornings and this makes sense.

In the mornings I am more mentally aware. I'm more awake. I can intrinsically focus more easily on my work. In the afternoons I feel tired. You may need a little external motivation and the Pomodoro technique really provides it. So from personal experience, I know that the three steps of this process, refuel, reset, and then refocus, are very effective in overcoming that afternoon slump. But if it's not enough for you, there are some long-term solutions you can also use and the main one I want to mention here is to change your schedule if you have the freedom to do so.

As I mentioned in my previous video, which is about my new morning routine, I mentioned that I moved my workouts from the mornings to the early afternoon or late afternoon and this had many benefits. Number one, it freed up more time for me in the mornings, which were better times to work anyway, but it also means that when the afternoon slump hits, I can just go to the gym and I often find myself with more energy when I leave the gym because I'm doing some exercise and that helps me get through that period of tiredness. So if you can, do some experiments and play with your schedule.

Hopefully, that, in combination with the three steps I shared here, will help you be more productive during your actual work hours and get over that afternoon slump, helping you reclaim more guilt-free evenings—nights you can use to pass. with friends or playing Hollow Knight for the third time or working on some personal projects that you don't have time to do during actual work hours in the mornings and evenings. And one personal project you should probably consider taking on if you haven't already is creating a professional online presence. If you want to stand out from the competition to land competitive jobs or want to make connections in your industry and establish yourself as an expert, creating a website for yourself, where you can showcase your portfolio and tell people how to contact you, is a great first step. .

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A little more professional than Gmail. And they also have a Connect feature, which can help you connect your domain with website builders, like Squarespace and Shopify. And the best part is that if you visit hover.com/thomasfrank and purchase your domain through that link, you'll get 10% off your first purchase and help support my channel. Many thanks to Hover, as always, for sponsoring this video and thanks also for watching. We hope you found this video useful. And if you have any other tips for overcoming the afternoon slump or know how to stuff a hard-boiled egg into a banana, share what you know in the comments below because, well, I don't really know how to do it and Plus, your tips definitely help others. people scrolling down for additional information.

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