7 Strategies to Fight Fatigue During the Work Day
Author: Cora Gold
Do you find yourself yawning your way through the work day or can’t seem to keep your eyes open at your desk? Fatigue is a normal part of daily rhythm, so if you’re feeling the afternoon slump, you’re not alone. However, if your daytime drowsiness impacts your performance at work or your satisfaction with your job, it may be time to try something new.
A recent joint study with the US and UK highlighted some reasons for women’s exhaustion in the workplace. A substantial gender gap in pay, household responsibilities, and advancement opportunities lead to more burnout and extreme fatigue.
Add to the mix the penchant for multitasking with high anxiety levels in daily decision-making, and you have the perfect storm for sleepiness. Try some strategies to fight off fatigue at work to help you combat these feelings and accomplish more with your day.
1. Stock Nutritious Snacks
Many working women powering their way through the day forget to stop for snacks or skip meals altogether. While it may seem like you get more work done, you’re actually hurting your productivity, focus, and wellbeing. Your blood sugar can get low after a few hours with no food, making you feel tired and shaky.
Instead of reaching for coffee, keep emergency snacks at your desk or pack them with your lunch. If you can, avoid processed foods and things with added sugar. Aim for a balanced snack with healthy fat, protein, and fiber to keep you feeling satiated until your next meal.
2. Work With Your Body’s Rhythm
Everyone’s natural energy rhythms are a bit different. As a basic example, people label themselves as either night owls or early birds.
You can use these peaks and valleys to boost your productivity and fight fatigue at work. The idea is to schedule your most challenging projects for the times when your body has the most energy and save breaks and more mundane tasks for your dips.
Try tracking your energy levels each hour for at least a week until you begin to see patterns. Perhaps you’ll notice your energy is low when you first arrive at work, but you have a spike in energy later that lasts for two and a half hours. Work with these times to create a work schedule better suited to your needs.
3. Move Around Each Hour
When you feel tired, the last thing you probably want to do is get up and move around. Even though it sounds counterintuitive, inactivity can make you feel exhausted.
If your job keeps you tied to a desk, you’ll need to find creative ways to incorporate more movement into your routine. Park farther away from your office or walk to work if possible, take the stairs or talk to people rather than send an email. There are countless ways to fit some exercise into your day.
Aim to get up from your desk at least once an hour. Doing so will speed up your heart rate and increase the amount of oxygen in your blood, which helps your body create and use energy more efficiently. You’ll also get a minor boost of feel-good endorphins, which can help you push through the afternoon slump.
4. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
All of your body’s systems need water to function correctly. When you aren’t taking the time to hydrate throughout your workday, you’ll begin to feel sluggish.
Try keeping a bottle of water at your desk or take frequent breaks to stretch and stand up to get water. If you’re having difficulty remembering, set a reminder on your phone or download one of many possible apps that will send you drink alerts.
Don’t like the taste of water? Try adding in fruits or mint to add flavor. Another option would be to drink coconut water. The taste is different from regular water and is full of electrolytes, which your body also needs to feel awake and ready for the day.
5. Find Ways to Boost Your Mood
Your mental health and stress levels can significantly affect your energy levels at work. Powering through the day like nothing is bothering you will build those negative feelings until you’re dealing with more severe issues like chronic stress, depression, and burnout.
Keep things from getting that far by doing little mood-boosting actions throughout your work day. Create a playlist of instrumental music that inspires you or brings you joy. Use your work breaks to get away from technology and color, meditate or go for a walk. Take a moment right now to brainstorm some ideas for small activities you can do at work to help improve your mood and energy levels.
Another possibility is to dress up your space with items that bring you peace or make you smile, like a cute stuffed animal or pictures of your family and friends — something personal to you.
6. Skip the Morning Coffee
Your morning cup of joe might send you into a tailspin the rest of the day. Caffeine can help you focus and improve your alertness for a while. However, the effects only last a few hours before you feel the crash, which makes you reach for another cup.
Before you know it, it’s time for bed and you feel wired but tired simultaneously, setting you up for a less-than-ideal night’s sleep and a poor start to your following day. Does this sound familiar?
If you’re deep in a caffeine habit, don’t try to give it up cold turkey. Withdrawal from coffee is no joke and can leave you irritable and depleted. Instead, back off one cup each week until you can give it up. Replace your caffeine with something more hydrating like water, herbal tea, or coconut water.
7. Create an End-of-Day Ritual
Setting healthy boundaries between your work and home life is probably the best thing you could do for your mental health, satisfaction with work, and overall energy levels. When work bleeds into your personal life, you never truly get a break to unwind and recharge.
If you find yourself answering calls and emails outside of hours or routinely bringing projects home to work on, you’re setting yourself up for burnout. Nobody wants to return to work day after day when they’ve been doing the same thing each night.
Learn to say no to after-hours work. Establish a boundary between those two spheres of your life and you’ll likely feel much better. To help you separate the two, create an end-of-day ritual you can look forward to and will help you switch gears.
Some people unwind during their daily commute, while others like to tidy their space to set themselves up for the next day. Certain people even enjoy getting in a workout right after work. Try to keep whatever you choose consistent, so your mind associates the activity with the end of the work day and the beginning of personal time
Fight Fatigue All Day
It’s normal to feel tired during the day. If you’re working eight hours or more each day, you can easily wear yourself thin if you’re not careful. Even if you love your job, taking care of yourself should always be a priority.
Next time you feel that afternoon slump, listen to your body. Try any of these strategies to fight fatigue and be your best self during the work day.