One Question

I hear so many friends saying they are too tired to do anything most of the time and that led me to giving the topic some OneQuestion thought time.

I’ve done all sorts of jobs in my years and I know one thing is certain about tiring work – nothing is more tiring than not having enough to do. I’m sure there’ll be some ancient Chinese proverb on the subject, and when I find one I’ll add it in.

With that principle out of the way let’s assume for the rest of this piece that your feeling tired is not because you don’t have enough to do. Sometimes fatigue can get to such a state that you feel like you have flu symptoms even though you know you’re not ill. Saturday comes around and you can hardly drag yourself off the sofa, let alone fulfil all those lovely social plans you’ve made. I’ve been there, and I’m determined not to go back.

Here’s a few things I do to combat feeling whacked out all of the time:

• Sleep! Too obvious? Well it would seem not. There are too many people in my office who love the idea that they thrive on 6 hours or less of sleep a day. One glance at them tells you they’re fooling themselves. Target eight hours and do all you can to get seven at least. I’ll write another blog soon on getting to sleep in the first place. I know it’s hell for some.
• Take breaks. Get up from your desk, go walk around, ideally outside. Office air ain’t good at the best of times, and new office air is worse still as it tends to be laden with toxins that are off-gassed from all the synthetic materials most offices are built from. The break allows you to take a different perspective on that thing you’re working on and stimulates your mind again.
• Drink more water. Just don’t forget to drink or you effectively give yourself a sort of hangover from dehydration.
• Do interesting stuff! Yeah, I know it’s not possible all the time, but the interesting stuff re-invigorates your mind, as will discussing what you’re doing with someone else. Just sitting in different places helps.
• Drink less booze. Sorry, I know it’s boring, but booze wrecks your sleep. Even if you get enough hours your body is so busy repairing the damage you don’t get the chance to rest enough.
• Exercise more. It’ll give you the get up and go you need to do what you need to do. And you look better too.