8 Ways to Energize Your Afternoons

Posted 7 months, 1 week ago at 11:30 am. 0 comments

When afternoon lulls hit, they hit hard. And when you’re trying to be productive and have a great day, nothing brings down your energy like the feeling you’re being hit by a semi-truck.

Afternoons are a bit different than mornings for several reasons. First, the boost of energy you feel in the mornings is generally gone by 2pm, and you’re left will willpower, motivation, and self-discipline to get you through the rest of the day. Second, you’re likely to be burnt out from a mass of projects that you’ve been chipping at since 9AM. Lastly, you’re frazzled from having to deal with distractions all day.

I know where you’re coming from. I feel your pain - afternoon blues plague me too. Fortunately, I have some tips you can use to re-energize your afternoons, so you can accomplish everything you want to on a given day.

1. Make a plan of what you want to accomplish. With a crystal clear plan of what you want to get done, you automatically become more motivated. Working without a plan in the afternoon is like trying to drive through fog - you can only see so far in front of you. Fuzzy, unclear goals are no good; they’re entirely de-motivating. Decide exactly what you want to do, write it down, and get to work.
2. Deliberately schedule some downtime. One of the major problems people have with afternoon scheduling is that they try to cram in every little task they can think of because they want to stay “productive”. Unfortunately, productivity suffers when you start running out of steam. Take breaks liberally if you can. The more energized you are, the more creative and focused your thinking and actions will become.
3. Don’t skip out on the caffeine. It’s odd to say this, but if you’re one of those people who is a major coffee drinker, and you bypass your afternoon cup of coffee, your late afternoon and evening will be a nightmare. Drink the cup(s) of coffee to bypass caffeine headaches and to give you a quick burst of energy.
4. Do some light exercising. No, no, you don’t have to go running for 30 minutes around your neighborhood. Just do some light exercises that are energizing. Take a quick 5~10 minute walk around your block, or lift a couple of 1lb weights for several reps. Even dancing in your chair for a few minutes will boost your heart rate and make you feel a bit more alert and energetic!
5. Listen to uplifting, upbeat music. This is the perfect reason to put in your Madonna CD! When you hear music with a good beat that makes you happy, those feelings immediately rub off on you. How many times have you been in the car when your favorite song comes on, and you can’t help but smile and belt it out for the world to hear? That is what your afternoon music should do to you! Put in some tunes that make you feel great, and watch your enthusiasm level soar.
6. Review your goals and aspirations. Knowing why you’re working on (what you think are) asinine, boring projects is a class of motivation in itself. Taking a look at your current goals and lifelong aspirations can make you realize why you want to have a productive afternoon - which in turn will make you feel more motivated and inspired to take action on even the dullest of projects.
7. Talk to the people you care about most. Call up a friend or significant other when your afternoons start to go to waste. You’re a person - and people are extremely social creatures who want to talk to other like-minded persons like themselves. Just hearing another person’s encouraging words can be enough motivation for you to finish that project you’ve been procrastinating for months on.
8. … don’t do anything productive at all! Yeah, I know… Bad advice, right? I don’t think so! Everybody has those days where nothing goes right. You spill hot coffee on yourself, you accidentally throw away an important paper, you snap at your boss, something sad happens in your life, and you got the wrong order at McDonalds when you went to get lunch. If this sounds like the story of your afternoon, just think about taking the rest of the day off, if possible, and relax as much as you can. You can always start your projects where you left off tomorrow morning.