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Energy-boosting life hacks that don’t involve caffeine or sugar

Published Aug 5th, 2015 5:40PM EDT

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Your busy work schedule and complex lifestyle take a massive toll on your body: You’re often exhausted during the day and feel like you have to revert to various tricks to bring your mind back in the game. More often than not, increased amounts of caffeine and sugar do the trick, but that kind of energy boost might not be what you really need long-term. Instead, there are plenty of simple life hacks to perform that can help you stay motivated during the day, even when you’re exhausted.

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As you may have guessed, the hacks include a combo of sleeping tricks, new eating habits and adding workouts to your routines.

It all starts with the way you’re actually resting your mind, a LifeHack guide reveals. Rather than staring at screens right before sleep and immediately after waking up, you should find a way to avoid them for one to two hours before going to sleep and for up to one hour when waking up in the morning.

Breakfast shouldn’t be a calorie-filled disaster. Instead of gobbling down everything in reach, you should choose something simpler, like a banana and a glass of water, and then continue to eat similar small snacks all the way to lunch time.

Going for a short jog during the day can help the mind. Exercising also releases endorphins, reduces cortisol levels and stimulates muscles and nerves, so going for a short mid-day run might be in order.

When it comes to actual work, you should find a way to get yourself a standing desk. That way you won’t have to sit all day long while working. In fact, standing might increase your focus and energy levels.

Listening to the right music should also increase your productivity. But don’t create playlists that involve humans reciting lyrics over music. Instead, choose classical music, instrumentals, techno or EDM, Lifehack advises.

On top of that, there are other mind games you can play to boost your energy levels. The Pmodoro technique involves focusing for 20 minutes on a given task and then taking a five-minute break. If breaks aren’t enough to bring back the focus, you should give your mind a jumpstart by doing something entirely different by changing venues, such as going for a walk or talking to colleagues.

One final trick you can try is creating focused to-do lists for your day to increase productivity. When something comes up, you should write it down and place it in your inbox. At set intervals during the day, you check the inbox, categorize tasks and deal with them according to their importance – inspiration for this tip comes from David Allen’s Getting Things Done book.

More details about these energy-boosting life hacks are available at the source link.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.