Find Your Energy Drain and Plug It!
You know those days and weeks (sometimes months) that you wake up feeling exhausted, burnt out, and drained but like you can’t quite put a finger on what you’ve accomplished and your to-do list is only getting longer? You’re not any steps closer to creating healthy habits in any areas of your life and you just can’t seem to find the motivation, energy, or discipline?
If it sounds like I’m describing the feeling really well, it’s because I know it all too well. So I hope it can only give you assurance when I say, you can make it to the other side and there’s always a way to manage it. Here’s how.
The first step to managing any low energy/burnout feelings is understanding why you’re having those feelings. It’s helpful to pull out a pen and paper and get clear on all the habits that are taking your time and energy without providing you the value you intended.
If I start without my screen and with sunlight, there’s a good chance I’ll be on my phone less throughout the day and my actions following will be more inline with my intentions. When I start my day with my screen and without a walk or outside time, my mind is scattered, by 9 am I’m already feeling behind, and it’s far easier to say “screw it” and let many other hours in my day get away from me.
As you move on to reflect on the rest of your day, you might notice energy being spent on analyzing the opinions of others, changing your outfit three times in hopes to look “good enough,” or stressing over and trying to control things you just cannot control.
The more you think about decisions, the more exhausted you’ll feel, until by the end of the day you literally have no decision making power left. Your brain’s capacity to make decisions is finite. It is limited. It will give out. So going between 3–5 outfits every morning, consistently saying “just 5 more minutes on tiktok”, and all of the “I’ll be better tomorrow”s, are sucking your ability to make any viable decisions right out of your brain and are all followed with literally not a lick of productivity to show for it.
Put decisions on autopilot. Take your phone out of your bedroom so it’s not even an option to grab it first thing in the morning. Pick out your outfit the night before and stick to it so you don’t waste the 30 minutes of brain power in the morning. Set social media time limits on your phone so you’re not constantly deciding if that was enough. Write down how you want to spend your time, and start spending it that way. I like to allot 30 minutes to scroll on social after I’ve prayed and taken my morning walk while I drink my coffee. Even my mindless leisure time is planned into my day so I don’t exhaust decision-making power early.
Even if your morning routine isn’t perfect, at least it’s on autopilot. At least you’ve cleared up space in your brain so it’s not working on overtime, all the time.
The things you can’t control, are sucking energy because you’re a hamster spinning its wheels trying to control it. It’s easier said than done, but you have to let go. Refocus your energy and attention. Instead of, “How do I control this impossible thing,” try “Given this situation, what can I do?” And if the answer is nothing, go do nothing. Just sit. Relax.
Which leads me to the last step to managing energy. You need to take breaks. You need to rest and you need to be okay with that rest. Set up spurts of time to work, spurts of time to exercise, spurts of time to plan meals, spurts of time, to wash your hair or cut your names, and spurts of time to chill. In your time to chill, there’s not one reason why you should be thinking about your to-do list because there’s not one thing you can do about it during your chill time! To-do list during to-do list time. Chill time during chill time. Screen time during screen time. Sleep time during sleep time. It sounds obvious but we don’t practice it. When it’s time to sleep, we’re thinking about work tomorrow. When it’s you’re allotted screen time you’re thinking about what else you *should* be doing.
Drop the “shoulds”. Stick to your planned routine. Let your brain do one thing at a time. Be still when it’s time to be still. Be mindless when it’s time to be mindless. Be present and focused when it’s time to be present and focused. Your energy will come back to you, you’ll reset, a routine that serves you will start and follow.
With my clients, I focus on shifting habits without restricting or counting calories to achieve sustainable weight loss or weight maintenance. We use practical nutrition so we can live life and feel our best! If you’re ready to dive deep into your habits and feel confident about your choices surrounding food again, book a free consultation with me here!
