How to cope with low energy

You definitely experienced periods in which you felt less animated, so let’s discover together how to cope with low energy. This can appear because of physical or mental exhaustion, plans that did not go as intended, errors you made that affected your work, personal issues and many other reasons.

Having a few days to a week of less effectiveness might be normal a some point, but if this state continues you have to identify ways to cope with low energy. Low energy leads to a lack of perseverance, procrastination, poor results and eventually can even cause depression.   

So what can you do?

Identify the root-cause

If you follow the Learning Sparker, you already know that the first step to modify an unwanted condition or behavior is to identify its root cause. In the case of low energy, to get to the root cause, identify the following: When did this start? Is this more of a mental or physical sensation? What happened right before you started to feel down? Did you ever experience this in the past? If yes, how did you overcome it?

Asking all these questions and even more, will help you identify what caused this condition and will assist you in eliminating it. 

Recognizing the reasons gets you halfway to eliminating the problem.

Get adequate rest

One of the most common causes of low energy is inadequate rest. Notice that I did not say insufficient, but inadequate. You might rush to think that you get enough sleep but this is not necessarily sufficient. The quality of sleep is important as well. To ensure good sleep you can do the following:

1. Ventilate the room just before you go to sleep.
2. Get to bed at around the same hour every evening (the best interval is 10 to 11:30 PM) 
3. Ensure you have no “ON” electronic devices in your bedroom.
4. Make it a habit to fall asleep without the television.
5. When lying in bed to go to sleep, think happy thoughts.  

These are only some of the steps to ensure a better sleep quality which is essential for being in good spirits and productive. 

Make time for what you enjoy

Besides work, chores, family and household maintenance, there is little to no time to get involved in activities that make us happy. In this time and age, we look at our hobbies like a luxury that we can maybe afford during weekends or holidays. But it definitely should not be this way. We hide behind the fact that the day is not long enough to do all on our lists, but we waste minutes to hours on social media. We give in to attention theft without putting up a fight. The “wasted” time could be very well spent doing something we enjoy like reading a book, listening to music, seeing a movie, or walking in the fresh air. 

Focus on the quick wins

When you don’t feel up to much, focus on the tasks that can be completed easily. I am sure that there are things on your list that can be easily completed in less than an hour and don’t require a high level of concentration. These can be your quick wins that give you the spark to restart your engine. Do you know about push starting a car? Well… it is the same for you. You shouldn’t underestimate the power of doing. It can get to back up to speed in no time.  

Cope with low energy

If none of the above helps, you should not ignore what’s happening. It most probably won’t go away. You can leverage time off to get your energy levels boosted. Request downtime from your work to break the cycle and make sure you deal with your energy levels. Ultimately it is better to be absent a few full days, rather than waste a couple of weeks by lingering in a non-productive state. 

Another way to cope with low energy periods is to get outside help. This can come from a colleague, your manager, or a mentor. You can ask them to regularly check-in and help you get your energy levels up. One of the most effective ways is to work with a coach, as they can identify the reasons behind your situation and can customize techniques to increase your vitality and efficiency.