Energy And Willpower Management

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It can be tough to do the things you need to do all day, so here are some tips that I personally take as gospel. Try these tips to get a start on keeping your energy and willpower going strong, and expand on the ones that work for you. We'll go in order from easiest to incorporate up to the hardest.




Tip 1: Drink more water!

You heard it here first, folks. Probably not, but anyway... Water! Everything you've heard about drinking tons of water is entirely true. You're supposed to gulp down at least half a gallon each day, as a minimum, and you can drink more if you have heavy hydration needs, want to lose weight, or for a number of other reasons.

Water may taste bad to you if you've been used to sugary stuff your whole life, and your local tap water may make things worse. I have a few simple tricks to alleviate these woes.

• A water filter for your home helps a lot with taste and other issues. I personally use PUR. I'd recommend this model.
• Water tastes better with ice, period. If you don't have an ice maker, try silicone ice trays. They're compact, and easier to use than plastic ones.

• Here's one way to trick yourself into drinking more water. If you're already thirsty, just go to the kitchen, fill a small cup with lots of ice, then fill it from the tap. Chances are you'll still be thirsty, so refill it and drink up. Keep this up until you're satisfied. 

• Another way is to get a big, insulated water bottle or cup, preferably with a cap, and just keep it by you as you work, surf the web, read a book, or whatever else you may be doing. Even if you hate water, you'll find yourself going for it when you're thirsty, since it's already right there. 

Tip 2: Exercise!

Even light exercise at regular intervals throughout the day can be extremely helpful. The best time to exercise to get more energy, unfortunately, is the most painful for a majority of people out there; the morning. Mind you, every body is different, but no matter how well it works for you in other ways, exercising in the morning will wake you up and get your blood pumping. If you have trouble fitting in exercise or finding the strength to stick to it, here are some tricks. 

• Squeeze it in while doing something else you love, like reading a book or watching a movie. It doesn't have to be super-intense exercise; simply getting up and pacing about the living room while watching Netflix can make a dramatic difference in your energy level.

• Incentivize yourself! Think about something you want, preferably something you already have, and reward yourself with it when you follow through. Even if the reward nullifies some of the benefits of the activity, you'll still boost your energy and flex your willpower muscles. 

• If at all possible, find a way to make exercise fun! I've personally taken up Tai Chi recently, and I've loved playing with swords all my life. Both of these are great fun and great exercise, and I can even get foam swords and toy lightsabers to get the kids involved! Going for a nature walk or playing an outdoor game like Pokemon Go are also fun ways to get moving.

• Power through! If it helps you to think of a reward or the reason you decided to exercise, then do so, but the point is to not give in. With long walks or intense exercise, you may even start to feel pain, but keep pushing on. The reward is worth it. As a side note, exercising releases stress-reducing and pleasurable endorphins in your brain, which makes the not-so-fun exercises less excruciating over time. 

Tip 3: Meditate! 

This one sounds harder than it is, and a lot of people either never give it a chance, or start out and simply give it up. Meditation will help you to stay focused, and it'll recharge your valuable mental energy. Here are some tips to get started.

• Start out with a centering thought. Something constant and rhythmic is best, like your breathing; "In... out..." Focus on it until everything else disappears, then try to slowly banish it and think of nothing. 

• Short sessions are best at first. Just like with any new activity, you need to start small and take time to get used to it. Try it for just five minutes at first, then gradually move up. 

• Don't get interrupted! If you can help it, meditate in a quiet place where you can be alone, and a time when nobody has any reasonable expectation for you to be available. You can also listen to calm music over headphones, so long as it has no lyrics. Dedicated meditation music is also a thing, and can be found for free on YouTube. 

• Reward yourself! Meditation is a hard habit to pick up for most people, and if you have any kind of mental or neurological issue, like migraines, ADHD and so on, it can be much harder. Just like with exercise, you should reward yourself for pushing through. 

Tip 4: Take time for yourself!

You hear this one everywhere, and that's because it's true. Taking some you-time can take many forms. Clearing your nighttime schedule to get proper sleep is an obvious one, but taking an hour in the evening to indulge in something entirely unproductive is also good for your mental health and emotional strength. Your willpower is a finite resource and needs to be recharged in order to continue being used. Here are some tricks to maximize your you-time.

• Get proper sleep! This one can't be stressed enough. Figure out how much sleep you need, and do what you need to do in order to get it. Otherwise, you'll be starting each day at a serious disadvantage, and following all the rest of these tips will probably just get you back up to a normal level. 

• Use incentivization. This is a big one. Never feel guilty about taking time for yourself, whether you're kicking back on the couch with a beer to watch a football game, doing a crossword puzzle, or blowing away zombies on your flat screen. Think of everything you've accomplished today, and how screwed some or all of the people around you would be without you. You deserve a break. 

• Don't go overboard. You can have too much of a good thing. Over-rewarding yourself can up your tolerance because most forms of reward, if not all, involve brain chemicals in the reward pathway, such as dopamine. Overload those receptors, and you'll need more and more each time to recharge and enjoy what you're doing. This goes double for people with disorders like depression, where their brain chemistry is already on a tightrope. As a rule of thumb, I personally devote one hour per day to "me time". 

• Try to have fun in a productive way. It sounds counter-intuitive at a glance, but what I mean is pretty simple; never stop improving yourself. Play twitchy action games on hard settings to build your reflexes and steel your nerves. Watch smart movies to build your vocabulary and keep your brain working. Get up and play physical games like tennis for your personal time, which feeds into making your exercise fun. Did I mention exercise releases endorphins, a brain hormone that reduces stress? I'm sure I did, but I'll mention it again here, just because of how important it is.