10 Ways to Boost Your Energy After Lunch
Updated: Mar. 20, 2019
While the midday fatigue is common, it’s not inevitable, especially not if you follow these tips.
Take a Tea Break
Get into the routine of a mid-afternoon cup of tea. It’s a good step towards beating the afternoon doldrums thanks to that little bit of a caffeine burst and the few quiet minutes it entails. When fatigue hits, brew yourself a cup and sit somewhere quiet (not your office) to sip and reflect. The meditative time will soothe you and give you the kick-start you need for the rest of the day.
Clean Up
After lunch, clean up your desk and clear out your email inbox. Both are relatively mindless tasks that don’t require great amounts of concentration or clear thinking, and both will leave you feeling more energized because you’ll have accomplished something visible as well as having reduced energy-sapping clutter.
Call Someone
Call your wife husband, child, siblings, parents or friends. A five-minute keep-in-touch call will lift your spirits for hours and reinvigorate you to get your work done.
Have an Afternoon Snack
That doesn’t mean a whole milk chocolate bar. Opt for snacks like low-fat milk and high fibre cereal, peanut butter on wholemeal bread, cut-up vegetables, or even tomato juice. Snacks that combine protein, fibre and complex carbohydrates raise blood-sugar levels steadily and keep them up.
Go for a 10-Minute Walk
When American researchers compared study participants who ate a chocolate bar or who walked 10 minutes, they found the chocolate bar subjects felt more tense in the hour afterwards, while those who walked not only had higher energy levels for 1 to 2 hours afterwards, but also reduced their tension.
Save Enjoyable Tasks for the End of the Day
Defer the work you most want to do to the time of day when you feel least like working. Get through the stuff you like least when you’re productive and use the interesting tasks to wake you up in the afternoon.
Exercise Your Shoulders
Roll Your Shoulders forwards, then backwards, timing each roll with a deep breath in and out. Repeat for two minutes.
Indulge in a Bite of Dark Chocolate
There’s never a reason to over-indulge, but a bite of dark chocolate from time to time can be helpful. Unlike milk chocolate, dark chocolate is healthy and contains high levels of healthy fat and antioxidants. It could be just the energy boost you need.
Chew Spicy Gum
Chewing gum with strong minty flavours are stimulating, and the mere act of chewing is something of a tonic to a brain succumbing to lethargy. Plus, chewing stimulates saliva, which helps to clear out bacteria responsible for cavities and gum disease from lunch. Just be sure to choose sugar-free gum.
Plan Group Activities for Midday
If you often work on your own, try to organize work involving others at the time of day when your concentration might otherwise be waning. We are social animals, and interactions always rev us up. But make sure it’s an interesting, interactive activity. Sitting in a room listening to someone else drone on and on will just send you snoozing.
