9 Simple Ways to Boost Your Mental Energy

Mental energy isn’t about time; it’s the foundation of efficiency. If your energy is low, even if you’re busy and working hard all day, you won’t achieve much. Your habits determine your energy level. Good habits can make you feel empowered, enhancing both your mental and physical efficiency and endurance. Conversely, bad habits can lead to a vicious cycle that drains you until you’re exhausted.

Here are 9 simple habits that, if you commit to trying and cultivating in the new year, can enhance your energy levels and help you recover quickly.

1. Go to Bed Early

Sleep is the fundamental source of energy. If you’re sleep-deprived, your performance will definitely suffer. Some people, for work, sleep only 6 hours a day or even less. Studies show that this is unwise and playing with your body. To maintain long-term energy, you must (compulsively) sleep 7-8 hours every day to recharge. If you’re someone who sleeps little, you might feel mentally stable, but you’ll subtly feel a bit tired throughout the day. However, you might not think it gets worse. An interesting experiment shows that those who sleep little, even if they seem mentally stable, will experience a continuous decline in psychological performance because this decline is so subtle that they often don’t notice it.

Suggestion: For the next 30 days, go to bed at 10 PM, including weekends. (Put away all electronic devices, including your phone.)

2. Exercise Daily

Exercise is a long-term investment for your energy level, but it can easily be broken down into short-term investments that are hard to maintain. If you don’t exercise for a long time, your physical fitness will deteriorate over time, slowing your mind and making it difficult to maintain your energy throughout the day.

If you’re trying to find time to exercise, don’t feel like you have to go to the gym. Form a small habit of doing some push-ups or stretches every day. This will strengthen your heart and speed up blood flow. Moreover, it won’t take much of your time. A maximum of ten minutes a day won’t disrupt your busy schedule.

You can go to the gym, but it should be on top of doing a little exercise every day. This foundation will make you more flexible, even if you can’t make it to the gym, you’re still exercising.

Suggestion: Every day, at home, do at least ten push-ups.

3. Take a 20-Minute Nap

Napping or dozing off might seem lazy, but it’s beneficial. If you use your brain a lot or study a lot, a short sleep can benefit your memory. I used to feel guilty about napping, thinking it was a sign of laziness. But now, I see it as a skill. A short rest can help you recover quickly. Even if you work in an office building where napping isn’t encouraged, you can use lunchtime for a quick break.

The key is how to nap. Many people prolong their midday naps too much, falling into deep sleep, which leaves them feeling groggy and uncomfortable when they wake up. So, always use an alarm to wake you up on time. If your nap is too long, it’s not a nap but a long sleep.

Suggestion: After lunch, take a 20-minute nap. (Recharge your energy for the afternoon.)

4. Tackle Difficult Tasks in the Morning

Start this habit early. Every morning, in the first few hours of work, finish the most difficult tasks of the day. This is a psychological factor affecting your energy. Our energy is greatly related to our mood. If I complete some difficult tasks or important work, I feel very happy and fulfilled. If I waste time on emails, meetings, phone calls, or meaningless small things, it makes me feel frustrated and drained for the whole day.

Another reason is that we can’t maintain a deep work state all the time, so it’s much better to concentrate on important things rather than interspersing them throughout different time blocks.

Suggestion: Set aside the first 2 hours of work in the morning for deep work to complete important tasks.

5. Set Goals at the Start of Each Day

Energy is often related to your state. Working hard can help you overcome procrastination and stay energetic all day, but if you’re lazy, you’ll waste a lot of energy on meaningless things and feel exhausted by the end of the day.

One way to avoid this is to set clear goals for yourself before starting work each day, preferably the night before. Before going to bed, think about your goals for the next day and write them into your schedule. This way, when you wake up the next day, it’s easier to naturally focus on the tasks you’ve written down.

Suggestion: Before bed, write down your plan for the next day.

6. Speak Out Your Goals or Intentions

Some people have contradictory views. On the one hand, they believe that others can easily persuade them to act according to others’ will or goals. On the other hand, they believe that they themselves lack the ability to change others’ motives to do what they want others to do.

In fact, you need to become a salesman for your own goals or intentions, promoting yourself, not for others, but for yourself.

How to start? The first step is to package your goals. Design your goals or intentions, make them feasible, and let them influence your actions. Have you done this? Or do you think it’s an exciting challenge?

The next step is to constantly refresh and think about your feelings. Often think about why you’re on this path and where you want to go. Good marketers know how to face customers and imagine how to guide them. So, you should face yourself and think about how to gain energy to support yourself in continuing.

Suggestion: Spend 10 minutes every day thinking about which of your behaviors today will help you move towards your goals.

7. Make Better Friends

Maybe you can’t choose your parents, colleagues, or boss, but you can control who you befriend.

You should notice that after talking with some friends, you feel excited, passionate, and energetic. Other friends, after talking with them, leave you in a worse state.

You shouldn’t exclude friends who are going through tough times. But you need to consider where to spend your time, such as with friends who always bring negative emotional exchanges. Everyone has down times and wants to lean on a shoulder to cry for a while. But some people might always see you as that shoulder.

Suggestion: Keep your distance from friends who only use you to vent their negative emotions.

8. Read Good Books

Reading has a huge benefit; it’s not just about bringing you knowledge and information. The greater benefit is that it strengthens our subconscious mindset. A good book can not only make you feel emotions but also subtly change your entire thinking model.

Listening to books is also a good choice. If you start listening and keep at it every day, often revisiting them, it can be very beneficial. When you listen to a good book, it can naturally change your thoughts and make you realize where you need to work harder. Just like good music can be background music to set a certain emotional atmosphere, a good book can also serve as a background to supplement your thinking with energy, complementing each other.

Suggestion: Regularly listen to books that stimulate you to work hard towards your goals.

9. Adjust Your Life

The last habit is not a one-time task but a continuous process. You need to constantly adjust your life, removing disharmonious parts and reducing conflicts with others.

A lot of our energy is wasted on the disharmonious parts of our lives, both internal and external, caused by conflicts with others.

It could be a colleague blocking your promotion, a friend canceling your goals, or even your own fear of goals and the random thoughts that make you hesitate.

Take some time to untangle the different conflicts in your life and observe how you solve them. You might be able to change your life in a short time, or it might take a long-term plan to get out of this living environment. Sometimes, social circles or levels of belief can bring you back to where you started.

Suggestion: Sit down and spend an hour or more brainstorming all the people and things that help you with your goals, and all that can set you back. Then think about how to solve them.