Stop Tiredness and Improve Performance

 

How many of us feel sleepy mid-afternoon or early evening? This isn’t a problem if we are sat at home reading a book or watching TV, but if we are at work or driving or doing another important task, it can be a problem.

We often see signs on the roads telling us that “Tiredness Kills” and “Take a Break” if we are tired when we are driving. That makes perfect sense.

However, when we are at work, we can also start to make mistakes when we are tired.

• Have you ever typed an email or a report when you are tired? Believed it to be perfect? Then looked at it the next day and found it full of mistakes.
• Stumbled over your words in a telephone call?
• Forgotten to do something important?

When we are tired, we can easily lose focus. This is not good for us or the organisation we work for. How can we prevent drowsiness like this?

An answer that may spring to many people’s minds is a big dose of caffeine or a sugary snack. This will make you more alert in the short term, but it is not good for our mental or physical health in the long term.

There are better ways to remain alert –

• Stand up and walk around the office or building if you are not allowed to leave the building.
• If you are allowed to go outside, get a big dose of fresh air. This can be invigorating and wake us up.
• Stand up and move around if you can’t walk too far.
• Wash your hands under cold water.
• Walk up and down some stairs. Instead of using an escalator or an elevator, walk up a couple of flights of stairs.
• Eat a high energy food, such as bananas or porridge.
• Change the task you are doing. Say you are working on a complicated report or long piece of work. Save your work or put it aside and do something else. Something short and sweet. This can make us feel more motivated again and increase our efficiency.
• Drink more water. Sometimes we feel tired because we are mildly dehydrated, so a nice cool glass of water can help.
• Tiredness can also be caused by boredom. If you are bored. Do something else, something constructive.

It is not always easy to get up and start walking around when we are supposed to be working.  Consider that if you spend three hours working on something when you are tired out, it will probably not be as good as something you spend an hour on when you are wide awake and energised.

If you are interested in the topics covered in this article, why not have a look at  some of our courses –

Personal Energy Management

Stress Management

Industrial Psychology

Business Coaching

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