8 Senseless Habits That Are Secretly Draining You

 

Save your brain.

Our body programming is perfect and we should be thankful for it. As our body shows signs when it doesn't t get what it needs.

We all are aware of habits we do wrong, but still, we do it because of procrastination and don’t work to improve it. Habits formation takes time, read Atomic Habits and learn how you can work on good habits one step at a time.

In our day we do some mindless habits that we need to be aware of and we need to change them because it is affecting our health.

1. Working in a cluttered place

You don’t realize but working in a messy place takes most of your mental energy. You feel distracted all the time and all this takes more time to complete a task.

According to Harward Business Review:

Our relationships with others can also be affected by our clutter. In one study, participants with messy desks were perceived to be less conscientious, more neurotic, and less agreeable. Cluttered spaces can have negative effects on our stress and anxiety levels, as well as our ability to focus, our eating choices, and even our sleep.

The stack of paper on your desk, or overloaded cabinets affects your brain. Scientists have found that our brain loves order, so if you are constantly reminding your brain about the clutter around you, it starts draining your focus.

How to fix it:

• Always keep things in the proper place after using.
• Spend at least 15–20 minutes every day with music to clean your place.
• Don’t let things become too bad, otherwise, you have to clean even if you are procrastinating.

2. Not drinking enough water

If there is no water bottle around me, I will forget to drink water and will only drink when I feel thirsty.

A study by NY Post says that in the US more than half of grown-ups don’t drink sufficient water. This means we know our body needs water, but we don’t act. After my body started showing signs of dehydration, I started using apps to track my water intake and used bottles with big mouths to drink more water.

I don’t know what’s important with wide-mouth bottles, but they helped me with more water intake and kept me hydrated.

How to fix it:

• Use a bottle with a big mouth.
• Eat foods like Zucchini, Lettuce, Celery, Watermelon, etc.
• Keep a water bottle with you wherever you go.
• While working drink water after every hour.
• Take a sip now and then even if you are not thirsty.

3. Slouching

The poor posture requires more energy and cause circulation problem. Different kinds of bad postures we encounter are — lying on a bed and working, holding a phone between neck and shoulder, carrying heavy stuff on one side body, etc.

Research suggests that slouching can cause severe back pain, headaches, muscle fatigue, etc. If you want to check if you have good posture or not simply check these two methods.

How to fix it:

• Do exercises like — child pose, wall slide, shoulder blaze, plank, bridge, etc.
• Avoid carrying heavy bags.
• Invest in a good chair and use pillows.
• Change your position every 30–60 minutes while working.
• Stand tall, sit straight.

4. Working with too many tabs

Working with too many tabs reduces your focus. I know some projects need multiple tabs to open but at times we don’t close tabs which is not necessary.

Research suggested that a minimum of 8 open tabs was okay for most people but when the tab number keeps on increasing it affected their health and they started stressing about it. Most people don’t close the tab because they feel worried that they won’t get the same website they were looking for in the future.

We don’t understand that we can’t grasp all information we want to, and it’s okay.

How to fix it:

• You can use this chrome extension to manage each project.
• You know your ability to consume and your actual capacity to process those content, yet you feel afraid to close a tab. — work on this.
• Bookmark only important tabs which you want in the future.

5. Living cooped up inside

We are an indoor generation, we spend time working at home for the longest time.

Research says that one in four Americans don’t go outside the whole day. Living and working from home and not going out will have a severe effect on your health. So, if you feel sluggish in the middle of the day, don’t go to bed or watch TV because your body needs the opposite.

It needs a connection with nature. We don’t realize but a CNBC study shows that indoor air is more polluted than outside one.

How to fix it:

• Go out in fresh air, and sunshine and be in nature.
• If you can’t go out, open the window and let some fresh air and light in.
• Cling to a hobby you love.

6. Taking a call in the middle of the work

No, don’t take that call if it’s not important and if it will disturb your workflow. Research says that it takes 20 minutes to get back to work and start focusing after a phone call.

Breaking the rhythm of your work and allowing your body to do something that you don’t want to do, drains your energy.

How to fix it:

• Ask yourself whether this call is important?
• Again ask, do you have legit energy to take this call at the moment?
• Avoid random calls at the time of work.

7. Watching emotional shows

Intense shows are exhausting you. It senses you are feeling the same thing they are feeling— fear, sadness, afraid, shock, etc.

Recently, someone suggested watching murder, and crime shows for a change but it affected my brain so much. I literally started feeling all those things for real. I was emotionally getting exhausted because of it.

So, understand and know what you can watch.

How to fix it:

• Be aware of what you watch.
• If the show is triggering you, switch it.
• Set a timer so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
• Be neutral and watch mixed shows to balance it.

8. Procrastinating doing little tasks

If any of your chores take less than 5 minutes to complete, do them at the moment. Please, stop procrastinating about it.

Send that email or text, hug your family, book an appointment, wash your face, make the bed, clean the table, pay bills online, etc. Doing small tasks at the moment leads to productivity so don’t pile them to do later on.

How to fix it:

• Look at this 5 minutes task you can complete in different areas of life.
• Write a to-do list about it because we feel small tasks are small, but it’s worth big.

These are some of the habits I started working on as it leads to good health and productivity. It’s in our hands to change habits and work on them. So, do things that are important for your body and that increase your boosting power.