KICK YOUR AFTERNOON SLUMP AND BE PRODUCTIVE

KICK YOUR AFTERNOON SLUMP AND BE PRODUCTIVE

Good afternoon friends Welcome to the most distracting world. Between 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, you find yourself struggling to focus on work. that time in your workday when your brain refuses to cooperate with you and you can't stop procrastinating. Instead of being productive, we start to do nothing and feel to be vacant.

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In Denmark, students take national standardized tests on computers. Researchers looked at the test taken for 4 years. Then an interesting thing came out. Students who took the exam in the morning scored more than the students who took the test in the afternoon. The exam was given in the afternoon and after that their marks were low. If you had noticed what was happening like this, in the afternoon you will have been lazy. We become less productive, we are not as motivated, and we are not able to concentrate properly at work. Whatever work you do at this time is of poor quality. It's called "The Afternoon Slump".

First, we will see - Why does this happen? And How to control it?

There is a biological reason behind the "Afternoon Slump". Many circulations of our body control our circadian rhythms. These rhythms work like an Internal Clock. It controls our hormones, body temperature, blood pressure, and many other things.

If you have ever wondered how your body knows that you have to sleep and when to wake up, this is due to your circadian rhythm. When it is time for bedtime, your body releases melatonin and you start feeling sleepy. When it's time to wake up, melatonin stops releasing and releases cortisol, making you awake.

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The circadian rhythm also affects our alertness, mental capacity, and energy level. Our power to think and understand was not the same throughout the day. In some parts of the day, we are smart and energetic and in some parts, we are completely opposite. For example: Between 2:00 am to 4:00 am especially at night, our alertness, mental capacity, the energy level drops significantly. We do not notice this thing, most of us are sleeping at this time. But when we wake up in the morning, our energy rises until it reaches its peak. And gets to the peak before the end of the morning. At this time, our power to think and understand is very good. Then it starts falling in the afternoon, which is called the afternoon slump. It starts 7 hours after waking up in the morning, between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm. This is why medical professionals commit more mistakes at this time, and students are scoreless. You remain unfocused and demotivated. Our alertness increases again after the afternoon slump. When our body is ready to sleep at night, at that time it also lacks energy. Every person's rhythm is slightly different, and more people follow the same pattern.

What makes “The Afternoon Slump” Bad

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Lack of sleep:  When your sleep is not complete, your mental alertness decreases significantly. Especially during the afternoon slump. If you regularly complete your sleep well, an afternoon slump is not as intense. Many people sleep less to do more work, they seem to be awake more and start doing more work. Those people here do not realize that if they work with force then they are unable to work with full energy and they also have trouble focusing. Due to this, they have to work longer. When people who get full sleep may have less time in the day, but they have more energy, they are able to focus well. Due to this, they get better results.

So high quality sleep is very important for your mental and physical performance. 7 to 9 hours of sleep is said to be very good. It is best not to set an alarm before sleeping. It is necessary to wake up your body in a comfortable form, it is such a good sleep. To know more.. HOW TO GET BETTER SLEEP

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A heavy Lunch: Eating heavy food increases the workload of our stomach. Much energy is spent on digestion. In lunch, carbs such as sugar, which for some time increases the blood glucose level, get the energy for a temporary time. As if it is normal then you feel tired and you start feeling sleepy. Afternoon slumps get worse. To avoid this, avoid heavy food, especially avoid sweets. Instead of heavy food, eat in small pieces, do not take carbs, and get different nutrition like protein, fat, and fiber.

Regarding the test Demark which I told, many people can think that if the results are good in the morning, then all students should take the exam in the morning. But the researchers also knew something else. In the afternoon, the students who gave the exam breaks in the middle of the exam taking breaks in 15 - 20 minutes, walking, eating, drinking, and gossiping, their marks were not reduced. Rather their marks had increased, they had given the exam in the afternoon. We who take a break are not considered good, a person who takes a break is lazy. Rather, we consider ourselves lazy.

Because more and more people understand that we should work continuously to do more work, we work non-stop for a long time, which makes us mentally tired, works slowly, does not stay focused, and makes mistakes even more. You must have also noticed that when you try to focus on your work, then your mind is wandering and moving around and thinking of something else, we see a lot of taking breaks. If you take a break in an afternoon slump, you can increase your productivity.

When you take a break, it should include 4 things in it.

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Detachment:  When you take a break, you should not think about your work at all, you will think about work, it will increase your brain fatigue so you should think about something which is not related to your work. In which you do not have to walk very mentally.

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Movement: Walking will increase your energy, the focus will be faster, and the feeling of tiredness will be less, a study has shown that a 5 minute walk every hour during work is better than a 30 minutes walk together. If you have an option, then take 10 minutes to break the short breaks, if you are sitting then it is better to take 30 minutes to walk.

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Go outside: If you go out and take a short break, then you will feel more refreshed, you will also get sunlight, and you will also be physically detached from your work. Wherever you work, you will take a walk and work will continue in your mind so that you will not get the benefit of taking a break.

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Company: It is very good to recharge yourself or spend time with people you like. But your job is to talk to others, then it is good to spend time alone.

If these four things are mixed together to take a good break, walk with a friend. During this time, do not talk about work, do something else. If you can't go out then go to the terrace. That option is also very good.

Apart from all this, there are many ways to recharge yourself in "Afternoon Slump". The "Power Nap" is very beneficial to take a nap, for increasing alertness. A 5-minute nap has no effect; to refresh our mind, a 10-minutes to 20-minute nap is very effective. Some people feel very tired after taking a nap because they make a big mistake. Taking a nap for more than 20 minutes, your mind will go into a deep sleep when your sleep opens you will feel sluggish. Like you do when you get up in the morning. This is called "Sleep Innovesia".

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So you do not have to take a long nap, keep the power nap short, and you do not have to sleep. Remember that taking a nap means "Snooze". This meditation removes tension. Close your eyes, and separate your mind from work for 15 minutes. Not all people will have the option to do so. Your office does not allow it, if this is the case, then you should avoid high-concentration work during the afternoon slump, try to do such work during this time, and be aware that it is not necessary like easy work. You should do the most difficult and necessary work before or after the afternoon slump, at this time your alertness of thinking and understanding is at its peak and you are able to do good work.

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