If you want to have more energy during the day, have razor sharp focus at work, and look to improve overall performance across the board then this post is for you…

I’m sure you’ll have come across lots of these tips before, that said common knowledge isn’t always common practice and it’s good to be reminded of the basics…

#1 Sleep

Sleep is so underrated! When we sleep we heal as our body has chance to rest and recover.

During deep sleep we also let our subconscious mind work through the days events, coming up with solutions to problems, and improving creativity, and that’s just naming a few of the amazing benefits of sleep!

The aim should be to consistently get 8 hours of sleep per night. 

5 tips to help improve sleep…

• Switch off your phone and TV at least 1 hour before bed
• Make your house darker closer to bed time (switch off big lights and opt for candles or dim lighting) 
• Avoid eating 2 hours before bed
• Take a nice warm relaxing bath before you go to sleep 
• Be consistent with your sleep routine (go to sleep and wake up at the same times 7 days per week)

#2 Water 

I bet that 99.9% of you reading this know how important water is?

Just a slight drop in hydration (-2%) and you’ll notice yourself feeling more tired, you’ll be less able to focus and overall performance both at work and at the gym starts to decline. 

It’s been said that you need at least 2 litres of water per day, BUT in my opinion you need at least double that! If you’re not used to drinking much water… start with less and slowly build up.

Pick up a water bottle and take it to work with you. Set a timer to remind yourself to drink at least every 30 mins, ideally you should be sipping water every 15 minutes during waking hours.

#3 Daily Exercise 

Whether it’s going to the gym, or going on a bike ride, or even just walking around your local park…make-sure to do some form of exercise every single day. I would aim for at least 20 minutes per day (ideally 30-60 minutes) but anything is better than nothing! 

Exercise will help lift your mood, improve blood flow, strengthen the heart, muscles, release mental tension, and give you a better quality of life.

For the average person i’d recommend 2-4 intense exercise sessions per week (the fitter you are the more you can do) followed by low intensity exercise during the other days – something like walking, or cycling – where the aim is to move but not kill yourself with a brutal workout. Walking to work is a good example, or a gentle swim. 

#4 Meditate

Meditating has become more acceptable, it used to be seen (and still is by some people!) to be wacky and only for the Buddhist monks!

This could not be further from the truth, in fact my daily meditation is one of the most beneficial things that I do each day. It helps me to be at one with my thoughts and allows me to take time out to assess what’s going on upstairs – in that overactive brain which produces 60,000-80,000 thoughts per day!

I’d highly recommend using an app called Calm – try meditating for 10 minutes each day, either in the morning or the evening. Try this for the next 2 weeks, and if you don’t like it…fine! But how do you know if you don’t try?

#5 Have A Plan & Stick To It

What are the areas in your life that you’d like to improve? Is it your health and fitness? career? personal relationships? self development? or maybe a combination of all of these? maybe something totally different? 

With so much going on in daily life and plenty of distractions to take away our attention (social media, people, kids, etc!) it’s so important to sit down and make a plan that we can follow to keep us on track…

“We need to create a plan and then act out the plan until it becomes a daily habit“

For example find a good workout program to follow in the gym, go online or if in doubt hire a personal trainer in your local area. Wan’t to improve your intellect? then buy a book on something that interests you, it could be a business book, or self development book – then plan in 20 minutes reading into each day.

Whatever it is that you want to improve…make-sure to plan it into your day. Know what you’re going to do and also the time you plan on doing it….

For example my routine looks like this most days…

• 7am – 8am get up: meditate, say daily affirmations, read for 20 minutes, fill in gratitude diary
• 9am-1pm – personal training sessions with my clients
• 1-3pm workout at the gym 
• 3-5pm – read, chill, eat and get ready for evening sessions 
• 5-8pm – personal training sessions 
• 9pm – bath and reflect on the day (the good, bad, what I learned, etc – goals for the next day, etc) 

All the things that i’ve mentioned in this post are naturally into my routine, without effort because I’ve built them into my life over the years. For example i’ll drink 4-6 litres of water per day, exercise most days (95% of the time), walk 10,000 steps per day, aim to get 8 hours sleep, etc. 

I perform better and achieve so much more! 

Are you going to try out these tips? Let me know if you found this post helpful by commenting below…

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂