Raise your hand if you’re sick of 5 Hour Energy commercials! OK, don’t literally raise it, but you get my point; they’re everywhere! Monster, Red Bull, 5 Hour Energy, 4 Lokos even… all claiming to bring you the energy you need. Have you ever wanted to have more energy… naturally??? It seems outrageous to claim this, but I have some tips for you to have more energy in your everyday life. But there’s more (sorry to seem like a cheesy salesman)! More energy, for every single person will lead to better productivity in your workday, which gives you more time to have fun! Also, I will give tips to improve productivity beyond just having more energy, and some little tidbits of my own for having more fun in your life.

Have More Energy

Life is Simple: Eat, Sleep, Play. You were probably wondering about the picture at the top of this post. Even if you weren’t, I’ll tell you why it’s there. SIMPLE; because the three easiest ways to have more energy are to eat, sleep, and play. But it gets a little more complicated than that:

1.) Eat. Should you just eat whatever you want, whenever you want it, and however much you want of it? Well unless you live under a rock, you know that the leading cause of death in this country is obesity related illnesses, in which case you know the answer to my question is NO. There have been a million studies about how much, how often, and what you should eat. I’m here to tell you; just do it ENOUGH, but not TOO MUCH. For me personally, I eat 3 round meals a day: bowl of cereal for breakfast, sandwich and piece of fruit for lunch, and pasta and chicken for dinner. Very simplistic, very cheap, very quick to make; and it keeps me nourished and healthy. I also drink protein mixed with milk 3 times a week after workouts to supplement my muscle growth (I recommend this for men AND women). So, you can eat 3 meals, or 6 meals, but make sure that you try to eat whole grains, fruits and veggies, and protein throughout the day. Try to balance these things as well. In the future, I will break down a sample healthy diet plan for those interested, but for now, if you don’t feel like you are eating ‘healthy,’ then you probably aren’t. Listen to your body. Additionally, LIMIT FAST FOOD to ONCE A WEEK. When I say fast food, I mean McDonald’s, Taco Bell, etc… Subway is actually OK believe it or not (one of my personal favorites). You just need to avoid greasy, fatty foods as much as possible, because a) they make you fat and b) they sap your energy, which is the opposite of having MORE energy. Once a week. I mean it.

2.) Sleep. No matter how much you love your job, or partying, or the internet… you NEED sleep. And you need to have some sort of regular sleep schedule. Every person’s body is different, so again, it’s important to listen to your body. If you feel groggy after 9 hours of sleep (like me), then try only sleeping 8. If you still feel groggy, try 6. It’s like the Sleep Number Bed; everyone has one. So, play around a little and see what yours is. Occasionally, because of work or other commitments, you may have to make up some lost time on weekends; but try not to make it a habit, because it messes with your body. The more regular you can keep your sleep schedule, the better it is for your body. This will ensure that you have the most energy possible during the day.

3.) Play. Play is obviously broad, and I like it that way. I don’t want to tell you how to play, but in a word… I mean exercise. I know, I know, it’s like dropping the ‘f’ bomb for some of you, but it’s got to happen at LEAST THREE TIMES a week, for AT LEAST THIRTY MINUTES. That’s not a lot of time. But, what that does is increase your metabolism enough to make your body think that you are active. After 2-4 weeks you will notice you want to eat more but don’t feel any more full when eating; because your metabolism is working harder. After 8 weeks, you will see noticeable results in your body. So; you will look better, feel better, AND have more energy. Boom.

Be More Productive

I don’t want to make this a doubly long blog post by restating everything from my Time Management 101 entry, so I won’t. However, I am going to cover the important ways to simply being MORE PRODUCTIVE.

1.) T0-do-lists. The absolute fool-proof way to be SO MUCH more productive in everyday life is to make t0-do-lists!!! Ahhh! I can’t even say it enough. Just having a list of things, that you need to do, each day, is going to make your life so much easier. It allows you to map out your day, and start to formulate ideas about how long each task will take, then you prioritize. When you prioritize, you begin to see what things are most urgent and important, so you can take care of those first. So, please, for the love of God, just make lists; I absolutely promise they will help.

2.) Do what you have to do today, so you can do what you want to do tomorrow. It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that: get your work, homework, and errands out of the way. Then, when those are done, go have fun! You need to make sure, in order to maximize your fun, that you actually EARN it. Don’t put off responsibilities just to go have fun for a couple of hours. Take the time to finish what you need to; so then you can focus ALL of your energy on having fun instead of having some lingering chore or task on the back of your mind. Drinking heavily only makes it go away for the night. Remember that.

3.) FOCUS. Some people… actually most people have forgotten what this word means. There are sooooo many distractions available to us wherever we look now: the TV, the Internet, our Smart Phones… EVERYTHING is a distraction. So, my advice here is to eliminate those things, while you are working at least. If you are doing homework, turn off your phone, close Facebook, and bust it out. Don’t have chat open and check it every 5 minutes (I know you’ve all done it), because you won’t get nearly as much work done. Check it every 2 hours, but spend 15 minutes on it when you check it. Both your homework and your chatting will get more accomplished. This applies to work, too. Texting while at work or whatever just wastes time. Focus on the task at hand until it’s finished or you’ve reached a good stopping point (hopefully after 1-3 hours), and then check your phone or email. Jumping randomly from phone, to Facebook, to email, to actual work wastes considerable amounts of time. So, stop being ADD for 2 hours and focus.

Have More Fun!

Having more fun DOES include having more time and energy for fun, obviously, but there’s more to it than that. Having fun involves planning, letting go, and most of the time; other people.

1.) Plan your fun. I already talked about earning your fun, which is important because it makes the fun-having much more worthwhile; it’s like a mini celebration every time you go to do something fun. To maximize fun-having, however, you should try planning it. How? It’s very simple, find a time when you know you won’t have other responsibilities, and think about what the most fun thing you could do (and can afford to do) would be at that time. Then go do it. I know this is vague, but fun is different for everyone. When you plan it out, then it becomes a goal for you, and when you achieve a goal, it’s a better feeling than just going out with your friends to the bars again; it’s an accomplishment! So planning your fun is like a double-whammy. Really quick, let’s say you like to be spontaneous (as do I), then you may ask, how do I plan fun and still make it spontaneous? There are many ways, but all of them involve setting aside that time first, then doing the craziest thing that comes to mind when it’s your fun time. If you haven’t tried it, trust me, it feels good.

2.) Let go. What do I mean? I mean let all your inhibitions, all your hesitations, and all your insecurities go. Fun isn’t about any of those things. Who cares what you look like or how you smell when you’re having fun? Having that in the back of your mind is going to limit your possibilities. Instead, just say f*** it, and do whatever you want (that’s legal). I’m telling you, you will feel liberated, and your friends will like seeing the real you. Ask any of my friends… I’m probably the most genuine person they know, because I never hold back when I’m having fun.

3.) Bring some friends. By now, hopefully you’ve read my blog How to Make, and KEEP Friends, and you’ve made some friends. Good. Now, make sure to invite those friends to the fun-having event you are planning. OR, see what fun-having events THEY are planning, and join in! Either way, being around other people will result in more fun for you. More minds=more ideas=more ways to have fun. I can’t really explain this any more, but don’t be shy, ask people to hang out and do fun stuff, it’ll work!

So, now you know how to have more energy, be more productive, and have more fun! Remember these lessons; it’s because of tips like these that I’ve been able to have so much fun throughout my life (and especially the last couple of years), and I know those good times will continue until I either get sick of having fun or I die, because they are fail-proof. I really think having fun is the key to success and happiness in life, and so do a lot of other people. If you don’t believe us, give it a shot. If you do, then follow these easy steps and get ready to rock life!