BENGALURU : If you’re desperately looking for caffeine to be an option to boost productivity, this article is for you. Sleep deprivation and work is not exactly the poster child for productivity. Hold the disappointment; it may be time to trade off caffeine for other techniques to boost your state of mind at your workplace.
Do breakfast right
Start your day on a bright note. Incorporate oats, yoghurt, fruits into your breakfast and try to keep away from greasy meals like eggs and bacon as it can leave you feeling stuffed and drowsy by midday. If you have a good breakfast, you won’t find yourself spending the first half of the day dreaming about lunch, which could help you perform and engage in active participation at work.
Keeping it cool
Studies show that cooler temperatures help increase productivity at work, as it keeps employees alert as the hair on your back is literally shooting up. Warmer temperatures will keep you feeling cosy and warm, a factor you don’t want when you’re trying to work.
Posture is everything
Straighten up your spine and sit erect. At work, sitting erect increases the blood flow to your brains, thus signaling it to be more active and less fatigued. Also, if you feel yourself feeling fatigued sometimes, get up and move around for a bit, engage in conversation, or if you don’t want to get up from your seat, shuffle your feet, and tap your knees under the desk to keep the blood flowing, as it won’t let the mind drift off, because if you snooze, you lose.
Turn up the music
Research shows that listening to motivational, peppy tunes boosts the productivity of the employees at the workplace and their memory retention skills.
Lights on
Harshly lit rooms provide the perfect environment to work in, as the eyes are kept alert, as opposed to yellow dim lit rooms. Recent studies have shown that open offices, helped boost overall productivity by 25 per cent, as the lighting helped alleviate drowsiness and kept them alert.
Distinct smells
The olfactory senses help a great deal in keeping people active. Scents like lavender and pine as sold as pillow scents as they activate drowsiness and help with soothing the mind in case of migraines. However, sharp scents like citrus and grass help in enforcing a sharp, focused attitude in people, so spraying lemon air fresheners could help spruce up the place and help in creating a focused work environment.
Healthy snacking
If your office has a snack counter, chances are you’re used to the daily evening snack. But watch what you’re eating as it could determine your performance for the rest of the day. Replace your evening snacks with healthier alternatives like yoghurt, cottage cheese cubes, or even granola. When these items are digesting, the body releases a tyrosine, an amino acid that has been scientifically proven to improve mental function and alleviate fatigue.
Green tea
Green tea also contains antioxidants that cleanse your body of its toxins and improve brain function. This is due to caffeine. It is however, a much better alternative to coffee, as the low levels of caffeine act as a stimulant that doesn’t cause the jittery side effects that coffee does.
The author is a counseling psychologist at Fortis Hospital