[_xhok]

I used to be the same way.

Wake up at 5am, meditate, exercise, and shower before starting your day. Stop eating processed carbs and sugar. Get off the computer at 9pm and sleep at 10pm. Clean your room. Schedule sprints of work for yourself, drag yourself over to your chair, and force yourself to start typing anything. Talk to your friends more often. Set 1-3 large goals at the beginning of the day and explain to yourself why they're important.

There are lots of reasons you might be feeling this way, and it's different for everyone. Maybe you're disorganized, or you feel your work is too easy, or your health is bad. You'll have to find out which one it is by trying a lot of different things.

If after doing all this you still feel the same way, please seriously consider the very real possibility of clinical depression, and seek professional help.

[Gideonnn]

This goal is too hard to achieve! It is like the 10x programmer, it is just too much to be a realistic goal. I mean, good for you if you can wake up every day at 5 am and meditate. But aside from the 0.0001% of people on the world that can do this, most people can't.

This is a way of life which seems like living in a monastery to me. Totally unrealistic.

[ryanwaggoner]

Neither getting up at 5am or daily meditation are all that rare or difficult. And if you take perfection out of the equation, as you should, then aiming to do them 80-90% of the time makes it even easier.

I’m a natural night owl, but I routinely (80-90% of the time) go to bed early and get up at 4am. It’s really not that hard.

[kyle_0110]

I don't understand what's so unrealistic about gp post, it can easily be done as a 40 min morning routine.

Meditation can be as short as a couple minutes, budget 5 min. A good workout can be done in 20 min, and 15 min for a shower.

There is nothing magical about that. I dont wake up at 5am, I wake up at 6:45, but the routine is just as effective at 6:45am :)

I also agree mood is highly affected by diet, so save some time and get some good nutrition in by topping that morning routine off with some premade in mason jar overnight oats (rolled oats, milk, chia seeds, a fruit and a nut )

10 minutes to get dressed, and your ready for the day within an hour from wakeup.

[owebmaster]

> Stop eating processed carbs and sugar.

If I could pick one of all advices you gave this is the one which I think has more impact. Free yourself from food slavery.

[brianwawok]

I think cardio edges our carbs by a little bit.

If I am excising well, think marathon buildup.. extra carbs do not make me feel any different. Greasy and fried food gets me, but not carbs.

If I am not exercising, almost any reasonable of carbs makes me feel terrible.

Hard to just pick 1, but I do think exercise wins for me by a small margin over clean eating..

[jlelonm]

What's the definition of a processed carb? I'm scarily ignorant about this.

I feel like anything in the frozen foods / microwave it 2 mins and eat it isle probably falls into this category, but I'm not sure exactly why. Is it the enriched wheat flour? Do you know a good unbiased resource for learning about this?

[helen842000]

Carbohydrates is a term that groups sugars, starches & fibre together. There are simple carbohydrates (breads, cereals, desserts and other man-made carbs) and complex carbs (fruit, veg, whole grain foods)

Simple carbs are broken down and consumed very easily, complex carbs take longer to be absorbed and energy is released over a longer period.

A good rule is to eat things as close to their natural form as possible.

Most products have been processed in some way before eating - cleaning & packaging being the simplest.

However baking, frying, adding excess sugar/salt, preservatives, additives, etc happens in a large amount of products that we don't realise. It is astonishingly easy to consume these products to excess (muffins, donuts, bread, potato products).

Frozen food / microwave in 2 mins is not actually bad for you. You can get bags of microwave rice or veg that are perfectly healthy (check the ingredients).

A good place to start is getting familiar with where certain foods are in the Glycemic Index.

In terms of improving your own diet and improving energy, just make simple substitutions. Swap fries > sweet potato, or white bread > whole grain wraps, or chips > nuts & seeds.

[dna_polymerase]

The sleep and diet parts are really important. Exercise also helps a lot! Can't recommend this enough!

[icebraining]

Less than seven solid hours of sleep? Isn't that a bit on the low side?