Ever have those days when you feel you’re dragging a ball and chain behind you?
Everything is a struggle. Your productivity has tanked, your energy is at rock-bottom, and you just want to crawl in a hole and suck your thumb.
Sometimes it’s easy to identify why we’re so lethargic. We might feel physically ill, the weather is bleak, or the stars are out of alignment. Conditions out of our control can vaporize our energy and smack down our motivation.
Most of the time, however, our fatigue and burn-out is the result of our daily habits. We sabotage ourselves with thoughts and behaviors that create a toxic environment for vitality, well-being, and achievement. You may not even be aware how your own habits are affecting you. 

If not, here are 42 bad habits that suck your energy:

1. Sleeping too late

The alarm clock rings, and you hit the snooze button — again and again and again. Before you know it, you have just three minutes before you have to hit the road if you’re going to be on time. You start your day stressed and agitated.

2. Skipping breakfast

Skipping breakfast is one consequence of sleeping too late. But many of us simply get in the habit of skipping it because we’re lazy or misinformed. Skipping breakfast actually makes weight control more difficult. Breakfast gives us the morning fuel to perform our best and stay alert.

3. Eating a bad breakfast

Ok, good for you — you ate breakfast. But a pop tart or glazed doughnut doesn’t count as a healthy breakfast. These choices cause a huge blood sugar peak that leads to an even bigger sugar crash. Plus, they’re loaded with fat-packing calories.

4. Constantly checking email

The ding or vibration of an email arriving has turned us into Pavlov’s dogs. We’re compelled to check the inbox when the bell rings, which constantly distracts us from the task at hand. Then it takes more energy to pull yourself away from the inbox and re-engage in our work.

5. Getting lost in social media

Once you get started on social media, you can find yourself lost in a rabbit hole of silly videos and mindless discussion threads. After a few hours, when you pull your head to the surface, you realize you’ve just lost a chunk of time doing nothing.

6. Skipping exercise when you’re tired

There’s no doubt exercise energizes us and has a host of health benefits. If you have the habit of skipping it when you’re tired, you’re depriving yourself of energy you could use for productivity and enjoyment.

7. Drinking too much alcohol

Alcohol is a depressant. It gives you a buzz at first, but after a few drinks you feel tired and sluggish. The effects linger the next day, impacting your energy all day long.

8. Getting angry in traffic

Traffic alone is enough to suck your energy, but if you allow other drivers to get under your skin, now you’re just compounding the problem. Put on some relaxing music or a book on tape, and use the time productively.

9. Wearing heels

Of course heels make your legs look great, but what are they doing to your feet, knees, and back? Heels can be painful, cause bunions, and alter the anatomy of your calf muscles. That’s plenty to get stressed about.

10. Isolating yourself

Humans are social creatures and need others for their emotional well-being. Even introverts need time around others to feel happy. Too much isolation can lead to excessive worrying, negative thinking, and even depression.

11. Being a perfectionist

When you need everything to be just so all the time, it causes a lot of anxiety and stress. Perfectionists have a hard time relaxing or letting down their guard. This stress can lead to a host of physical symptoms and emotional disorders.

12. Watching too much TV

Every hour you watch TV is an hour you aren’t doing something more interesting or productive. You lose time with family and friends, program yourself with negativity, and subject yourself to subliminal messages from advertisers. The stress from TV shows may show up in dreams, worries, or self-expectations.

13. Overthinking and worry

We get in the habit of allowing looping negative thoughts to invade our minds. We allow worry thoughts to take up residence and create internal havoc. Overthinking and worry are bad habits that can be replaced by positive thoughts and productive behavior.

14. Over-scheduling your life

We over-schedule our lives with tasks, obligations, and events that force us to rush from one thing to the next in a frenzy. With little down time to relax and recharge, we’re constantly in a heightened state of activity that leaves us depleted.

15. Cluttering your work space

Physical clutter often reflects your mental state. When you remove clutter, you can improve your mental state. Clutter is distracting and demoralizing and makes us feel out of sorts. Get out of the clutter habit, and your productivity and energy will improve.

16. Tolerating negative people

Certain people can be the biggest energy drains in our lives. We get so used to their bad behavior or negativity that we simply allow it to continue and put up with the annoyances. Tolerating this slowly drags you down and keeps you on constant alert.

17. People pleasing

We think pleasing others will keep everyone happy and prevent the discomfort of letting someone down or making them angry. But when we do this at the expense of our own self-respect and happiness, we deplete our emotional energy.

18. Over-checking your appearance

When you feel overly conscious of how you look, you get in the habit of looking in the mirror over and over to make sure things are OK. The mental energy expended to remind yourself of this only compounds the energy expended to constantly worry about your appearance.

19. Over-checking a bothersome symptom

When you have an unexplained symptom and get in the habit of checking it incessantly, you’re sapping your energy through unnecessary worry and distress. Avoid this tiresome habit by going to the doctor if a symptom lasts more than a week or so.

20. Asking others opinion

When we don’t feel confident in our own judgment, we get in the habit of seeking reinforcement by asking others what they think. This habit alone takes a lot of energy, and add to that the stress of feeling insecure about your inability to make a decision. Practice making small decisions on your own so you can drop the validation habit.

21. Staying up too late

Staying up late throws off your sleep cycle and makes you tired the next day. Getting too little sleep not only sucks your energy, but also it can create a host of physical ailments. Lack of sleep exacts a toll on perception and judgment.

22. Snacking late at night

Late night snacking can cause poor sleep and indigestion. It can unnecessarily add to your daily calorie intake and lead to weight gain by throwing off the body’s metabolic cycles
 

23. Working too many hours

You may think working long hours makes you more productive. However, too much of anything isn’t good. Working too much can impact your sleep, creativity, relationships, and health. Create a new habit of life balance by leaving work at a reasonable time.

24. Remaining sedentary

Being over-scheduled, stressed, and tired as a result of other bad habits leads to a sedentary life. Because we feel bad, we lose motivation and get in the habit of a being a couch potato rather than exercising. There are so many health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

25. Saying yes when you mean no (or vice versa)

This habit can be a part of people pleasing or simply a result of laziness. It’s more expedient to give the answer with the least resistance. But later we regret it and feel stressed as a result.

26. Assuming the worst

Constantly fearing the worst possible outcome is a dreadful habit. We’re in a state of fight or flight anxiety 24/7. This wrecks havoc on our health and mental well-being.

27. Picking fights with your spouse

When we feel stressed or out-of-sorts, it’s easy to lash out at those close to us. This may temporarily bring relief, but in the long-run, it causes even more stress, depleting our emotional energy.

28. Eating junk food

Junk food has little or no nutritional value. Most of it is empty calories that make you fat and create addictions to more of the same. Junk food doesn’t energize — it depletes you.

29. Buying too many lattes at Starbucks

Not only are you over-caffeinated, but you’re spending too much — not an energy promoting combination.

30. Gossiping

It might feel good for a few minutes to dish the dirt about someone, but it eventually catches up with you in the form of guilt, mistrust from others, or retribution. Gossip is simply negative, and negative things deplete your energy.

31. Giving up too soon

When things get tough, the tough don’t give up. If you’re in the habit of quitting too soon, you lose self-respect and confidence.

32. Having knee-jerk reactions

Our first reactions aren’t always the best, especially in an emotionally-charged situation. An immediate reaction of anger or defensiveness might be regretted later, causing embarrassment or more problems.

33. Avoiding confrontation

It might feel like you’re saving energy by avoiding conflict, but you’re really just prolonging the problem. It takes energy to hold yourself back from facing a situation and dealing with it.

34. Lying

Lying goes against your integrity. It makes you feel shame, guilt, and anxiety. All of these feelings deplete your energy. A habit of lying undermines the trust others have in you.

35. Over-spending

When you spend more than you can afford to spend, you create low level anxiety, embarrassment, and guilt. You feel out-of-control and undisciplined. For a while, stop the spending habit cold turkey until you manage the problem.

36. Accepting unacceptable behavior

Family members, children, and work associates can treat you with disrespect. If you allow it to continue, you give away your power and dismantle your boundaries. The pain of the behavior and your habitual acceptance of it is depleting.

37. Leaving your bed unmade

It’s a small thing, but an unmade bed sucks the energy from a room. It looks messy and disorganized. Make your bed daily and get started on an orderly foot.

38. Working on vacation

Vacation is a time to replenish your energy and restore balance in life. Even if you love your work, give yourself a break from it so you can completely refill your tank.

39. Pretending things are Ok when they aren’t

This goes beyond just avoiding confrontation. It’s an active choice to shove down your feelings and act as though you don’t have them. Denying your feelings causes deep emotional turmoil that sucks your energy and joy.

40. Taking things personally

Sometimes our sensitivities get the best of us, but if you’re in a habit of getting your feelings hurt, you might need to examine a deeper cause. Perhaps you’re a highly sensitive person, but you need to adapt to a less sensitive world so others don’t cause you constant pain and stress.

41. Wearing uncomfortable clothes

A shirt with an itchy tag. Pants that are too tight. A jacket that makes us overheat. We might look amazing and professional, but our clothes are making us crazy. Why put up with that and allow it to distract you? Get in the habit of wearing comfortable clothes that still look great.

42. Focusing on the past or future

Focusing on the past can create feelings of regret and remorse. Dwelling in the future fosters longing and agitation. Put your energy in the present moment, the task at hand. Right now is where you’ll find all your happiness and energy. 


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What bad habits do you have that deplete you of energy and drag you down? Have you overcome them? If so, please share how you did it in the comments below.

Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Side effects include missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.
The behavior pattern of procrastination can be triggered in many different ways, so you won't always procrastinate for the same reason. Sometimes you'll procrastinate because you're overwhelmed with too much on your plate, and procrastination gives you an escape. Other times you'll feel tired and lazy, and you just can't get going.
Let's now address these various causes of procrastination and consider intelligent ways to respond.

1. Stress

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When you feel stressed, worried, or anxious, it's hard to work productively. In certain situations procrastination works as a coping mechanism to keep your stress levels under control. A wise solution is to reduce the amount of stress in your life when possible, such that you can spend more time working because you want to, not because you have to. One of the simplest ways to reduce stress is to take more time for play.
In his book The Now Habit, Dr. Neil Fiore suggests that making time for guaranteed fun can be an effective way to overcome procrastination. Decide in advance what blocks of time you'll allocate each week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and personal hobbies. Then schedule your work hours using whatever time is left. This can reduce the urge to procrastinate because you work will not encroach on your leisure time, so you don't have to procrastinate on work in order to relax and enjoy life. I caution against overusing this strategy, however, as your work should normally be enjoyable enough that you're motivated to do it. If you aren't inspired by your daily work, admit that you made a mistake in choosing the wrong career path; then seek out a new direction that does inspire you.
Benjamin Franklin advised that the optimal strategy for high productivity is to split your days into one third work, one third play, and one third rest. Once again the suggestion is to guarantee your leisure time. Hold your work time and your play time as equally important, so one doesn't encroach upon the other.
I'm most productive when I take abundant time for play. This helps me burn off excess stress and enjoy life more, and my work life is better when I'm happier. I also create a relaxed office environment that reduces stress levels. My office includes healthy plants, a fountain, and several scented candles. I often listen to relaxing music while I work. Despite all the tech equipment, my office has a very relaxed feel to it. Because I enjoy being there, I can work a full day without feeling overly stressed or anxious, even when I have a lot to do. For additional tips to make your work environment more peaceful and relaxing, read the article 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.

2. Overwhelm

Sometimes you may have more items on your to-do list than you can reasonably complete. This can quickly lead to overwhelm, and ironically you may be more likely to procrastinate when you can least afford it. Think of it as your brain refusing to cooperate with a schedule that you know is unreasonable. In this case the message is that you need to stop, reassess your true priorities, and simplify.
Options for reducing schedule overwhelm include elimination, delegation, and negotiation. First, review your to-dos and cut as much as you can. Cut everything that isn't truly important. This should be a no-brainer, but it's amazing how poorly people actually implement it. People cut things like exercise while leaving plenty of time for TV, even though exercise invigorates them and TV drains them. When you cut items, be honest about removing the most worthless ones first, and retain those that provide real value. Secondly, delegate tasks to others as much as possible. Ask for extra help if necessary. And thirdly, negotiate with others to free up more time for what's really important. If you happen to have a job that overloads you with more work than you feel is reasonable, it's up to you to decide if it's worthwhile to continue in that situation. Personally I wouldn't tolerate a job that pushed me to overwork myself to the point of feeling overwhelmed; that's counterproductive for both the employer and the employee.
Be aware that the peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and work shorter hours than the workaholics. Peak performers get more done in less time by keeping themselves fresh, relaxed, and creative. By treating your working time as a scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up every other area of your life, you'll be more balanced, focused, and effective.
It's been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours. Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on productivity and motivation that less real work gets done. This is especially true for creative, information age work.
Don't just take my word for it though; test this concept for yourself. Many years ago I ran a simple experiment to determine how efficiently I was working. I measured my efficiency ratio as the number of hours I spent doing important work divided by the number of hours I spent in my office each week. The first time I did this I was shocked to find that I only got 15 hours of real work done while spending 60 hours in my office, an efficiency ratio of 25%. Can you believe that? Over the following weeks, I increased my productivity dramatically while spending far fewer hours in my office. By limiting my work hours, I actually got more done. You can read the details in the article Triple Your Personal Productivity. I now know that working long hours is huge mistake, and I challenge you to discover this truth for yourself.

3. Laziness

Often we procrastinate because we feel too physically and/or emotionally drained to work. Once we fall into this pattern, it's easy to get stuck due to inertia because an object at rest tends to remain at rest. When you feel lazy, even simple tasks seem like too much work because your energy is too low compared to the energy required by the task. If you blame the task for being too difficult or tedious, you'll procrastinate to conserve energy. But the longer you do this, the more your resolve will weaken, and your procrastination habit may begin spiraling toward depression. Feeling weak and unmotivated shouldn't be your norm, so it's important to disrupt this pattern as soon as you become aware of it.
The solution is straightforward: get off your butt and physically move your body. Exercise helps to raise your energy levels. When your energy is high, tasks will seem to get easier, and you'll be less resistant to taking action. A fit person can handle more activity than an unfit person, even though the difficulty of the tasks remains the same.
Through trial and error, I discovered that diet and exercise are critical in keeping my energy consistently high. I went vegetarian in 1993 and vegan in 1997, and these dietary improvements gave me a significant ongoing energy boost. When I exercise regularly, my metabolism stays high throughout the day. I rarely procrastinate due to laziness because I have the energy and mental clarity to tackle whatever comes my way. Tasks seem easier to complete than they did when my diet and exercise habits were poor. The tasks are the same, but I've grown stronger. A wonderful side benefit of the diet/exercise habit is that I was able to get by with less sleep. I used to need at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, but now I function well on about 6.5 hours.
The most energizing foods are raw fruits and vegetables. Make your diet abundant in these foods, and you'll likely see a marked improvement in your energy levels. The first week or two, however, you may temporarily feel worse as your body takes the opportunity to detox. Erin and I each lost seven pounds the first week we went vegan. Once the dairy clog finally got cleaned out, our intestines were better able to metabolize everything we ate from then on. We later learned that this is actually quite common. There's a good reason baby cows need four stomachs to digest their mother's milk. Human beings can't metabolize dairy products properly, so the partially digested cow proteins float through the bloodstream and must be eliminated as toxins (i.e. poisons). This requires even more energy, which can leave you feeling more tired than you otherwise would.
You'll have to decide for yourself how far you want to take this. I suggest you try different dietary changes for only 30 days at first to see how it affects you. That's how I went vegetarian and later vegan. In each case I went into the challenge fully expecting to revert back at the end of the 30 days, but I liked the results so much that I couldn't fathom going back. Don't take my word for this. Experiment for yourself, and discover what health habits work best for you. For more tips see the article How to Find the Best Diet for You.

4. Lack of Motivation

We all experience temporary laziness at times, but if you suffer from chronically low motivation and just can't seem to get anything going, then it's time for you to let go of immature thought patterns, to embrace life as a mature adult, and to discover your true purpose in life. Until you identify an inspiring purpose, you'll never come close to achieving your potential, and your motivation will always remain weak.
For more than a decade I ran a computer game publishing company. That was a dream of mine in my early 20s, and it was wonderful to be able to fulfill that dream. However, as I entered my 30s, I began feeling much less passionate about it. I was competent at what I did, the business was doing well financially, and I enjoyed plenty of free time. But I just didn't care that much about entertainment software anymore. As my passion faded, I started asking, "What's the point of continuing with this line of work?" Consequently, I procrastinated on some projects that could have moved the business forward. I tried to boost my motivation using a variety of techniques but to no avail. Finally I recognized what I really needed was a total career change. I needed to find a more inspiring career path.
After much soul searching, I retired from the gaming industry and launched StevePavlina.com. What an amazing change that was! I found renewed passion in helping people grow, so I didn't have to use motivation-boosting techniques to get going. I was naturally inspired to work. I still feel totally inspired. Best of all I procrastinated less on non-work tasks too -- my passion spread across all areas of my life.
Center your work around an inspiring purpose, and you'll greatly reduce your tendency to procrastinate. If you haven't already done so, listen to Podcast #15 - What Is Your Purpose?. Finding your purpose is a powerful way to defeat procrastination problems because you won't procrastinate on what you love to do. Chronic procrastination is actually a big warning sign that tells us, "You're going the wrong way. Take a different path!"
Once you've centered your life around an inspiring purpose, then you can take advantage of certain motivational techniques to boost your motivation even higher. For some specific motivational tips, read the article Cultivating Burning Desire.

5. Lack of Discipline

Even when motivation is high, you may still encounter tasks you don't want to do. In these situations self-discipline works like a motivational backup system. When you feel motivated, you don't need much discipline, but it sure comes in handy when you need to get something done but really don't want to do the work. If your self-discipline is weak, however, procrastinating will be too tempting to resist.
I've written a six-part series on how to develop your self-discipline, so I'll simply refer you there: Self-Discipline Series. I know this is a lot of reading, but my goal isn't to write a cutesy article you'll read once and soon forget. If you really want to overcome procrastination, you must release any attachment to the fantasy of a quick fix, and commit to making real progress. Hopefully you have the maturity to recognize that reading a single article won't cure your procrastination problems overnight, just as a single visit to the gym won't make you an athlete.

6. Poor Time Management Habits

Do you ever find yourself falling behind because you overslept, because you were too disorganized, or because certain tasks just fell through the cracks? Bad habits like these often lead to procrastination, often unintentionally.
The solution in this case is to diagnose the bad habit that's hurting you and devise a new habit to replace it. For example, if you have a problem oversleeping, take up the challenge of becoming an early riser. To de-condition the old habit and install the new one, I recommend the 30-day trial method. Many readers have found this method extremely effective because it makes permanent change much easier.
For tasks you've been putting off for a while, I recommend using the timeboxing method to get started. Here's how it works: First, select a small piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if you simply put in the time; it doesn't depend on any meaningful accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk, or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you'll be working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how unpleasant the task, there's virtually nothing you can't endure for just 30 minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.
When you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know it, you've put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you're ready to stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying about the difficulty of the task and toward finishing the current piece of the task which now has your full attention.
When you do decide to stop working, claim and enjoy your reward. Then schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward. This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working toward distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you'll be eager to return to work on your task again and again, and you'll ultimately finish it. You may also want to read my article on Timeboxing.
If you find that clutter and disorganization are hurting you, I suggest you read the article Getting Organized. For a compelling overview of effective time management principles, read Time Management. And for a giant list of specific time management tips you can apply right away, read Do It Now.

7. Lack of Skill

If you lack sufficient skill to complete a task at a reasonable level of quality, you may procrastinate to avoid a failure experience. You then have three viable options to overcome this type of pattern: educate, delegate, or eliminate.
First, you can acquire the skill level you need by training up. Just because you can't do something today doesn't mean you'll never be able to do it. Someday you may even master that skill. For example, when I wanted to create my first website in 1995, I didn't know how to do it because I'd never done it before. But I knew I could learn to do it. I took the time to learn HTML, and I experimented. It didn't take long before I launched a functional web site. In the years since then, I continued to apply and upgrade that skill. If you can't do something, don't whine about it. Educate yourself to gain skill until you become proficient.
A second option is to delegate tasks you lack the skill to do. There are far too many interesting skills for you to master, so you must rely on others for help. You may not realize it, but you're already a master at delegation. Do you grow all your own food? Did you sew your own clothes? Did you build your own house? Chances are that you depend on others for your very survival. If you want a certain result but don't want to acquire the skills to get that result, you can recruit others to help you. For example, I don't want to spend my days trying to understand the details of the U.S. tax code, so I delegate that task to my accountant. This frees me to spend more time working from my strengths.
Thirdly, you may conclude that a result isn't needed badly enough to justify the effort of either education or delegation. In that case the smart choice is to eliminate the task. Sometimes procrastination is a sign that a task needn't be done at all.
When I was in college, I felt that certain assignments were pointless busywork, and I couldn't justify the effort required to do them. If the impact on my grade wasn't too great, I'd decline to do those assignments. Nobody cares that I received an A- instead of an A in a class because I declined to write an essay on gestural languages. If an employer or graduate school screener ever did care, I'd have turned the experience to my advantage by using it to demonstrate that I could set priorities.

8. Perfectionism

A common form of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is perfectionism. Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you'll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. So you put the task off to the last possible minute until you finally have a way out of this trap. Now there isn't enough time to do the job perfectly, so you're off the hook because you can tell yourself that you could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay indefinitely.
The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human. Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely.
Perfectionism also arises when you think of a project as one gigantic whole. Replace that one big "must be perfect" project in your mind with one small imperfect first step. Your first draft can be very, very rough. You're always free to revise it later. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, allow your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started.
Some of these cures are challenging to implement, but they're effective. If you really want to tame the procrastination beast, you'll need something stronger than quick-fix motivational rah-rah. This problem isn't going away on its own. You must take the initiative. The upside is that tackling this problem yields tremendous personal growth. You'll become stronger, braver, more disciplined, more driven, and more focused. These benefits will become hugely significant over your lifetime, so recognize that the challenge of overcoming procrastination is truly a blessing in disguise. The whole point is to grow stronger. 

 Source; http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/overcoming-procrastination.htm