How do I become a high energy person?

[Hetty091]

I find more and more I am wasting time sitting around and not getting on and doing things.

I have always been very low energy. Even at uni I was always in bed by 9pm. I just can't stay up late.

This morning I woke up at 6 and then didn't have a shower until 10.30. I had to be somewhere but I ended up only spending 20mins at the place instead of the 2 or 3 hours I really should have spent. The mornings are my most energetic time of day too.

I want to be someone who leaps about and Gets Stuff Done but I never have been. Is there any way to change into that person?

I have tried giving up sugar and bread etc.

Well I thought I was just lazy and it was psychological but it's actually my thyroid. Maybe get some blood tests just to be sure? I feel much better about myself now I know it's not my fault I'm fatigued a lot.

I fell asleep at 8.47. I woke up at 3 and was awake until 4.45. I fell asleep again and woke up at 5.45. I've been lying here trying to get back to sleep. I'm just so tired.

I think you need to get up and start straight away. No sitting about until your jobs/tasks/aims are done. I can't stand people that want to loaf about all day then get started at 2pm ffs. My window of opportunity for shit to get done has passed by then. I don't see the point either, how can you relax knowing you have to do stuff? I'd rather get it done then relax knowing I've got no more to do.

Exercise .. especially in the morning. Not only will you feel more energised through the day, as you get fitter your daily life will wear you out less and you’ll have more energy for other things. Keeping moving becomes a habit .

This is exactly me. I've learned to embrace it and work around it. I work out first thing. I WFH so I do all my cleaning and pop out for errands/shopping in between meetings in the AM. On weekends, I go to museums or exhibits as early as possible. I meet friends for lunch instead of dinner.

I don't completely refuse evening commitments (I love going to theatre and comedy shows) but keeping it to one or two a month makes them much more manageable and I still get my chill time after work.

Your sleep pattern suggests that you need to go to bed later. Stay up until at least 10 .
If you are waking in the middle of the night , and not getting back to sleep you will feel exhausted

I think this is a really important point about thinking a lot rather than doing a lot. I have a very vivid imagination so if I have done something in my mind it is almost tantamount to doing it in reality but that is a very slippery slope hence routine posted yesterday at 22.23. I know I have a tendency to over think, over plan and over perfectionize, if that is a word, and if I am really honest I felt slightly superior to those who just got stuck in without all of the pre prep, until I realised they were getting on, and learning on the job, while I had absolutely nothing to show for all the tortuous thought! So a good balance between the two is timetabling and identifiying routine in advance but on actual day just getting up and DOING without any thought at all so that it becomes second nature.

I think this is inbuilt in our DNA. I’ve never been a high energy person ( db used to call me the sloth) when l was younger.

Doing more makes me more tired. Even when I’ve built up my stamina. And l have no time to just sit and contemplate the world. I’ve stopped even attempting it. I’m 60 now and I’ve been like it all my life.

Possibly the most useful post I have ever read on Mumsnet. Thank you.

Certain things can help.
A good supplement like floradix
More protein and less carbs
Water
Exercise

A specific suitable routine. For example, I never go downstairs until I'm showered and dressed. I Take my clothes into the bathroom then it's just a case of stepping in for a quick shower while you get changed.

Have 'meeting' with yourself over tea/coffee and list times and things that need to get done. Get up and get on with it.

It seems to be true that the more you do, the more you can do. The less you do, the less you feel like doing.
Pushing yourself for a while helps.

I have very low energy at times due to a health condition. At those times I do Just 5 Minutes - set a timer for 5 mins and do whatever you need e.g have a shower. You can stop when the timer goes. I bargain with myself to do 5 mins per hour snd I can lie down/drink tea for the other 55. I often find d more energy when I'm up already - it's the getting up from horizontal that's the killer!

I'm not particularly a morning or an evening person, but I find I have more energy if I just don't stop.
If I sit down and relax at any point, I lose all momentum. So I'm on the go all day, but these days I look forward to an early night, not necessarily to sleep but to relax in bed.
So if I just keep moving all day, my motivation is the fact I can relax earlier in the evening.
I can do multiple gym classes or workouts, a full day in work, get all my chores around the house done, run my DS round to his hobbies etc, simply by not stopping.
Sounds simple/ridiculous but it works

@Clawedfoot73 you are so right
I have never thought of it like this before

"Over time, the body gets very good at what you do the most. So if you sit and scroll a lot; it will get very good at that. Conversely, if you start to walk a lot, it will gradually adapt. So the more you sit in a chair the more your body will want to do that. "

I am doom scrolling now I must walk more

What were you doing between 6am and 10.30am, OP?

I’m not sure you can or should fundamentally change your base personality. I’m not a “high energy” person. I’m generally pretty content sitting on my arse or just bumbling about a bit doing nothing. I’m quite disciplined, though, so I make myself do all my jobs quickly in the morning (also an early bird) so that my chilling time is then guilt-free.

I don't know what I was doing during that time. The time just slips away from me and I don't notice it happening. I wasn't doing anything really. I got the DC out to school but they don't need much input from me, and they had gone by 9. I must have washed up but I can't remember doing that at all.

I downloaded a sleep app the other day and it was telling me to go to sleep at 9.15 last night and today it is telling me to go to sleep at 9.45. Last night I just fell asleep without even intending to and tonight I can't even imagine being able to stay up until 9.45. I very much agree that I have to stay up later. I have had poor sleep for over 20 years, that is waking up at 3am or even earlier. As a teenager I went for long walks at 5am but I have DC now so can't do that.

I have had loads of good advice here and I will try to implement it. Memory is a problem for me and I make large numbers of lists, rarely accomplishing the tasks on the lists.

I am taking iron (not the high strength stuff), b12, vit d3.

I can't get another thyroid test at gp because I had one a few years ago and it came back normal. I have hair loss and half my eyebrows missing but that was why they tested me before and they said there was nothing wrong. They won't test again as I have no new symptoms. Can you get this done at a pharmacy?

OP I am similar, and was an insomniac from my early teens.

But you do need another set of tests, also do you know the actual figures? The hair loss concerns me.

Re the time just vanishing - were you online? I'm really realising how bad I am with that, I can kill hours doing nothing online.