7 Everyday Things You’re Doing That Are Secretly Draining Your Energy (And How to Stop)

You know that feeling when it’s 3 p.m. and you’re running purely on caffeine fumes and the questionable hope that tomorrow will somehow be better? Yeah. That’s not just “life being hard” — some of your daily habits are sneakily siphoning your energy like a phone app running in the background.

Let’s expose these little vampires and shut them down.

1. Scrolling Before Bed

You tell yourself it’s just “one quick check” of Instagram/Tiktok… and suddenly the sun is rising. Yeah scrolling on your phone before bed is a sleep assassin. Blue light messes with your melatonin i.e. sleep hormones. Then boom you wake up feeling lie you slept in a blender and suddenly that video of a raccoon stealing chips from a gas station isn’t worth the grogginess. Don’t worry though I have a solution to this, its pretty simple really all you have to do is charge your phone in another room and swap screen time for a boring paper back. Your body will than you for sure.

2. Saying Yes to Everything

That favor for a friend. That extra project at work. That wedding for a cousin you’ve never met. Overloading your calendar means your brain never gets to chill and you’re basically running on stress fuel. Practice saying “I can’t” without a paragraph of excuses. It’s not rude, it’s self-preservation.

3. Skipping Breakfast (Or Surviving on Sugar)

Coffee is a drink, not a meal. And a croissant the size of your face might taste like happiness, but it’ll crash your energy faster than a toddler after Halloween. The solution is simple eat protein and complex carbs in the morning such as eggs, oats, peanut butter toast basically anything that wont leave you hungry by 10am.

4. Sitting All Day

If you’ve been glued all day to your chair for hours and your legs are starting to forget what walking feels like, you’ve got a problem. As seemingly innocent as it is, sitting for hours slows your circulation and tells your body, “We’re in hibernation mode.” And not the chillax mode you were probably hoping for but we can fix this just stand up every hour . Stretch. Walk around. Pretend you’re pacing dramatically while thinking about life’s mysteries.

5. Drinking Not Enough Water

Dehydration = brain fog + headaches + zero motivation now that is a formula for disaster. Even mild dehydration can tan your focus. Also remember your body is 60% water — not 60% iced coffee or other drinks. Just keep a water bottle nearby and sip often. Bonus: More water = more bathroom trips = less sitting great right.

6. Multitasking Like It’s an Olympic Sport

Answering emails while half-listening to a podcast while cooking that’s a lot and quite frankly you’re not being efficient — you’re exhausting your brain by forcing it to switch tasks constantly. You are not some super human and truth be told you can’t be one even if you wanted to so tackle one task at a time. Your focus improves, your brain will definitely than you and that lovely pasta won’t burn.

7. Neglecting Fun

If your days are just work, chores, and collapsing in front of a screen, your mental energy will flatline and basically you’re running on empty. Fun isn’t optional — it’s fuel. Schedule joy like you schedule meetings. Game night, dance in your kitchen, build a pillow fort — whatever makes you feel alive again.

Final Thought:

Energy isn’t just about coffee or naps — it’s about plugging the invisible leaks in your day. Fix a few of these, and you might just find yourself with enough energy to finally start that side project… or at least survive Monday without threatening your co-workers.