Are you overburdened with the rigors of your daily life, and you seek a way to improve your lifestyle? Or do you desire to enjoy life at its optimum, and you are confused about how to achieve that?
If yes, congratulations! You have chosen the right piece. Everyone wants to improve their lives such that they are living the best lives possible. And as a result, people worldwide, including Nigerians, are constantly looking for ways to enhance their lifestyles.
But finding the most appropriate ways to do this has always been the problem. It takes more than reading to know what works. It would be best if you had a scientific inquiry and proven facts.
There are many ways to optimize your lifestyle as a Nigerian. At other times, we find the ways, but keeping up with it has not been as easy as it sounds.
This article gives 10 scientifically proven ways to optimize your lifestyle, which are easy to practice and add to your day-to-day activities.
Table of Contents
How to Optimize Your Lifestyle
You can improve your lifestyle by making these simple steps a habit.
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Wake up early
The first scientifically proven way to optimize your lifestyle is to wake up at least 30 minutes before everyone else. This may sound awkward, but it is an important step to optimizing your lifestyle. Harvard Biologist Christoph Randler discovered that early risers are more proactive.
Do you know that if you wake up an hour earlier than you normally do, you will get an additional 15 days a year? Isn’t that amazing? Many successful people wake up early to use quiet time for themselves.
Waking before everyone else gives you ample time to set the tone of your day. You decide what your day will look like by having quiet time to yourself and taking notes of important tasks to accomplish for the day.
The time you take to focus each morning will save you hours of stress during the day. You won’t waste time on trivial things because you have made a list of activities in order of priority and clearly stated the expected outcomes.
There are so many other things you can wake up to do asides from planning your day. You can also decide to meditate, exercise, sit outside to feel the natural air, take a walk or cook a proper meal.
Many people neglect breakfast in the morning or settle for less healthy foods because they are in a hurry to get to work. Waking up earlier allows time for cooking healthier meals which increases energy levels and improves productivity.
Some other benefits of waking up early have been listed in the scientific research here.
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Socialize
Connecting with others is a way to improve your lifestyle as you share moments of happiness and create memories that can last a lifetime. To optimize your lifestyle, you can make new friends and expand your circle of friends, and you should do this at least once a week.
You can meet new friends at the bar, in the office, doing volunteer work, in a dance class, at the gym, or when you attend owambes during the weekend.
All you need to do to make friends is start a conversation or keep up with one. The time invested in friendship is time well spent. It doesn’t have to be a party socialising. Having lunch with one or two friends can keep you feeling connected and alive.
You can also plan to reach out to people you haven’t been in touch with recently through phone calls, video calls, or chats. You can even plan a vacation with friends or family.
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Get good sleep daily
Another great way to optimize your life is to sleep for about 6-8 hours every day. The recommended hours of sleep an adult should get every night is 6-8 hours. If you want to optimize your lifestyle, you must get regular hours of sleep at night, which should be a minimum of 6 hours and a maximum of 8 hours to avoid oversleeping.
Oversleeping should be avoided as it may increase the risk of premature death. Lack of enough sleep has been shown to also retard immune function and cause health problems.
Read also: How to sleep well and sleep enough as a Nigerian.
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Smile and laugh more
As simple as this may sound, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to optimize your lifestyle. This is because when we laugh, we breathe in lots of air which helps to relax our muscles and stimulate the heart and lungs. It also helps to reduce stress and pain and improve our mood.
This, in turn, makes you get in a better mood to do your job leading to a more productive day.
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Avoid Smoking
Another scientifically proven way to optimize your lifestyle is to avoid smoking. Smoking causes cancer, stroke, heart and lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), among others.
Quitting smoking (if you smoke) is a way to improve your life as it reduces the risk of premature death, improves health status, and enhances the quality of life.
Read also: Habitual Lifestyle Mistakes to avoid as a Nigerian.
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Eat more fruits and vegetable
This is probably the most known way to improve your lifestyle. Fruit and vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals, and they can help to maintain a healthy gut and prevent digestion problems.
Scientific research has shown that regular eating of fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of having a stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. A diet rich in fruit and vegetables can help reduce the risk of having bowel cancer.
Fruits and vegetables can be taken as snacks in the office or at school instead of sugary snacks or those made from flour and fats.
The World Health Organisation(WHO) recommends that adults eat at least 400g of fruits and vegetables (excluding starch roots like potatoes).
However, you must watch your supply of fruits and vegetables. Take fresh fruits and vegetables only, not canned or frozen ones. Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables can increase the potential for diseases caused by bacteria.
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Understand your flow time
If you are constantly interrupted by meetings or side talks during your day, you will have no flow time. If you keep staying where there are possible distractions, you will keep exhausting yourself unnecessarily over and over again.
A flow time is the amount of time a flow unit spends in a business from beginning to end. Simply put, it is time an individual pays to ensure that a task is completed in the best possible time without any interference.
Individuals who do not know their flow time will have many uncompleted tasks, will be busy yet achieve no serious success for the day, and will get over-stressed only to discover they didn’t do much.
To optimize your lifestyle, therefore, you must know and understand your flow time. Track what time of the day works best for you and how many hours it can take to get your maximum attention.
Research has shown that working in chunks of time instead of working straight hours on a particular task can make you more productive.
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Turn off all distractions
This is similar to understanding your flow time. It refers to distractions that may come from your environment. They could be distractions from your mobile phone, appearing as a pop notification of chats, emails, or calls.
Once you understand your flow time and are set to work, turn off all notifications that could distract you from your assignment. This will help you concentrate better and make you more efficient and time-conscious in delivering your job.
Read also: How to avoid distractions at work.
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Take regular breaks
Humans are not robots. There is always something to do, as we can never get all the work done in 24 hours. To optimize your lifestyle, you should know this and always take a break. Take a break between work hours, so you do not get tired or worn out.
Fatigue can lead to unproductivity, and you would not want an unsuccessful day. When you take breaks, you always feel rejuvenated, revitalized and relaxed.
Taking breaks increases focus, leading to increased productivity. It also helps your mental health and well-being.
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Allocate time for reflection
To optimize your lifestyle, you should never forget to take time to reflect. Reflecting on every day’s job at the end of the day can help evaluate progress and help you keep a record of what has been done and what needs to be done.
Also, regularly check to see if there are improvements you could make next time. If every day you get 1% more efficient, then at the end of a year, you would be 15% more effective.
Conclusion
The above listed are important, scientifically proven ways to optimize your lifestyle. There are many more ways but putting these into practice is a great start to optimizing your lifestyle.
Optimizing your lifestyle should not always be to increase work productivity. It should also be for achieving a fulfilling life without being under so much stress and unnecessary pressure.
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About Author
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Rotimi Mercy is a Nigerian writer whose lifestyle centres around her family, teaching children and young adults, reading a book, or surfing the internet. This gave rise to her converting her speaking abilities into writing skills.
She writes on various niches such as; lifestyle, health, and Career.
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