If you’re like many people, shortly after lunch your head begins buzzing, your concentration plummets, your eyes droop and the top of your desk begins to look as cozy as a feather mattress. Here are 13 ways to stay awake at work:
如果你像许多人一样,午饭后不久你的脑袋就开始嗡嗡叫,你的注意力直线下降,你的眼睛低垂,你的办公桌面开始看起来和一床羽绒床垫一样舒适。那这里有13种在工作中保持清醒的方法:
1. Head outside and sit in the daylight for 10 minutes. Better still, have your lunch outside and divide your break between eating and a walk. It will help reset your chronological clock, keep down the amount of melatonin (the sleep hormone) your body produces during this circadian dip and give you a valuable boost of beneficial vitamin D, reducing your risk of osteoporosis as well as various cancers.
到外面去,在阳光下坐10分钟。还要更好的是,在外面吃午饭,把你的休息时间划分为吃饭和散步。这将有助于重置你的生物钟,抑制你的身体在这个周期性衰退中产生的褪黑激素(睡眠激素)的数量,并且大大地增强有益的维生素D,减少患骨质疏松症以及各种癌症的风险。
2. Choose activating protein not energy-sapping carbs. So a tuna salad without the bread is a better choice than a tuna sandwich. A green salad sprinkled with low-fat cheese, a hardboiled egg and some sliced turkey wins over a pasta salad. The change can really make a difference.
选择有活力的蛋白质,而不是消耗能量的碳水化合物。所以没有面包的金枪鱼沙拉比起金枪鱼三明治是个更好的选择。撒有低脂奶酪的绿色沙拉、一个煮熟的鸡蛋和几片火鸡胜于通心粉沙拉。这种改变真的可以起作用。
3. Enjoy teatime. Get into the routine of a mid-afternoon cup. It’s a good step towards beating the afternoon doldrums thanks to that little bit of a caffeine burst and the few quiet minutes it entails. Keep a selection of exotic flavored teas (preferably caffeinated) in your office and an aesthetically pleasing cup just for tea.
享受喝茶时间。养成下午三点左右喝杯茶的习惯。感谢那一丁点咖啡因的突然增加以及随之而来的几分钟宁静时间,这是驱走午后无精打采的一个好方法。在办公室里存放精选的风味奇异的茶(含咖啡因的更好)和一个只用来喝茶的赏心悦目的茶杯。
4. Clean your desk and clear out your email inbox. Both are relatively mindless tasks that don’t require great amounts of concentration or clear thinking, and both will leave you feeling more energized because you’ll have accomplished something visible as well as having reduced energy-sapping clutter.
清理你的办公桌并清空电子邮件收件箱。两者都是相对来说不用脑子的任务,不需要大量的注意力及清晰的思考,而且两者都会使你感到更有精力,因为你不仅完成了一些看得见的事还减少了耗费精力的杂务。
5. Make an “I was thinking of you” phone call. To your wife, child, siblings, parents, a friend or a retired colleague. A 5 minute keep-in-touch call will lift your spirits for hours and reinvigorate you to get your work done.
打一个“我在挂念你”的电话。打给你的妻子、孩子、兄弟姐妹、父母、朋友或一位退休的同事,一个5分钟的保持联系的电话将会使你的精神振奋几个小时,并且赋予你新的能量来完成工作。
6. Put a drop of peppermint oil in your hand and briskly rub your hands together, then rub them over your face (avoid your eyes). Peppermint is a known energy-enhancing scent.
在手上滴一滴薄荷油,并快速揉搓双手,然后在脸上摩擦(避开眼睛)。薄荷是有名的提升精力的香料。
7. Roll your shoulders forwards, then backwards, timing each roll with a deep breath in and out. Repeat for 2 minutes.
转动肩膀,向前,然后向后,每转动一次伴随着一次深呼吸。重复做2分钟。
8. Consider a morsel of dark chocolate. This is not a license to overindulge, but dark chocolate does have some unique advantages.
考虑吃一小块黑巧克力。这不是特许过度放纵,但黑巧克力确实有某些独特的好处。
Unlike milk chocolate, it is truly a healthy food, closer to the category of nuts than sweets, given the high levels of healthy fat and antioxidants it contains. Plus, it has abundant fiber and magnesium. Additionally, it provides a little caffeine, as well as a satisfyingly decadent feeling. But don’t eat more than one square.
与牛奶巧克力不同,鉴于它含有高水平的健康脂肪和抗氧化剂,它实在是一种健康食品,更接近于坚果的类别而不是糖果。而且,它还有丰富的纤维和镁。再加上,它还含有一点咖啡因,以及令人满意的放纵的满足感。但是不要吃超过一块。
9. Chew some “spicy” gum. Chewing gums with strong minty flavors are stimulating, and the mere act of chewing is something of a tonic to a brain succumbing to lethargy. Plus, chewing stimulates saliva, which helps to clear out bacteria responsible for cavities and gum disease from lunch. Just be sure to choose sugar-free gum.
咀嚼一些“辛辣的”口香糖。咀嚼具有浓烈薄荷味的口香糖是有刺激作用的,而且仅仅是咀嚼的动作对昏昏欲睡的大脑就有点像是某种增强剂。而且,咀嚼刺激唾液,这有助于清除午餐带来的可引起口腔和齿龈疾病的细菌。只是一定要选择无糖口香糖哦。
10. Plan group activities for midday. If you often work on your own, try to organize work involving others at the time of day when your concentration might otherwise be waning. We are social animals, and interactions always rev us up. But make sure it’s an interesting, interactive activity. Sitting in a room listening to someone else drone on and on will just send you snoozing.
为正午计划团体活动。如果你经常一个人工作,试着在一天中你的注意力可能在其他方面会逐渐减弱的时间里组织安排包括他人的工作。我们是社会性动物,互动总是使我们更有生气。但要确定是一个有趣的、交互式活动。坐在房间里听其他人单调乏味地讲啊讲只会使你打瞌睡。
11.Take 10 minutes for isometric exercises. Isometric exercises involve nothing more than tensing a muscle and holding it. For instance, with your arm held out, tense your biceps and triceps at the same time and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. You can do this with your calf muscles, thigh muscles (front and back), chest, abdomen, buttocks, shoulders and back.
做10分钟静力锻炼。静力锻炼仅仅包括拉紧肌肉并保持。例如,伸出手臂,同时拉紧二头肌和三头肌并保持5到10秒钟。你可以对你的小腿肌肉、大腿肌肉(前面和后面)、胸部、腹部、臀部、肩部和背部这么做。
12. Keep a rosemary plant in your office. Not only will sharing your space with a live, growing thing provide its own mood boost, but studies find the scent of rosemary to be energizing. Whenever you need a boost, just rub a sprig between your fingers to release the fragrance into the air. Or, if you’re really wiped out, rub a sprig on your hands, face and neck.
在办公室养一盆迷迭香。不仅与有生命的、成长的东西共享空间将会有其特有的情绪激励作用,而且研究发现迷迭香的香味还会使人精神振奋。每当你需要提神时,只要用手指摩擦嫩枝将香味释放到空气中。或者,如果你真的精疲力竭了,就在你的手上、脸上和脖子上摩擦嫩枝。
13. Have an afternoon snack designed to get the blood flowing. That doesn’t mean a whole milk chocolate bar. The high glycemic index in the chocolate bar (a measure of how high it pushes up your blood sugar) might give you a temporary boost, but once that jolt of sugar is gone, you’ll sink faster than the stock market after an interest-rate hike. Instead, you want a snack that combines protein, fiber and complex carbohydrates (such as whole-grain crackers or raw vegetables) to raise your blood sugar levels steadily and keep them up.
以让血液流动为目的吃一份下午点心。这并不是指一整块牛奶巧克力。巧克力的高血糖指数(把你的血糖推进多高的量度标准)可能会给你暂时的刺激,但一旦那点糖的刺激消失了,你就会比利率上涨后的股市衰落的更快。取而代之的是,你需要兼有蛋白质、纤维和复合碳水化合物的点心(比如全麦饼干或生蔬菜)来稳定地提高并保持你的血糖水平。