We often struggle to drink enough water. Although we know we should do it we often forget, or don’t feel like it or drink anything else but that. We get dehydrated which then leads to dizziness, headaches, sluggishness and confusion rendering us less than productive and unable to concentrate and get on with our day. All that could be avoided with something as trivial as a glass of H20 – if we don’t forget to drink it, that is. Here are few tips on how to make it easier to remember and make it less of a chore:
Make it accessible.
The first rule of turning something into a habit – make it easy to do. In order to drink more water have some – in a bottle or a glass on your desk always at hand and you’ll drink more naturally.
The easiest way to get yourself to drink more water is to make it taste good. It especially helps if you are trying to transition from sweet soft drinks into drinking something that has no taste whatsoever making it all that harder to get used to. You can use any flavour you like, make cucumber or lemon water – no sweet additives; just the natural juices are needed to make it taste good. Make it beforehand preferably the night before: slice up half a lemon or half a cucumber and add it to a glad jug, fill it up with 2lt of water and keep in the fridge overnight. You’ll have two liters of chilled flavoured water always at hand and you’ll be surprised what a difference the flavour will make to your water drinking habits – you’ll be reaching for a glass more often than you expect.
Get a straw.
We sip coffee and tea, wine and beer. We don’t sip water so much unless we are training or have to stay in the sun all day. Sipping water isn’t as enjoyable as sipping milkshakes so why would you reach out for it again and again? You will get distracted and you’ll forget and the lonely glass of water will just sit there on your desk and will be emptied into the sink once the meal is over. So what you want is to drink as much as possible the first time. Learn from the milkshakes – how fast can you drink one… if you drink it through a straw? Something as simple as a straw added to a glass of water will completely change how much water you drink in one go. Try it.
Buy a pack of straws and you’ll have one on hand any time you need one.
Another way to keep your water intake high is to make yourself accountable and log it in. You don’t actually have to drink 2lt a day, you just need to drink every now and then but many of us fail to do even that. You will get water from food and other drinks like coffee and tea but the best source of water is still – water, so 2-3 large glasses extra will be more than enough. Set a time of the day when you have to drink a glass and keep the times the same every time, for example: 8am, 3pm and 9pm – these are your “water” hours. All you have to do is drink a glass when it’s time to drink.
You can even get an app for that, you know. The water tracking apps can be a bit too tedious and add time, after all you want to make your life easier not harder by logging every drop of liquid you drink during the day but it adds the gamification factor into the whole thing and it can work for some people, at least until the habit sticks.
Most of the time, it’s just getting used to drinking and drinking regularly until you no longer need to remind yourself to have a glass, you just have one.