How I got more energy by doing less

The first cold morning always catches me off guard.
The air feels heavier. The light vanishes too early.
It’s like the world quietly decides it’s time to test who’s built for the dark.

For years, I fought it.
I’d load up on caffeine, chase deadlines, and pretend I could outwork the season.
But winter doesn’t care how driven you are; it strips everything back to your systems.
If your foundation is weak, it shows.

Now I prepare for it.
I pull my sunrise lamp out early, so light reaches me before the sun does.
I use my infrared sauna at night to calm my nervous system before sleep.
I clean my supplement drawer like a ritual, because the state of it always mirrors the state of my mind.

That’s what this season is for, not goals, not resolutions, but recalibration.
Winter doesn’t test your motivation. It tests your maintenance.

And as I do this quiet work, tightening, simplifying, clearing, I can feel something shifting.
Because this year, I’ve been building something behind the scenes.
A project that pulls everything I’ve learned about health, identity, and reinvention into one system.
It’s taken months of testing, failing, and rebuilding.
And next week, I’ll finally reveal it here.

It’s not just another challenge.
It’s the framework that rebuilt me, and it might just rebuild you too.

So take this week to check your own systems.
The light is fading, but that doesn’t mean you have to.

Each week, I’ll share 3 things that have genuinely helped me, small shifts across the three pillars of ConfigurSelf: mindset, habits, and health. The kind of things that have made a real difference in my own life, and that I’d happily recommend to a close friend.

I used to think that feeling tired all winter was just part of life here, with darker mornings, a heavier mood, and a slower brain.
Then I learned it’s not just in your head. It’s literally in your body.

When daylight drops, your brain makes more melatonin (the sleep hormone) and less serotonin (the mood stabiliser).
Your circadian rhythm drifts, your energy dips, and everything feels harder than it should.

So now, every morning, I switch on the Lumie Vitamin L while we sit for breakfast.
Ten minutes of bright, full-spectrum light substitutes for the sun and tells your body clock the day has started.
It stops melatonin, steadies cortisol, boosts serotonin, and lifts your energy naturally, no caffeine needed.

The kids sit beside it too.
It’s become part of our winter mornings, cereal, conversation, and a bit of borrowed daylight before school.
You don’t notice it instantly, but after a week, the difference is real.
The mornings stop feeling like something to survive.

This is the one I have.

I used to think supplements were just expensive hope in a capsule.
Half of them probably are.

But NMN and Resveratrol are different.
They’re not about chasing energy or quick fixes; they’re about maintenance at the cellular level, the kind that keeps your body younger for longer.

I started taking them when I realised fatigue wasn’t about sleep anymore. It was deeper, that slow kind of tired that sits inside your cells.
NMN helps your body make NAD+, the molecule your cells use for repair, energy, and metabolism.
Resveratrol works with it, protecting mitochondria, the engines that keep everything running, and slowing the inflammation that builds with age.

I take them together every morning, always with food, like armour for the inside.
No instant high, no magic.
But after a few weeks, I noticed something subtle: steadier focus, faster recovery, more energy that feels like, not borrowed.

They don’t make you superhuman.
They just help you stay closer to how your body was designed to feel.

These are the brands I use. NMN + Resveratrol

Every December, people rush to set goals like the year was the problem.
But the year isn’t broken, your systems are.
And before you can build new ones, you have to understand the ones that failed.

That’s why I do a Year Audit.
Not a vision board, not resolutions,  just three lists that tell the truth.

List one: What drained me.
List two: What gave me energy.
List three: What I want more of next year.

I write them by hand. No editing, no planning, just facts.
Patterns always show up: people, habits, thoughts that cost more energy than they return.
You can’t design a better year if you don’t know what’s quietly stealing the current one.

It’s uncomfortable, but clarity always is.
This is how I end every year now, with honesty instead of hype.
Before I add anything new, I subtract what doesn’t deserve space.

That’s my version of goal setting.
Not a list of wishes, a list of systems to rebuild.

I’ve been writing these pieces in the quiet, between school runs, work, and late-night thinking, but I’ve started sharing more of the journey in real time too. The reflections, the systems, the messier parts of reinvention that never make it into the newsletter.

If you want to follow along, you’ll find me here:

LinkedIn
Instagram
Website: orgesameli.com

Come say hi. It’s less about followers, more about finding the others who are doing the invisible work too.

If something in this email made you pause, think, or feel seen, send it to a friend who’s been quietly trying to make a change, too.
You never know what might land at the right moment. Link here.

And if you’d like early access to the eBook I’m writing, the real systems, mindset shifts, and habits that helped me lose 50kg and rebuild my health, you can join the waiting list here. “You’re not behind. You’re building, and that takes time.”