How To Power Through Your Day With These Tips
We all get stuck in a rut every now and again – we feel unmotivated and don’t want to do anything productive. If you get stuck in one of those moods then Dawn Castell has some great tips on how to get you out of your funk and back on the road to productivity.
Feeling unproductive is one of the worst feelings to have. After all, it’s not about “killing time”. It’s about being up against the clock to live a full and rewarding life. You really can’t afford to waste time. Thankfully, it’s not hard to change things around. Consider these simple changes you can do to instantly make your day better.
“Me Time”
Taking special, and much needed, “me time” in the morning helps you to focus before confusion sets in, which usually occurs with the first person you see in the morning. Be sure to make yourself the first person you see in the morning. Start every morning focusing on yourself before you do anything else. You need time to reflect on what you want, who you are and what you have in front of you for the day. Having a morning routine helps a lot with the “me time” process. Journaling is a great way to focus on the day. Not only does it require thought, but you engage different parts of your brain by reading what you write. This can help you to arrange the day as needed.
To Do List
If you want to be productive, you need to know what to do throughout the day. Your “to do” list should be based upon your goals, daily things that need to be done, like taking out the trash or loading up the dishwasher, but you also need to account for your workload, bills and appointments. Be sure to leave yourself a “buffer” to allow for things to take longer. They usually do. Also, you don’t want to unnecessarily cram things into your day. You’re not a robot, and you can’t function as one. For as many things that you have scheduled for work, you need to allow for fun and relaxation too.
Assign a Schedule
Your “to do” list is a good idea, but it does you little good if you don’t assign yourself a time schedule to get everything done. You need to have an idea of how long a task will take, and you need to know deadlines ahead of time. However, you still need to give yourself some wiggle room, if need be. This will help you to keep track of your “to do” list and remain focused. Along with your “to do” list and your daily schedule, consider a weekly and monthly schedule as well. This works wonders with goals that require a lot of time to accomplish.
Don’t Chase Your Tail
You can go off into a million directions if you allow yourself to be distracted. Don’t do anything that isn’t on your list, unless it’s absolutely necessary. From time to time, take a look at your list of things to do. Don’t get pulled off into irrelevant things. For instance, don’t lose track surfing the web or reading emails.
Only Fix What’s Broken
If things are working for you, it’s not necessary to scrap everything you’re doing to “update” things. Only work on fixing things that need changing, and leave the rest alone. For instance, if you’re concerned with top SEO factors, don’t repeatedly change your domain registrar because this negatively impacts your ranking. Another example is that you don’t need to ditch meetings altogether. Meetings work, but there are different ways to entice participation, like holding bi-weekly meetings instead of weekly ones.
Take Breaks
It can seem counterintuitive that taking breaks would increase productivity, but they do. The human brain gets tired and slows down after so much time. Information overload can cause issues with how the brain processes additional information. Taking a break can help the brain to finish processing previous information so that it can consume more at a later point. You should take a break every couple of hours. Take a brisk walk outside, read a book or laugh at a funny video. Be sure to get water on your breaks too, as this helps.
You’re just one person, but you can work wonders when you’re focused and determined. Continually strive to hit your marks and be the powerhouse that you are.