Sometimes we just feel a lack of motivation and/or discipline. There’s something or something(s) we want to get done but it just won’t happen; we feel stuck.
Now, let’s be frank here: consuming content about productivity does not equal actually being productive. So, if you thought you’re being productive right now by reading this, you’re not. UNLESS, by the end of this, make use of something you read here.
Now, I don’t want to make this seem complicated, because it doesn’t have to be. Most of the things I’ll be talking about are going to sound super basic, and it’s because they are. I know it’s tempting to disregard things that sound too simple to work, but things don’t need to be complex to be effective.
I promise. Okay, so, a productive day. I like to split it into three parts: the day before, the day of, and the night of. Let’s start with the day before. So, I want to go to bed every night feeling good and feeling ready, for whatever it is I need to be doing the next day.
Let’s start with the “feeling good” part of “the day before.” See, if I go to bed at night feeling good, chances are I’ll wake up feeling good. And if I wake up feeling good, I’m likely to want to do good things. And to increase the probability of that happening, I take care of myself. Exercise, diet, hygiene and sleep.
See, I told you it would be basic. But that’s what’s so great. Exercise makes me feel good about myself throughout the day (both mentally and physically) and it helps me sleep better.
The same goes for eating well. Hygiene. Yes! Fresh sheets, a nice hot shower before bed, a relaxing night time skin care routine makes me feel some type of way when I go to bed, and I wake up feeling clean and fresh.
Now, let’s move on to the “feeling ready” part of the day before. This is the 10-15 minutes every night that save me frustration, time and energy the next day. And the objective is simple: to prepare my environment in order to make any task for the following day as simple as possible.
The very first step is to create a target list. It’s the exact same thing as a checklist or a goals list, I’m just tired of those words, so we’ll go with target list. Ask yourself what you’re targeting tomorrow.
Now here are two things to keep in mind when creating a target list:
- Firstly, don’t purposely put multiple simple tasks on your list only so you can easily cross them off. It’s easy to trick yourself by doing small, low-energy tasks in order to cover up for what you really should be doing. Like, if you have a huge deadline for next Thursday that you need to get started on, don’t add “take out the trash” to your target list and then reward yourself by watching 1 season of Friends because you tell yourself you’ve been productive.
- Secondly, creating a target list is not “having done productive work”. It’s merely a tool to help you do productive work. There’s this think called “productive procrastination”, I read a good article on it. Basically, what it says is that, feeling productive doesn’t mean you’re being productive. Just because you’re “busy” it doesn’t mean you’re actually doing anything of value or doing the things you should be doing.
And that’s not to say that all you should focus on is the big tasks. The low-effort tasks, such as creating a target list, are important too. But just be mindful of how much time and energy you’re spending on the small stuff vs the big stuff.
Essentially, you need to look at the value produced, not the number of tasks checked off.
Ok, so, let’s go over some of the things from my target list that I created last night for today.
- Writing an article.
- Find some topic for my article.
Both of those are sub-targets of the main target, which is having a final article to publish for Monday.
Don’t waste that precious little willpower of yours on unnecessary things that could’ve been avoided.
Alright, now you’re all set, let’s move on to part two, which is the day of. So, I’ve found that there are three things for me that lead to unproductivity:
The first thing is that the objective is unclear. And this happens to me quite a bit with writing article for example. Sometimes I’ll have an idea, I’ll start working on it, but then I stop and ask myself, what’s the real purpose of this article?
What am I trying to say here?
And if I don’t know what the intended outcome of a project or task is, it’s difficult to take physical action and to proceed. So, really defining what this thing that you’redoing really is, is key.
The second thing that leads me to unproductivity is overthinking. I’m learning to accept that just like there’s no perfect moment, there is no perfect decision, because you will never have all the information.
You know? You might think that you’ve come up with this good idea or that you’re finally happy with a project, but then new information will come in which will create new thoughts and suddenly you’re doubting yourself and you become discouraged; and it’s a vicious cycle.
And what I try to do when I feel myself getting stuck in that loop is to just start or just stop, depending on which end I’m on.
Now, these two things lead to the third thing which is distractions. Like I said, an unclear objective makes taking physical action difficult, and overthinking leads to discouragement, and both of those things make me turn to distractions.
We’ve all been there—where you’re just like “screw this” and you start scrolling on Instagram instead (or whatever your distraction of choice is). Which, by the way, be mindful of what your distractions are. This has really helped me. What do you turn to? What’s ringing your bell? Once you become aware of that, plan how you’re going to handle them.
Now, this is the part where it’s important to be fully honest, otherwise, it’s completely useless. The reason I say that is because sometimes the truth can feel embarrassing.
You might not want to admit to yourself that you skipped going to the gym because you got too distracted watching Netflix. But you need to.
What I essentially do is ask myself how my day was and what contributed to that. Contributing factors can be people, activities—anything.
Was I distracted? If so, what distracted me? Was I more productive than usual? If so, what might’ve caused that?
I essentially take inventory.
Those were some of the tips and tricks that I use and that work for me. I could definitely go more into depth; I know this was kind of touching on the surface, but I didn’t want this article to be too long. Thank you and have a good day!
