Want to have a productive day every day? Here's how you can.
Writing down things you need to do always helps (this was my brainstorm for April in my Powersheets)
Being truly productive can be HARD right? You have a thousand and one things to do and getting them done before going to sleep can sometimes feel like a never ending battle. Am I right? I completely get it!
Let’s face it, when given the choice between cleaning the kitchen spotless or having time on the sofa to read a book or watch videos I feel most of us would pick the latter option. But why?
Being productive requires energy, time and focus. If you’re lacking one of them then it’s easy to slip into doing something mindless that takes up hardly any energy or focus ( i.e instagram scrolling or mindless TV). But when you’re done you realise you’ve used the time with little result.
Lately I find that I have one SUPER productive day followed by a week of low to zero level power mainly fueled by tiredness. How can you get things done and not feel like you lose yourself in the process??
This thinking led me look at my day objectively and to find ways of getting more done without exerting massive levels of effort. Having spent the last week reading, researching and experimenting here are 3 things I found have helped me get more done and enjoy the process:
BREAK IT DOWN
Big tasks feel huge when you focus on the end result and get stressed/restless. The way to prevent this stress is to break a complicated or daunting task into the tiniest of steps. I’m talking TINY. So for example: never-ending laundry loads were a chore for me and trying to sort out a mountain of clean clothes was becoming too much.
My baby steps were:
Tip the laundry basket on the floor
Divide into 3 carrier bags - I did this by sorting clothes into underwear, sportswear and everything else.
Put each carrier bag load of clothes into washer & then fold the items once dry.
Having cleared the back log I then looked at what my next steps could be. I decided they would be:
Put worn clothes in the basket after work instead of on a chair or the floor.
Choose 3 days in the week for laundry and set reminders in my calendar.
On the selected day take 10 items of clothes and put them in the machine. This is my laundry load.
It is now MUCH easier to fold a few items away than to sort through a mountain and then never want to do the clothes ever again!
What mountain tasks can you break down into small chunks to make them manageable? Stuck on the small steps to make? Leave a comment below to get some ideas to get you going.
PAIRING
Sometimes there are things you need to get done that are just not fun however you look at them. For me this is making revision notes. I love looking at colourful notes when it comes to the learning stage but actually MAKING them is a labour-intensive and boring task. Other mundane/grueling tasks for me include: cleaning, cooking, emptying the bins etc. There are times when I think to myself “I just don’t want to do this!!”. But then they need to be done or I don’t relax and unwind fully. Not fun!
My solution? Pairing up these tasks with something you enjoy doing. For example after an hour of making revision cards I treat myself to an hour of reading time or a dance workout. The idea here is to associate the boring task with something fun and that way you get things done! You can pair a really simple activity with an active task to balance things out and so on. There are many ways of doing this. Cardio can be boring for me so my way around this is to listen to podcasts or watch films on my phone. That’s me-time and exercise at the same time!
MARK YOUR PROGRESS
Being productive is as much about celebrating progress as it is getting things done. Getting through a to-do list and physically ticking things off brings a huge sense of achievement. Alternatives to this include adding tasks to a digital or printed calendar and then crossing/checking off the day once it’s finished.
Remember all progress is good progress - little or big! It isn’t about making perfect progress or Instagram-worthy results. It’s about moving forwards. Celebrate each bit of progress and before you know it you will have achieved so much more than you ever thought possible!
Making progress visual is important. One of my goals this month has been to meditate daily and so far I’ve managed to actually do this 3 times. It felt like nothing but marking progress off on those days then seeing it daily made me realise I’d had a go! Below is a snapshot of my April progress & you’ll see there are gaps but little by little each bit of progress adds up.
Learn to see every small step of progress as an achievement and don’t feel guilty about there being lot’s to do. There will always be something else to do but when you chip away at tasks bit by bit THAT is when the magic happens.
April Powersheets tending list. Each pink mark is a tiny step forward. Gaps are all part of the journey!
Which of the above are you going to try out to create more productivity in your life? Let me know in the comments below and shout if you have any questions at all.
I’d love to hear from you :)