You know those days when you just can’t get yourself to get out of bed, let alone get dressed and go to work? Of course, you do! I mean who doesn’t? We all have days like these when we’re just not in the right state of mind to get things done.
Even when you eventually manage to drag yourself out of bed and get on with your day, it’s just a struggle to get the simplest of tasks done. At that point, procrastination takes over and you defer most of your pending tasks for later.
The dangerous thing about procrastination though is that it can be very hard to resist, especially on days like these. If you allow it, it will completely mess up your task schedule and build up a future disaster situation when the deadline of so many tasks approaches with little to zero progress done on most if not all of them.
So in order to avoid such situations, we have listed 4 ways to help you become more productive, especially on those days when you mentally less prepared than usual to get things done.
Set Specific Goals
When you have a lot of things to do, its easy to get overwhelmed by the number of tasks required of you and if that sense of overwhelm is not contained, it may cause you to give up and simply drop everything.
So to avoid this, organize your thoughts and document those thoughts in writing. Organize the chaos of required tasks in your head into a list of tasks on a notebook or in a document on your computer or mobile device. Set the list according to the priority of tasks required.
Once you have the list ready, pick a few tasks based on importance and commit to finishing them within a certain time frame. Be sure to set relatively modest/realistic goals because if you set goals that are too big, you take the risk of overwhelming yourself and repeating the cycle.
If you do that, it gives you a boost of confidence and a sense of security that you are back in control of the situation.
Positive Self Talk
Definitely one the most underrated methods self-improvement has to be positive self talk. You’d be surprised of how strong an impact a simple mind set shift can have on one’s life. The shift in mind reflects in the form of shift in attitude.
So, the result here is much bigger than simply an attempt to get things off your to-do list but its more about changing your attitude towards life. Your attitude is a big part of your identity and so, an improvement in that area directly equates to an improvement in you as a person.
Bottom line is, be kind when you talk to yourself, you should be the person lifting yourself up, not the opposite. You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy.
Replace Perfectionism with Progress
Perfection is a myth, it simply doesn’t exist. Chasing perfectionism is like chasing your shadow, it may feel as though you almost caught it but in reality, you never will. The only guaranteed result of pursuing perfectionism and getting nothing done.
Obviously, that’s not to promote compromising on quality but halting progress due to minor details that are barely even noticeable most of the time does a lot more harm than good.
Progress simply beats perfectionism every time.
Take Regular Breaks
People will sometimes feel guilty about the idea of taking a break and perceive it as slacking off. It probably one of the side effects of the hustle culture we live in where everyone needs to look busy as a sign of success.
Working long stretches of time without taking a break can be counter-productive on the long run though. True, with less breaks it may feel as though you’re getting more things done on the short term. Without breaks however, you’re productivity level will inevitably gradually drop. Keep this up for too long and you’ll completely burn out.
Our minds and bodies are not built to be operational 24/7. Just like anything else, they need to recover and that can only be achieved through taking regular breaks.
