What have you done today? What did you achieve yesterday? Do you take on a can-do spirit when you’re challenged? Or are you huddled up in your comfy chair deeply immersed in a movie or playing a game on your electronic device to avoid the challenge?
How you make your way through an average day in terms of your productivity may determine how pleased with life you are.
Consider these gems when deciding whether to do something productive or avoid it:
Ponder your feelings. Reflect on your emotions after doing something productive versus wasting a few hours channel-surfing or just hanging out. Think about which situations make you feel more joyous and content. For the times when you are feeling “negative” or “unproductive”, you’ll need to balance your mind and your emotions surrounding these events to help clear your productivity block.
How are your organizational skills? Someone who’s organized usually finds it easier to accomplish desired goals. If you’re organized, you know where to find the correct tool quickly to put it to use. Living a disorganized existence means much time is lost trying to locate things. Therefore, productivity is reduced. Think about situations where your organizational skills may not be all that they should be. Where does your tendency to be disorganized stem from?
Make lists if you want to get things done. A to-do list will quickly remind you of what you hope to complete. Plus, crossing items off that list making it a Ta-Da list like in TADA it’s magically gone…brings feelings of satisfaction.
Complete tasks in the morning when you’re rested. What’s cool about getting started early is that you can see signs of your productivity by noon. You may be tired, but having lunch will revive you for the afternoon, plus you’ll feel accomplished. Establish a pattern of knocking out a couple of items on your to-do list in the morning.
Have a schedule and follow it. If you want to be productive, schedule in time for work, play and rest. At the end of the day, you’ve met your productivity goals and still have some play time. Your confidence likely increases from your higher productivity level. Plus, your level of contentment has grown because you experienced some free time, too. That’s two reasons to be full of joy! If you’re floundering to get something done, set up a time to do it and balance your mind surrounding why you are procrastinating. Let’s say you’ve wanted to clean out the garage for ages, but you’ve consistently come up with excuses why you’ve not yet done it. * Evaluate why you are procrastinating. Why don’t you want to do this task? * How does feeling that way serve you? * How do these actions not serve you? * Be grateful for all the perceived positives and all the perceived negatives in not accomplishing this task. * Once you are in a balanced state of mind where not doing this doesn’t bother you, establish a day and time you’ll devote to garage-cleaning, like Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon. Then get it done! *You’ll be amazed at how easy a task becomes when you approach it from a balanced state of mind.
Develop rituals and routines to help you separate down time from productive time. Maybe it’s something simple like putting on your watch when you want to get work done. Or donning nicer clothing when you wish to be productive. Maybe you put on your house shoes when you’re preparing to lounge around. Simple behaviors can serve as powerful reminders that it’s time to work or play.
Pay close attention to how you speak to yourself. When you complete a task, do you say something to yourself like, “Good job” or “Wow, you completed that quickly” or “Way to go”? Or do you spoil it by saying things like, “What took you so long” or “It’s about time”? It’s helpful to take note of what you say to yourself during moments you choose to waste away. Perhaps you’re telling yourself, “I hate doing X” or “I’m avoiding doing Y as long as I can.” What you say to yourself is powerful and sets the tone for how you’ll proceed. Avoid using derogatory phrasing to increase productivity and joy.
Your choice to get things done plays very much into your level of joy and contentment. Focus in on why you don’t get things done and balance your mind surrounding your emotions to increase task completion. You’ll be a real B.A.D Ass – Balanced, Aware & Dynamic in the end!
Love & Light to you,
Dawn-Marie