What would you with your time if you had all the time in the world? Because you do, so how are you currently using your time?
Do the things you do during your day align with the goals you’ve set yourself to achieve? Because success comes from consistency. If you are still unsure about how to become a more productive person hopefully the tips below will set you on your way 🙂
The pandemic gave some us a-lot of time we did not feel like we had before. In the beginning we may have engaged in activities such as binge watching series whilst eating more frequently in all the spare time we had. Especially for students in their teenage years, it was easy for us to feel lethargic, tired and often lazy because school is what fills most of our days. Being physically away from school threw some of us off our routines in a lot of ways.
But it’s never too late too late to start being more productive…
Some of the advice in this blog post will be similar to the ‘How to get over Binge-eating’ blog as both these posts illustrate how anything you aim to achieve in YOUR life starts with YOU.
1. Set your Goals straight
Setting your goals straight is an important step as even the slightest outline of a vision will make it easier for you to act upon and make a reality.
3 steps to Clarifying a Goal
I suggest taking the time to sit down with yourself, pen and paper at hand answering these questions until your goal or vision is a bit clearer. You’ll know what I mean in a second…
- What is it you want/ desire to achieve?
- Why do you want to achieve this?
- This may seem like an unnecessary question. But having a reason behind a goal will help you when you’re building momentum and working towards that goal. It will help you stay focused and encourage you to carry on even when the image of success gets temporarily blurred.
3. What does your life look like at this moment in time? And what are the steps you can take as of today that will bring you closer to that goal?
- No dream or desire too big. Fearing the magnitude of greatness you can achieve is what can block you, not the dream itself. Stay open to the totality of possibilities in everything that you do. Nothing you set yourself out to achieve is impossible unless you make it impossible.
HONESTY Is The Most Valuable Currency.
When outlining a vision/goal be totally honest with yourself. No one is watching you, let it all out. All the self-doubt, the emotions which manifest themselves into becoming restrictive forces to you. Let them go and move forward.
2. Stop Overthinking and Just get started.
Start when you’re not ready. Simple things you can keep in mind.
- Break the goals down into smaller tasks & Working backwards
Let’s take an artist for example. They must have some sort of vision for the way their painting will turn out. Some are so talented that the art just flows out of their paint brush, but for others having a vision is better.
Once they have a picture in mind they may need to paint the background then let it dry. Come back the next day and trace the elements within the picture, before painting them and once again letting them dry.
Imagine the painting is your goal. A finished picture. What is the picture going looking like? What can you start doing today to bring you closer to finishing it? Is it to outline the elements or to paint straight away?
Have you already started the picture but let it sit in the corner of a room to become dust because you lost the drive you initially had to finish it?
- Don’t overplan
Taking your time to do something does not mean it needs you to Over-plan for it.
Hiding behind ‘preparation’ can soon become a method of procrastination and a force of resistance. There is only one reason behind why over-planning is possibly restricting you from being as productive as you’d like. The reason being, that you prefer to remain in your comfort zone…Do you?
“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change“
Tony Robbins
3. Organisation
We’ve discussed not over-planning but it doesn’t mean that you should tackle a problem/ goal with no knowledge of how you will work towards achieving it. That would make things a little messy and frustrating in the long-run.
Organisation is simple it doesn’t require much at all. Here is the only thing you need to do to be more organised:
Wake up in the morning, brush your teeth. Then sit down at a table or in your room and plan the day. What are you going to do today?
For example:
Day Plan (insert date)
Morning
- Workout, Eat breakfast.
- Get started on any work, project, assignment or (insert a task you may have been putting off and get it done at the start of your day. Stop Procrastinating)
Afternoon
- Lunch
- (Insert task 2)
Dinner
- (Insert Task 3)
- Maybe evening workout then Eat Dinner
- Wash the dishes enjoy some family time
- Get ready for bed and REVIEW THE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE TODAY and ask yourself: What went well? If something didn’t go as planned, how can you improve it? What can you do differently and better tomorrow?
By asking yourself some of these questions you are able to see where your productivity is hindered or where it needs improvement. It’s normal for us to feel tired during the day, however, there are some things that you can do to minimise those instances which will make you more productive.
If your energy levels during the day fluctuate too often, not ‘allowing’ you to be productive then the blog post here may be of help you.
4. Time Scale & Healthy Pressure
Ahhh! Time waits for no man. I mean, why should it? When we delay everything we want to do and achieve to “tomorrow.” Why not start now? What’s stopping you?
Setting yourself a time frame from now to the day you will achieve your goal is a powerful tool. It helps you stay on track, almost like an assignment that you have a week to complete before its due date on Wednesday at 11am.
Will you hand it in at 11am sharp or an hour later? Or you were so productive that week that you may even hand it in at 10:50 am 😉
Give yourself a realistic time frame depending on the magnitude of the goal. Maybe a week will suffice or 6 months or even 6 years!
5. Redefine your goals Regularly
Reviewing your successes and failures regularly, perhaps on a weekly basis is a healthy habit.
The more regularly you check up on your work and pick up on problem areas, the quicker you can work trough them, improve them and overcome them.
Dedicate one day of the week, maybe a Saturday morning where you sit down and review everything you’ve done in the week. What have you achieved? How did you do it?
Why did you not achieve or perform as well as you would have liked?What will you do more of, less of or differently?
Also use this as a time to work through your emotions. How did they influence your actions, thoughts and productivity? Emotions can have a huge impact on the mood of our day if we let them. Did you let them have a positive or negative impact?
Finally, what are your goals for the coming week? What will you do or do differently to bring you closer to achieving your ‘Ultimate Goal.’
6. Consistency
Celebrate Achievements but Don’t get stuck in them. You have to build momentum…
Consistency is the one thing that separates successful people from half-hearted people. It separates the pros from the amateurs.
Your task does not have to be big but it must be consistent. Take a Youtube Channel like NasDaily as a primary example, there are plenty of travel bloggers and influencers out there but are they as consistent as Nas? Is their success as big as his? Maybe for some, yes. For the majority probably not.
Long story short, will you be a pro or an amateur?
Book Recommendations:
(this section will be edited regularly as our community’s book recommendation list gets longer 😉
- Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
- Goes into depth about the idea of being a pro or an amateur and it really puts half-hearted approaches to success in question.
2. Eat that frog by Brian Tracy
3. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
- Short, quick and kicks your butt a little bit.Lol. It’s only 98 pages long, easy to read and straight forward. It is great to motivate you to get started on your business, goal, plan etc and redefine your perspective on what being productive and proactive means
4. The Totality of Possibilities: Set Yourself Free to Create the Lifestyle You Really Want by Louise Hay
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