3 Things You Can Do To Be Productive Right Now
And no, none of them include breaking your back
As of the time of writing, it’s the beginning of January, and you might be in a slump.
It could be you’re anxious to hurry and get results on your New Years Resolution, you want to step your game up, or you feel you’re just not cutting it—whatever the reason, you’re here, and you need a few pointers on how to be more productive.
Whatever the reason, you may be delighted to find that productivity is well within your grasp.
Start working WITH yourself
There’s many different methods of study, writing, reading, planning, etc. The amount of methods people have to just make eggs could fill a warehouse.
But what works for you?
Not what works for that guy with a million dollars in his hand, not what works for the librarian, what works for you?
I plan by speaking it or writing it. I have a composition notebook I use purely for planning my work. If I plan by computer or phone, I flop. If I just think it, I flail.
This is what works for me. If some of you tried my way of planning, you’d hate it.
So, figure out what does work for you. Try some things out over the week. Are you a visual learner or are you more hands-on? Can you function better after a certain hour or not? Is there a music track that gets you going?
Get a new hobby
The internet is a vast well of information where all of it is free (yes, all, if you know where to look wink wink nudge nudge).
And that definitely includes media of people’s hobbies, if not tutorials on how to get yourself started.
Anything you can think of. Wood carving, knitting, fishing, dancing, having those little pristine figures—if you can think of it, there’s information on it.
If you want to spend more time offline, though, you can look around to see if you have clubs for that sort of thing in your area.
Getting and participating in hobbies not only gives your brain something to do, but it also has a social aspect to it! There’s bound to be many other people that like this hobby, which puts you in their vicinity and gives the two of you something in common to bond over.
Create micro goals (and reward yourself in kind!)
Think about it like this — when you were just learning to walk, you first had to crawl. Then you had to balance yourself, put one foot in front of the other, and keep it up.
Micro goals are sort of like that.
Start making small goals for yourself. Plan to complete your work on time. Make sure to get yourself three good meals a day. Clean your bedroom on a set day or every day at some point.
At the end of the day, write down 2–3 things you accomplished, no matter how big or small they are.
And when you finish doing that? Reward yourself.
I hear ‘why should I reward myself for doing what I’m supposed to do?’ and it always makes me cringe. It’s a phrase that’s been passed from parent to child, and while it’s being said as a form of ‘motivation’ of it’s own, the effects tend to be negative.
Rewarding yourself is important because it’s reinforcement. And it’s been shown that learning and behaviour are affected by reinforcement. It nurtures your self esteem and confidence, and those two tend to make the magic happen when it comes to goal making.
Or even something as simple as this — some of us have pets, especially dogs. How did you get your dog to sit?
Go on, I’ll wait.
There. Three things you can do right now, small, simple, and malleable.
Now, a small lesson on productivity itself.
We live in a hustle culture world where the few of us that can make livings without burning ourselves out faster than nature intended are lucky.
There are people (and you may be one of them) who believe one’s value is linked directly to their net worth and how ‘hard’ they work.
I don’t think I have to go into detail on how damaging this mindset can be, especially when it starts running the circus instead of you.
Your worth isn’t linked to your output. In the grand scheme of things, it’s only a fraction of your real worth.
Even small amounts of productivity matter.
