NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR DAYS?
Hey Re-inventors!
Do you often feel that your days are slipping through your hands like sand?
OR that you wake up determined and you do not go to sleep satisfied?
If the answer to any of these questions is a YES, then keep reading.
Why are we often not in control of our days?
Every night we decide that the next day is going to be super productive. You will smash your workout(you should!), finish your tasks on time and HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL.
What ends up happening is that the DAY CONTROLS YOU. The world comprises of people that are energy suckers who only take your time and energy and give absolutely nothing in return.
If not that, then other things may start acting like hurdles. You may start feeling tired or sleepy, you may get bored while working, you may have a fight with a person which simply affects your peace of mind, you may not get your coffee on time and worst of all, you may work all day and then realize that you were only BUSY but never PRODUCTIVE.
Then before sleeping you watch some motivational video or read some motivational quote and promise yourself that you will change this behavior tomorrow.
This cycle keeps on going for days and days which is frustrating right?
The main reason I am writing this article is to tell my story about how I have also been through this(and may still face it someday) and what strategies and plans I put in place to overcome these barriers.
Enough of talking about the problem, let’s talk about solutions:
1. Have a morning routine:
The purpose of having a morning routine is to get you ready for the rest of the day. But remember, it is not necessary to get up and journal or meditate or do yoga in the morning.
FIND WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU!
So often we read posts like “Here are the morning routines of Successful People” and then start copying ideas from there.
I like exercising as a part of my morning routine and thus when I get up, I LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY. If you do not like a particular activity and you just pick it because it is practiced by some successful person then I am sure you will hit the snooze button and sleep an hour more because you do not have anything to do, that you like, after getting up.
People say that you should not open your phone as soon as you get up. While that may be true but I like to read news when I get up along with an apple that gives me some energy for hitting the gym 20 minutes later.
SO, decide now what you like and then put a system in place!
2. Focus Vs Multitasking:
I cannot emphasize it enough.
The days on which I felt out-of-control were the days when focused on 10 things and did them fine when I knew i could have done 5 things in a much better way
Forget what else you have to do during the rest of the day and just focus on that task at hand. Block time for doing various things and you will see a massive change in your efficiency.
3. Think MINUTES not HOURS:
When you think about making each hour count instead of making each day count, you’re good. But when you decide to make each minute count, then the magic happens.
Drastic changes happen when you start thinking in terms of minutes and not hours.
Here’s an example:
If I think in terms of hours I may indulge in small distractions such as watching a YouTube video(even the ones that are constructive), or a quick peek at your Facebook/ Instagram feed. You may think that it is not wasting much of your time. But when you change your mindset to thinking about minutes, then you realize that how important those 15 minutes were.
When you TRULY and I mean TRULY get into this mindset then you will not spend thinking about anything else than completing your work at that point of time. Try this out and let me know how it affects your life!
TWO SMALL TIPS:
1. Keep your phone away so that you can’t reach it:
Many a times all the energy suckers reach you through your mobile device.
Now, again if you have the necessary willpower to not pick your phone when it’s flooding with messages, GREAT! [Please do tell me how you do it!]
But if you cannot then put it away for sometime.
2. Change/ Edit your work space:
I have mentioned this before; if you are really tired and irritated of working at the same place then change it or simply edit it i.e clean up your table or make some changes in its layout.
This sometimes becomes a huge barrier to your productivity and you may not even realize it.
And…..Here is a Fun Fact:
I hope this article provides some value to you guys and makes you solve some problem in your life.
I would love to hear from you guys, what tools and strategies do you use to stay productive. I am not perfect and would be pleased to take some advice from you guys! :)
Also, hit that green little heart so that other people who have the same problem can see this article
Keep changing for the better and keep Re-inventing Yourself!!
CHEERS!
