Hustling // How to Start a Productive Day

~ Procrastination is the actual bane of my existence ~

In all honesty, I LOVE it when I am working on something, whether it's an assignment (which I leave to the last minute, without fail), a blog post (because I enjoy writing so much) or even doing an errand or something for someone else.

But my biggest problem with this, is actually sitting down, and starting work. Even as I write this, I should definitely be starting my management essay due in two days... It is SO TRUE when people say 'getting started is the hardest part'.

Out of everything that I've tried, looming deadlines are the most effective, and essentially the only way I get ish done, but doesn't mean I don't try to get motivated or do a little bit of work beforehand :)

Side note: let me quickly describe what my current weekly schedule looks like:

Monday: 4 hr internship! (actually the highlight of my week :)

Tuesday: 10-5pm uni

Wednesday: 10-5pm uni

Thursday: nothing

Friday: nothing

Saturday: nothing

Sunday: nothing

With the exception of one-off events like meeting up with friends for dinner, or brunches and errands, this is it. Yay.

You'd think that I have so much time to get assignments done and work on finding a job and progressing with my blog, but in reality, if you don't sit down and consciously set your mind to a task, time runs away from you and then you're left sitting at your computer shaking while still editing your assignment seconds before the deadline.

What I've found to be the hardest, yet most crucial part of getting work done, is getting into the flow.

Of course getting into a workflow is different for everyone, but these are my strategies, when I feel at my worst (productively-speaking), to get into the mindset and feel the familiar pace of productivity.

Write out another to do list

You may have already written a to-do list in the morning, last night, yesterday - whenever. But if you need to kickstart your productivity, review what you want to accomplish and prioritise your tasks again. Take a second to think how satisfied you'll feel after ticking every single task off that list when you finish. FREEDOM.

Do something not related to work on your to-do list

Sitting at your computer and scrolling through unnecessary information is only wasting your precious day time. Say you're at home and need to study, but your room is a tad messy. Your time would be so much better spent on tidying up and cleaning, even just a little, rather than scrolling and doing something completely ineffective. When you come back to sit at your desk, get rid of distractions, close all those tabs and start working.

Remove yourself and take a breath

If you've been idly sitting for too long and just procrastinating, removing yourself from your work space can help. What I've started to do these days is whenever I feel an unproductive slump approaching, I go to our top balcony which has an amazing view of the sky and the suburbs, and I just sit there for a bit with a snack or a mug of coffee.

Sitting outside, going for a walk and having a snack are helpful little ways to get you out of a potentially productivity sapping slump.

Change your surroundings

I find this is definitely the best strategy for me.

I actually am a homebody. I wouldn't call myself a couch potato, but I spend so much time at home that it actually affects my mood quite a bit because I would much rather be outside, in the city, in a library, in the car, in a cafe, anywhere but home. The thing is that I really don't enjoy being alone at all, but I make myself go to the library, go have lunch in the city, go shopping in the centre by myself, otherwise I would be bored to death by myself at home. Being outside with people surrounding me actually helps me make my day just a bit more interesting.

Decrease your screen time

I've been using an app called Moment which is my favourite ever. I wish they had an app for computers as well.

It tracks the time you've spent on your phone per day. I check it constantly. Even though I don't super actively work on decreasing my time spent, some days it hits me how much precious time I've wasted and I get blown away by my guilt, AND only then I put my phone down. I really recommend this app, I don't think I can live without it.

Also, switching off the wifi on your computer actually works as I found out the other day.

Schedule your hobbies

I just started scheduling my hobbies this week, so I can't say how effective of a tip this is. But basically, I wrote down, for example, Thursday today, I work on my blog whenever I have spare time or I am procrastinating (hence this post). On Wednesdays, if I'm not at uni and I'm not studying, I'm playing guitar and not doing any other unproductive things.

So essentially, it's in the works and currently it is making me stay on top of things just a tiny bit more. (I have an assignment, all my textbook readings and 4 lectures to catch up on but we'll get there :)

It's not like I offer these strategies and never try them, or I always do.

Some days absolutely nothing seems to work.

Some days I go to study at a library and it's the most productive day of the month. The other day at uni, I had absolutely nothing to do, absolutely nothing for two hours - no food to eat, no social media to scroll, no one to chat with, no new music to listen to - and I actually started to make notes for my economics subject. I was so bored, but then I actually ended up in a super productive work flow. Next minute, it was time to go to class.

Different strategies work for different people, and sometimes they don't work at all. It's also dependant on your mood, the events and situations happening around you, even what you had for breakfast - this can all affect what you do and how you do it for rest of your day.

What matters in the end, is that you don't beat yourself up about being unproductive, but you try something different tomorrow and you are happy with where you are in your life. Otherwise, nothing really matters.

That got real deep, real quick. Wishing you a happy and beautiful week!

All the love, N <3

(P.S. How cute is this sign in the middle of a shopping centre?)