Raise your hand if you feel like you’re drowning trying to finish your to-do list. *raises hand high*
Yep, me too. So much, me too!
Especially in these two months leading up to another international move, I am killing myself trying to get ready. Nothing seems like enough.
So much of the legal stuff is out of my hands. I’m left to feed my stress onto this blog, which really doesn’t make me type faster.
(Y’know what else doesn’t make me type faster? Taking on too many tasks! #OngoingStruggles)
I know I’m not alone in this, so I’m sharing five of the ways I get my focus on for the best productivity I can.
1. Hardest and Biggest First.
I know. Those scary, important tasks are the last thing you want to wake up to. In fact, if you had it your way, you’d wait until the very last second to do them because they’re stressing you out.
That’s exactly why you have to do them first.
YOU’RE MOST PRODUCTIVE IN THE MORNING.
We’ve all heard it. The early bird gets the worm.
Now, the fact is, the research is still out on this, but the principle remains.
Whether you awaken early in the morning or late in the evening, your first few hours of consciousness are when you’ll be the most focused with the highest attention to detail.
That means, that scary project needs to get finished first. Sorry.
Good news — Now, you won’t have to stress about it tomorrow when you realize you really needed to check on that detail yesterday but didn’t do it.
NO MORE DROPPING THE BALL.
Also, imagine how good it’ll feel to wake up tomorrow and find yourself on top of your to-do list. 🙂
2. Do the Routine
Guys, I’m the last person in the world who should be asking this of you because I suck at it, but maybe we can accomplish it together.
When our alarms go off, we get up. We make breakfast (or caffeine). We pet our cat, and we eat a full breakfast. We sit outside with the singing birds, and we enjoy our morning.
Whatever it is you do in the morning, do it. Don’t skip it. Do your routine.
We established our morning routines for a reason. For me, it was to promote calmness, low stress, joy, and productivity.
Whatever it was that you created yours for, that is exactly why you can’t skip it!
I do not care how late you are to work (or to pick up your kids, if you’re a night-owl). Do your routine. It’s so necessary to start you off on the right foot.
I’ll do it, too. (That’s a big deal, because I’m always running late. I-do-my-makeup-in-the-parking-lot-at-work kind of late.)
If I can do it, you can do it.
So, do your routine. Do not skip your routine. Set your day (or night) up right.
3. Motivational Listening
I may not be a podcast-listener very often, but I’m a little too A.D.D. to not listen to anything while I work. There has to be something playing in my ear to keep my mind from drifting away.
What do you listen to?
If it’s a during a podcast that you get your best ideas, then hook up some Laptop Lifestyle or Her Life By Design or #GoalDigger episodes and get to work!
If you’re a music-listener, whatever your jam is, play it.
If you’re anything like me, neither of these work when I need my brain. If I’m just designing in Canva, then yeah, I’ll put on music or one of the few podcasts I follow. But no way, no how am I typing up an intelligent blog post with showtunes blasting.
(And I’m an ex-band kid, so instrumentals are out. Regardless of the deadline for whatever I am doing, finding the flute line takes precedent.)
For those who do not fit into the podcast nor music categories but cannot work in silence, here’s my recommendation: Ambience Tracks.
YouTube has a whole corner dedicated to it.
These are great for me. They recreate my atmosphere so I don’t get distracted by what’s going on around me. (Anyone like me, take a listen to my playlist.)
4. Chase Your Dreams
When caught in the grind of it all, it’s so easy to forget why we started in the first place.
You might think to yourself: What was I thinking? I don’t have time for this business/blog! I’m drowning. I can’t do this. I’m not an expert. Who would want to learn from me?
We’ll talk about Imposter Syndrome another day, but I get feeling like Atlas trying to hold up the world.
I’m there. I’m with you.
But, let me tell you, that’s no reason to give up.
If anything, it’s all the more reason to keep fighting.
That thing about Atlas trying to hold up the world? He’s doing it. The world isn’t falling. It’s hard, but he is holding it up.
And so are you. You’re holding up your dreams, your business, your future — whatever it is. You’ve got it. It might feel like it’s going to fall, but in the meantime, you’re still holding it up.
Don’t think about how it might fall if you shrug or if you breathe. That’s no different than saying ‘What if?’. Right now, it is not falling. Focus on that.
The second you let your mind think you can’t do it, it’ll fail. We, as humans–and as women–are taught to be small and fragile. But we are not. We are strong, and we can do it. So, believe it.
I can hold up the world.
I will hold up the world.
5. Accountability
The worst feeling of them all: being at fault. There’s nothing worse.
But you’ve started this journey to make yourself better than you are, and being accountable is part of that.
If you knocked over the vase at your mother-in-law’s house, take responsibility. Try to make it right.
If you dropped the ball on that personal project. Well, in all likelihood, you’re the only one working on said “personal project” to have dropped the ball. That means it’s on you and only you.
So, own it.
We’ve all done it. I’ve done it. I’ve dropped a ball (and a vase) in my lifetime. But I can’t blame my baby brother forever.
Growing up is about taking responsibility, and taking responsibility is about being accountable.
