We fell asleep in one world and woke up in another.
It’s not easy to get work done if we dwell too much on that fact. Despite everything going on with COVID19, there’s still people who have deadlines (me!!), trying to adjust to working from home, and never-ending to do lists to tackle. With all this in mind, here are my favorite tried and true productivity hacks that make any daunting tasks a little less tedious to accomplish.
The Ivy Lee Productivity Method
This one is honestly such a game changer for me. My take on this method is completely doable and here’s how I run it. Weekends don’t count, so Sunday night I write down seven things I want to get done the next day in order of importance. I repeat this daily. You can get as specific as you need to, I like to start with some easy ones that are good for me (devotional, drink water, so on) and then move on to the heavier stuff late in the day. I recommend getting a cute notepad for this, so that there’s no distractions, but you could totally swing writing out your seven things in a planner as well.
Using a Kitchen Timer
If I could tell everyone in their twenties to purchase one thing they probably don’t already have- it’s a kitchen timer. Because using the timer on your phone is way too tempting and honestly defeats the purpose if you’re going to start scrolling down your IG feed every two seconds you check your timer. I use a timer for everything, but especially when I need to do sit-down desk type work, think blog posts, studying, and so on.
Time Batching
It’s 2020 girl, if you’re not time batching what are you doing with your life?! But in all seriousness, this one means breaking up everything you have to do in different chunks of time. An example of this in action is, instead of checking my emails 100 times a day I designate once in the morning and once at night and save so much individual time. I use this for every area of my life, if I’m going to be cleaning, organizing, or even shooting content for my socials, I’d much prefer to do it all in one day than have to worry about it and waste time doing a little every day, does that make sense?
Write Down Every Single Deadline
And if you’re anything like me, you’ll color coordinate them too. This helps me to keep track of what I need to prioritize to get done and in what exact order.
Know When you Need a Break
This is the most important one especially right now. No person is a productivity machine, and in order to be capable to concentrate on our very important tasks you need to give your mind, body, and soul time to relax, recoup, and REST. No one wants to get burned out, and just because we’re all home 24/7 now (a topic for another moment) doesn’t mean that every waking second needs to be dedicated to productivity. Take it from me- I love checking things off my to-do list, but I also value time to recharge more than anything else because it keeps me motivated and at 100% ready to take on my day no matter what it looks like.
Take Advantage of How you’re feeling
If you feel inspired to get started on an essay, or extra in the mood to workout DO IT, even if that’s not what you had planned for the day. We are living in a time that will probably never be repeated again, so if you want to do something unorthodox like taking a 12 PM swim or a 2PM cat nap that would otherwise be impossible for you- you have my blessing to do so.
Collectively we are going through a trying experience.
So remember if all you can accomplish in one day is waking up and taking care of yourself that’s such a win. Success in every aspect of life is not linear-keep that in mind, stay home, and stay safe.
