Our responsibilities don’t grind to a halt whenever we don’t feel like doing anything. Blogger Maia Stone shares her five productivity hacks to turn a lazy day into a fruitful day.

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No matter how responsible and motivated you are, there are days when you just want to lay back down and do nothing all day. Instead of moping around and being regretful about not having a productive day, here are some tips to turn an unproductive day around.

Take A Shower And Dress Up
Sometimes, the only difference between a great work day and an unprecedented cheat day is your morning routine. Think about it: immediately after taking a shower during weekdays, your brain immediately thinks about going to work. Our brains thrive on habits and doing your daily morning routine even on your off days might just do the trick.

List Down Your 3 Most Important Tasks For The Day
Three has always been a magic number. When listing tasks for the day, three is the sweet spot between being inefficient and being overly ambitious. I also suggest separating those three tasks into three subtasks. Make the subtasks ridiculously easy. It will give you a sense of achievement once you’ve checked the first box; and before you know it, you’re onto your last task of the day.

I suggest using a simple app like Reminders on your iPhone, To-do by Microsoft, or a pen and paper. Drawing little squares before the tasks and shading the little boxes after finishing those tasks can give you an additional dose of satisfaction when you go through your task list.

Organize Your Workspace
Your work environment directly affects your state of mind and productivity. Cleaning up your work area can create enough space for new ideas for the tasks you have at hand.

An organized workspace can also boost your productivity and make work easier because you’ll know exactly where your things are placed. It will save you the time looking for whatever item it is that you need.

Use A Timer To Monitor Your Work Hours
Motivation isn’t limitless, and that’s why you must make sure that you’re being efficient while doing your work. The average brain can only focus for 25 minutes, so set your tasks in 25-minute blocks. You can use the Pomodoro technique, a time management method that uses a timer to break down work into 25-minute intervals with short breaks in between.

Or you can use my two favorite apps to use, Tide and Forest. They play nature and ambient sounds while the timer is working, and it helps me to focus on my tasks more. I even use these two apps for meditation.

Decide On Your Well-Deserved Prize At The End Of The Day
Despite being mature and responsible young adults, we are still little kids deep inside. No one wants to work hard without a prize on the line. Treat yourself well and decide on how you’re going to celebrate your productivity. It can be something simple like reading a chapter of your favorite book, watching an episode of your favorite show, or even indulging in a cup of coffee. Be smart about choosing your prize and it will help you build a habit of being productive.

Building a habit involves a cue, a habit, and a reward. Without the reward, it would be difficult, if not impossible to build the habit you want.

I hope these tips can help you turn any unproductive day around!

 

The original article was first published on The Art Of Being A Person blog.

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