Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Productivity Hacks

Tags

Consistency, Do Nothing Day, Follow your plan, motivation, Recurring Tasks, Take advantage of opportunities

Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay 

It’s Monday!

One of the best hacks for productivity I have ever discovered was the recurring to-do list. I don’t care what tool you use (I use Google Tasks). Having all the things listed out on my computer every day is awesome!

I wake up, mix up my pre-workout, and get to work. I can be sick, mentally out of it, or just not in a good mood, and my to-do list is there, telling me what I need to do today. It is the daily doing of things that makes such a huge difference. You still have to be motivated to do these things.

From time-to-time, I’ll do an inventory of all the things I’m doing every day and revisit my motivation to do them. Some things become tiresome. This feeling passes once I see how close I am to a milestone or achieving a goal. For example, I tasked myself with reading 48 books this year. I’m at 45! This is just one goal I am talking about and this leads me to my second productivity hack—consistent, small efforts. If you want to read a lot of books, read one chapter a day. If you want to get into good shape, workout every day, even if it’s only a few pushups. It’s the little things we do consistently that contribute most to our accomplishments.

That being said, life will happen. We get sick. Family issues will crop up. We do something that will disrupt our programmed day. You run your schedule, your schedule does not run you. What if a childhood friend comes to town and wants to do something? Blow off your day and hang out with your friend. What if you’re not feeling well? Stay in bed and take care of yourself.

Another productivity hack I have found to be really helpful is the “do nothing day”. My do nothing day is on Sunday. Sunday is the day I do not follow a schedule or set any expectation for myself, other than sleeping in, getting in some good movies, playing some games, and enjoying myself. It is the one day I do what I want. This makes Monday so much easier to execute. I am totally rested and ready to attack the week.

 

What productivity hacks do you use to accomplish your goals? Reply in the comments below.

To summarize:

Hack 1: Use a recurring task list

Hack 2: Consistent small activities build into big achievements

Hack 3: Your schedule does not rule you

Hack 4: Take a “do nothing day” each week.

 

Until next time…

Dave

 

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Remember to Love Yourself

Tags

Aberjhani, Do Nothing Day, habits, Human, Routines, Self-love, Weakness

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” 
― Author-Poet Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

If you’ve read any of my writings on this blog, you’ll notice I am really into self-help. I enjoy improving myself. I enjoy finding hacks to make my life easier, more productive, and efficient. I am constantly testing my performance and trying to find better ways to do things.

One concept I learned a while back was the concept of self-love. Self-love isn’t selfish. It is taking care of you. It is giving yourself a break when you need to buck a routine or you fall short on one of your goals today. It is: remembering you are human and will make mistakes.

I have found over time that the more forgiving I am to myself, the more forgiving I am to other people. We are all flawed, broken, and inconsistent. So are your friends and family. They all have their weaknesses. They all try their best and sometimes they are at their worst.

If you are on a diet and you screw up—so what. You get back on the horse and continue.  Your life will not end because you blew off a workout, cheated on your diet, or slept in. You are human, not a machine. Sometimes it’s ok to take a break from your routines or your workouts or your diet or whatever you are pursuing. Self-improvement is a lifelong endeavor, not a onetime thing. You can miss a day. You can have a donut. You can sleep in. The days you take a day off from your habits and your routines is liberating. So I use a “do nothing day”.

Each Sunday I do nothing. I do not pursue my goals; I do not stick with my diet; I do not worry about sleeping in. I literally do what I want to on this day. The rest of the week I stick to my routines, my diet, my workout routine, etc. A do nothing day can be any day you want and it can vary from week to week. Your do nothing day can also include whatever things you would normally do. This is the beauty of a do nothing day—it’s your day and you do whatever you want to.

Pursuing goals plays a piece in any meaningful life. They do not rule you. If one day off a week is too much, take one every two weeks or once a month. I want my goals to be something that inspires me, not something that rules over me. If you have never used a “do nothing day” before, try it. You’ll find, like I did, that it changes your motivation levels immensely at the beginning of the week.

You are human. You are not a machine. You will slip. You will fall down. You will miss your deadlines from time-to-time. It’s ok.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Do Nothing Day

Tags

consolidation, Day Off, Do Nothing Day, Rest, reveiw

Hey, all. For those of you who have recently begun following my blog, I normally do not post anything on Sundays. I consider Sunday to be what I call “A do nothing day”. What this means is that my typical rituals, other than my exercise routine and weekly review (every Sunday) are not done today.

I use Sunday as a day of just doing what I feel like doing, like tackling a book for more than 25 minutes, doing some extra-long writing sessions, or heck just getting caught up on my favorite shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Today is a day of reflection for me. I look at what went right the previous week, what went wrong, and ponder ways to improve just a little bit more.

Well, that’s it. I’ve had quite an influx of followers the last few weeks and wanted all of my new readers to know.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – “Do Nothing” Day

Tags

Do Nothing Day, off day

For those of you that have been following me for a while, I typically schedule one day a week for my do nothing day. I normally try to make this on an off-day from the gym. Since my new workout is a 6-day split (work out 6 days, different body parts and such on each day) with one day off, I moved my Do Nothing Day to Thursday from Sunday.

I typically stick with my habitual things, but for the most part I can eat what I want and do what I want without any particular pattern. If you haven’t tried this–give it a whirl. It really gives your routines a good kick.

Until next time…