I really wanted to hear about the things that you all do to make yourself more productive. Perhaps it's a mantra that you recite to yourself, or a goal that keeps you going, or even a way that makes you get out of bed faster. This can be for anything - doing schoolwork, chores, a job, etc. I'm quite interested to know the things you all do that help you be more productive in life - I'll probably use them for myself as well.
Creating lists of things you need to do, and then completing the items one by one, is one of my favourite ways to feel productive. When you can see your progress it is motivating and inspires you to keep going. I'm naturally an easily-inspired person so I usually don't have issues getting things done though.
For me, I literally give myself no other choice. I tell myself that whatever I need to get done is my only option for things to do. Nothing else, it needs to happen NOW. And then I just do it. I guess, forcing myself and instilling in my head that once I know of something, it needs to be finished immediately, is how I stay productive !
Also, routines. Once I've taught myself that certain things will always be done at certain hours, it's hard to break that habit. I think "Hmmm I feel like doing this right now", and after checking the time I'll see that I was right on time for when I'd have to do it anyway lol. So I think once you can get into the initial groove of discipline, it's all uphill.
and I'm sure "just do it" isn't helpful for everyone, but it's always worked for me.
pretty much what laconic said, i'm not very often actually motivated to do much of anything thanks to mental illness but i force myself to do them anyways. i've tried countless methods to make myself motivated but none have really worked. now i just do whatever task it is regardless of my motivation levels because i know i'm just going to regret it if i put it off and longer, or even worse if i straight up don't do it.
basically, feeling crappy about not doing something (or not doing it on time) is always a way worse feeling than having to get up and do the thing.
I have a colour-coded google spreadsheet that lists all my assignments by class and due date, and if I type "complete" next to an assignment it automatically turns the cell green to mark that I'm done it. I find that super satisfying.
I'm also finding that I get more during done during certain times of day (9am-12pm and 4pm-6pm), so I am trying to force myself to get the majority of my work done during those times when possible. To help me stay focused I always have instrumental music playing in the background.
Saying this I need to re-follow in my footsteps. For your school work like home work. Cut everything out. Move your phone/gadgets away in a container or pack them away. Make it an obstacle to procrastinate. Change your password for your social media accounts and keep it in a notebook locked away if you need to.
Then fully commit to it to the extreme. It will be horrible at first, mainly because your forcing yourself to do it. Aim for the highest grade you can achieve and physiologically trick your self into thinking its a life or death situation (Even though its not)
When you set the bar to the absolute highest. Even if you thumble and fail on occasion you'd end up with a higher grade then if you were to set it to an average outcome. I've seen it happen where someone did the absolute bare minimum for uni and had his grade destroyed because he missed a deadline for a tiny module.
Lastly do your projects as soon as you can because you will come into problems, by doing it early you have time to find out solutions finish your work and even polish it. Do not leave it last minute because you shoot yourself in the foot, you won't have time to figure out the problems and it creates a sheer amount of unnecessary stress. Hope this helps!
Oof I need this thread *looks around at messy room* I burn out of motivation so quickly
For me, to actually get motivated I have to listen to music. I can't do things in silence, it bothers me. So I just go on YouTube and listen to one of the playlist it has set up for me already. It has alot of upbeat and jamming songs (cause my search results haha) so the more uptempo it is, the better.
One time I challenged myself to keep cleaning my room for the duration of the Playlist (it technically goes past the 50 songs it has listed). I wasn't allowed to stop cleaning till I went throu my entire playlist (50 songs) even if I would make a song repeat, I had to go throu 50 atleast before stopping. While cleaning, to avoid being distracted I told myself to clean one thing in particular, this was my TV stand. I'm only allowed to clean my TV stand rn. I can move items on and off of it from my other furniture (like moving somethin out of the way on my desk) but I have to go back to cleaning the TV stand. I'm allowed to leave the room if I'm getting a dust cloth to clean the TV stand. It's kinda like the June-bug technique. At the end I actually got quite a bit of work done, more than I normally would had I set myself up to clean my ENTIRE room.
I try to keep myself motivated and productive by listening to music like lo-fi when doing homework. It's helped me a lot since it's so relaxing and soothing. I always make sure I'm in a quiet room too. I can never focus or get work done if it's loud or people are talking around me.
What's less stressful is making a list as well. Even if it's just a little, put some time into doing an assignment or chore daily, and eventually it'll be done (assuming it's a task that doesn't have a fast deadline). Usually I write everything down on my schedule and I look back to see what I can do to make my load much smaller and easier for the future :3
Set a day you actually gonna spend a fair amount of hours(or, time) you have to do it. And then just do it. Shut off everything like TV's internet browser(unless you need it to look up things, just don't go on this site for example lol), if you can listen to music set up a playlist or a longer album so you don't have to change all the time. I prefer quiet though. Take breaks, walk around a bit if you can't concentrate that good like me.
Also if you're doing it on weekend/day off, treat it as a normal day. Go up, eat breakfast, wash your face, put on clothes and eat and drink regularly.
Here is also a great study tumblr from a membe rhere (Brackets). Read the tips, they are really good!
What I do is sit down and try to create a quiet, solitary place to work. That means listening to music if I need to drown out the noise around me. I try to tackle things based on the amount of time I have. If I've got an hour or more, then I can take on the bigger items but if I've only got 15 or 30 minutes, I try to knock out a bunch of smaller tasks. It makes me feel like I've accomplished more that way.
If I reach a point where I just can't concentrate and I'm not making any progress, I take a short break. Taking a walk or grabbing a quick snack can rejuvenate me and give me time to declutter my mind. Just don't do it too often or it becomes a stalling technique instead.
I... don't try to keep myself motivated or active or whatever. I just let things go the way it goes. Then, there for sure are times where I naturally feel energetic, which makes me achieve a lot of things that are significant to me.
I burn out of motivation so quickly
