How to Prepare to Begin Being Productive

I am probably not the best person to be giving advice on productivity or anything that has to do with achieving anything. I am a slacker; a lazy, underachieving slacker, who never finishes what she starts, which is strange, because according to my zodiac sign I’m supposed to be a relentless go-getter. 

Undergrad. Degree? Still applying for leave of absence year after year. Losing weight? Still jumping on the scale and acting all surprised (as if I did anything different since the last time I weighed) when I see the figure, then promising to start exercising for the umpteenth time. Starting my business? Still writing lists, upon lists, upon lists on how to actually start my business.

To my surprise however, I am bad-ass at encouraging people to go for what they want and achieving their goals. I don’t get it, tell me your dream, your problem and I’m on it like white on rice. Pushing you to do this, helping you with that and boom before you know it, you are telling me how awesome I am and how much of your life you owe me.

When it comes to me, I am stuck! I know what I want, I know what I have to do to achieve it; but I get stuck on the pier while everyone else is in the water encouraging begging yelling at me to jump in!  And me? I just stand there, petrified, afraid to take the plunge.

Life can get so daunting at times and when this happens it is easy to sink into the abyss of ‘unproductivity’ (is that even a word?). You become demotivated, listless and lazy.

There are those times however when you get a burst of energy like you would after a hit of cocaine caffeine. You become Ms. Productive-look-who-got-her-shit-together, all organised and in control of your shit. Those are the times I like to strike the hammer.

I had that burst of energy recently and here’s how I prepared to begin being productive.

Decluttered My Mind

Often, I become anxious when I think about life. At times it feels  like time is running out. My mind gets so pre-occupied with those thoughts, it goes into a panicky overdrive. When will I die? Does it even make sense I try to do anything with my life? I’m going to die anyway!”

“Oh my god, I’m so old now, my time is running out, how am I going to achieve all the goals I want to before I kick the bucket? Girl do you even know what you really want to do with your life? Is it too late to start over? It’s a buzzing mess inside my head.

Barring all the paranoia, I decided that I was still alive and should concentrate on all the possibilities life granted. But there are so many things I want to achieve, where do I start?

Well I started with de-cluttering my mind. I grabbed a pen and a book and begun making space in my head by writing out all  of my  thoughts.

Arrange into sense and non-sense

A lot of the things I think really makes zero sense, and those  thoughts tend to take up the majority of the space in my head, (did I seriously just call myself stupid!?). So after  freeing up the space in my head. I arrange my thoughts by matter of  importance. This allows me to get a clear picture of my goals and how to go about achieving them. I dump the nonsensical thoughts, (you know the ones that make excuses about why  you shouldn’t jump into the water) then I focus on my goals.

After doing this I broke down my goals into sub-headings and assigned tasks (yeah I spent a long time doing this). So under each goal were the things I needed to do to get closer to achieving them. I also set deadlines for achieving each one. I must say, I felt really accomplished when I finished with my mini project.

What Next?

I have that book with me like a bible! Opened on my desk at the office, on my bed while I sleep, at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. EVERYWHERE! It is extremely easy to become distracted, for me at least. So I have to keep this as a constant reminder to get shit done. I’ve begun ticking things off and ticking has never felt so good!

What about you, how do you get back into the game when you’ve tapped out? Let me know in the comments below pretty please with a cherry on top!

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