Organize Your Day Like the Boss Lady You are
How you structure your day from start to finish can really affect your mood, productivity, and energy level. In my first year of grad school, I really played a lot with different techniques to make sure I have the best day possible. Here are some of my best tips and I hope that they can work for you too!
Start Early. This has been by far the hardest one for me to tackle and achieve. Start your day early! I have seen that I feel better and more relaxed at school or work when I have had some time to wake up, enjoy coffee and a healthy breakfast, and read a little bit. I have seen that I have more energy and I am more alert when I have a slow morning rather than when I hit the snooze button 3 times and rush out the door. You don't have to get up super early - even just 20 minutes before you normally would makes a big difference!
Make To-Do Lists. I am a huge fan of lists. Lists to me give me a sense of accomplishment, but I know lists give some people a huge anxiety. I see both sides. Yet even when I am overwhelmed and stressed to the max the act of breaking down everything down to small tick marks allows me to see that my list is in fact conquerable.
Stay Focused. In order to have a good and productive day, you need to have quality focus time. Play around with where you focus best. I know that I really don't do well working at home, but if I move just half a mile down the road to the public library my productivity levels rise through the roof. Also, make a note of whom you work well around. I love all my friends, but there are a few I know I study and focus better when I am around them rather than others. This doesn't mean that you need to end friendships over the fact that they are too fun to study around - try to make a compromise schedule meeting up for lunch or coffee breaks so you can still your friends without sabotaging your day's productivity.
Take Breaks. Last year I was exposed to the technique called Pomodoro. Pomodoro is a focus-keeping technique where you work on one task without interruptions for 25 minutes then take a 5-minute break. You break this work-break loop 4 times before taking a 25-minute break. You will be amazed how much you can get done in 25 minutes. Seriously! If it is a quality 25-minute session, I can write one blog post or read half of an article for school. You can do anything for 25 minutes and your Instagram feed won't break if you only check it once an hour or so...
Stay Away from Social Media. Speaking of social media- I try to stay away from checking any form of social media for as long as I can during my day. I have adjusted my Facebook notifications so I am only notified if something happens that is directly involved with me - invite to an event, tag in a post, comment on a post, etc. I mean do you really need to know that 3 of your friends are interested in events around you this weekend? No. That just turns into a time suck. In the spring semester, I enacted a personal holiday dubbed "No-Media Monday" where I didn't log into any of my social media sites for 24 hours. It was somewhat a freeing way to start the week, but sometimes out of habit I would just open Instagram (whoops)...
Me Time. Every day do something for yourself - no matter how productive or unproductive you were. I try to get to a finishing point by 6pm so I can spend the rest of my day doing stuff I want to do like going to the gym, online shopping, daydreaming about my next vacay, etc. But let's get real not every day will allow me to stop working at 6pm... in those cases, I still try to take 20 minutes for myself by temporarily turning off the laptop and cellphone and chilling with a cup of high-shelf tea or coffee. I am constantly telling myself 'good job' or 'even though today was not great, tomorrow is a new day and it's going to be amazing!' Be your own cheerleader!
This is not my first school and productivity related blog post!
Check out some of my others:
How I prepped, studied and succeeded at the GRE
Study Hygge
Master a New Language
Get a Master's in Organization
How I Use Notebooks
Start Early. This has been by far the hardest one for me to tackle and achieve. Start your day early! I have seen that I feel better and more relaxed at school or work when I have had some time to wake up, enjoy coffee and a healthy breakfast, and read a little bit. I have seen that I have more energy and I am more alert when I have a slow morning rather than when I hit the snooze button 3 times and rush out the door. You don't have to get up super early - even just 20 minutes before you normally would makes a big difference!
Make To-Do Lists. I am a huge fan of lists. Lists to me give me a sense of accomplishment, but I know lists give some people a huge anxiety. I see both sides. Yet even when I am overwhelmed and stressed to the max the act of breaking down everything down to small tick marks allows me to see that my list is in fact conquerable.
Stay Focused. In order to have a good and productive day, you need to have quality focus time. Play around with where you focus best. I know that I really don't do well working at home, but if I move just half a mile down the road to the public library my productivity levels rise through the roof. Also, make a note of whom you work well around. I love all my friends, but there are a few I know I study and focus better when I am around them rather than others. This doesn't mean that you need to end friendships over the fact that they are too fun to study around - try to make a compromise schedule meeting up for lunch or coffee breaks so you can still your friends without sabotaging your day's productivity.
Take Breaks. Last year I was exposed to the technique called Pomodoro. Pomodoro is a focus-keeping technique where you work on one task without interruptions for 25 minutes then take a 5-minute break. You break this work-break loop 4 times before taking a 25-minute break. You will be amazed how much you can get done in 25 minutes. Seriously! If it is a quality 25-minute session, I can write one blog post or read half of an article for school. You can do anything for 25 minutes and your Instagram feed won't break if you only check it once an hour or so...
Stay Away from Social Media. Speaking of social media- I try to stay away from checking any form of social media for as long as I can during my day. I have adjusted my Facebook notifications so I am only notified if something happens that is directly involved with me - invite to an event, tag in a post, comment on a post, etc. I mean do you really need to know that 3 of your friends are interested in events around you this weekend? No. That just turns into a time suck. In the spring semester, I enacted a personal holiday dubbed "No-Media Monday" where I didn't log into any of my social media sites for 24 hours. It was somewhat a freeing way to start the week, but sometimes out of habit I would just open Instagram (whoops)...
Me Time. Every day do something for yourself - no matter how productive or unproductive you were. I try to get to a finishing point by 6pm so I can spend the rest of my day doing stuff I want to do like going to the gym, online shopping, daydreaming about my next vacay, etc. But let's get real not every day will allow me to stop working at 6pm... in those cases, I still try to take 20 minutes for myself by temporarily turning off the laptop and cellphone and chilling with a cup of high-shelf tea or coffee. I am constantly telling myself 'good job' or 'even though today was not great, tomorrow is a new day and it's going to be amazing!' Be your own cheerleader!
How do you stay on track?
your little mouse
This is not my first school and productivity related blog post!
Check out some of my others:
How I prepped, studied and succeeded at the GRE
Study Hygge
Master a New Language
Get a Master's in Organization
How I Use Notebooks
Interested in a sponsored post with Little Mouse. Big World? Shoot me an e-mail: littlemouse.bigworld@gmail.com and let's talk!
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