hELLO all! Koi here. Donât we all have those days where weâd rather spend the day in bed and not face the mountain load of work we have due? Well Iâm here to give a guide to how to be productive even when we donât want to.
Start with something small
Every morning I always make sure the first thing I do is productive which is making my bed.
Just by getting up can making my bed, I have pushed the ball in a chain of reactions. For some of you a productive thing might be letting your pet outside or watering those oh-so-nice plants many studyblrs have, (though be careful of over-watering when it comes to succulents). From making my bed, it prevents me from crawling under the comfy covers and forces me to get dressed, have breakfast and brush my teeth.
But the best thing about this is it can be used any time in the day. After lunch you might feel super lazy and just want to chill with some Doctor Who, but doing something small such as washing your lunch dishes, could lead you to finally finishing that Research Paper.
On weekends, itâs just so nice to play on your phone all day but that takes up so much time when you could use it for something else. I charge my phone by my bed as itâs also my alarm but instead of rolling to my side in the morning, I sit straight up and then get out of bed.
For those of you who really find this to be a problem, I suggest having your alarm or phone charging somewhere far from your bed so that you have to get up to turn it off.
Honestly if you have a desk or table just try to avoid your bed at all costs. Studies have shown that studying in your bed or in general doing non-sleeping, non-sexual things actually affects your sleep patterns. Also from my own personal experience, studying on my bed actually made me want to procrastinate more and more.
Organise social events later in the day
I donât know about you guys but going out for lunch with friends literally takes up all my energy and by the time I get home, I donât want to do anything but nap. Thatâs why whenever I organise something with friends I try to have it in the afternoon (such as an afternoon snack or meet-up at the library). This way I can do all the work I need to in the morning and relax when I get home.
If you do this though, make sure you donât get out of bed an hour or two before your scheduled event as it defeats the purpose of this.
Another way of viewing this is working hard in the morning with your social gathering acting as a reward for all your hard work. Also this way when you get back you donât have to worry about rushing work you havenât done.
Donât reach too high at first
Some of us might get sudden urges calling us to be productive but that doesnât mean setting an alarm for 4:30am the next day. Your body canât handle such a massive change from your normal routine and youâll soon find that you reach a burnout much quicker.
If youâre aiming to wake up earlier, set it up with a gradient (eg. Waking 10 minutes early today, 20 minutes earlier tomorrow etc.) as well as with completing tasks. Try finishing one more problem, two tomorrow and three the next day. This helps your body adjust slowly and makes the chances of burnouts less likely.
Also  by breaking a task down into its smaller parts and doing it in small goes instead of a massive one is more beneficial. A lot of you might have money that you have for snacks that last you the week or fortnight. Well you wouldnât spend all of it the first or last day you got it so do the same with projects and assignments.
Itâs so easy to feel like the world is against you on busy days and stress levels are anything but low. Thatâs why plan! No only does it give you an overview, it also simplifies things and gives your brain to focus on the next thing instead of the whole day.
When planning, I like to make lists as itâs very linear for me. I write the main task e.g. an art project, then I list the subtasks e.g. 2 paintings and 3 sketches, next I estimate how long itâll take for each project e.g. 6 hours and 4 hours.
This way I not only know the total time, I also know the time spent on each task and how much I have to do. Â This prevents underestimating a task such as math homework. When listing what you have to do you might just write math homework and give yourself an hour but once you start doing it, you might realize you have an entire chapter of math homework and in such a case, one hour definitely wonât be enough.
Tying in with the above point, always overestimate how much time you need for something. If we count all the breaks, toilet times, snacking times, finding the ultimate music and just generally getting ready, thatâs roughly 30 minutes. Thatâs why I always give myself half an hour of extra time in case I reach a problem thatâs particularly hard or if I totally underestimated the time needed to do something.
Of course if I finish early, I might study further or most likely Iâll read and just have a longer break. This actually works super well if Iâm in the middle of an exciting novel as it motivates me to finish the work as fast as possible tp get back to some alternate world.
This is literally the most important tip. If you take away anything from this poor excuse of a post, take away this: there is no point in planning or aiming to be productive if you donât actually do it.
You have got to commit and the results will commit to you.
