5 tips to boost 5 days of Productivity
We all love to procrastinate and most of us (including myself) have made sport out of this, but is this how we really should be approaching things?
The answer is NO.... apparently
So join me in my self evaluation of bringing you 5 tips how I avoided procrastination by being a bit lazy.
Being productive for a whole week when you have too much on your plate but you spend your entire weekend scrolling through social media... well me too :)
Though Mondays suck, its a brand NEW week so we can't let Mondays win and ruin out entire week right?
Tip 1 - Preparation before the week start
- Make a to do list - For the next day or the week
A short list of your most prioritised tasks e.g. starting that essay you been avoiding, even if it just picking the ttile
Make sure to not put too much pressure on these tasks
Keep it simple
DO NOT put too many things, be realistic only add things you know you can achieve
Little ramble on how this helped me :)
We all have those sleepless nights, especially when you have a 9am lecture/class the next day. Somehow you end up going to sleep at 4am still make it to your lecture on time, though the rush might be exciting this is not the way to start the week because your mind will get used to this so much and this becomes your normal routine.
Not going to lie, I am super guilty of this but I found out this not only drains my energy, it strips me away from my motivation and make me lazy all the time.
So one bazzare night I thought to myself what would I potentially want to do this coming week, so I got my phone started typing my "potential" to do list for the week, okay the list was quite long and seemed quite overwhelming, and I knew I wouldn't do all of this so though I made the list I didn't put too much pressure on this. When I checked back in the middle of the week I did most of the things on the do to list unconsiously. This was so surprising I never get things done.... what changed ?
Most of the time we put too much pressure ourself, that's why we procrastinate and they avoid the things we need to do. The minute the pressure is gone you get the urge to do your things even if you are unaware of it.
Tip 2 - Follow today's work TODAY
- Follow the lecture and make notes while you're attending the lecture
Take brief notes on what's on the slides
If the lecturer give extra info add those especially
DO NOT panic if you don't write everything on the slide, remember these are brief notes to for later revision
Speed is not important, what's important is that you have something written on the paper
when the lecture/class is finished fill in the gaps you left during it, do this right after while you still have the energy.
one page = one lecture (unless the lecture is 90 slides then its bit tricky)
Little ramble on how this helped me :)
I personally find it very hard to keep on top of things, especially with how different lecturers have different methods and speed with delivering their content. I tried many methods, recording the lectures, printing the slides, handwriting everything but it only made me bored of the things I was learning.
I can't stare at pages and pages of writing when I'm trying to revise, so best way for me to do this is if I have one page or two for the entire lecture. This helped me a lot of condense my notes, motivated me to keep writing and I felt accomplished by the end of every lecture.
Tip 3 - Keep one book for all your modules
- Invest in a chunky subject divider notebook
This is where you write the notes form the previous tip
One book to take to all your lectures, don't have to carry five or more
Write all the assignment and exams for that subject in the dividers (Kinda like a self-reminder)
Keep a general section where you write extra information that relates to the subjects (e.g. extra seminars, extra activity sessions, groups project notes, your own research for subjects, assignment preparation etc. )
Little ramble on how this helped me :)
Most of my detailed notes are digitalised, this is way easier then writing hours and hours of detailed notes by hand. But all the modules, lectures, practicals are separated so it's too much of hassle to find what I want when I want to have a quick glance at something.
Dividing the book by subject and seeing different content I am going to need regularly being on one place really is therapeutic for me, give me less stress so I don't have to spend time looking through pages of notes to find just one sentence.
Having one book for all my modules, helped me so much to keep on motivated to write notes and keep on top of it and when I revisit it, it's so pleasing to the eye.
Tip 4 - Write flashcards on the day
- Put little bit of extra into a flashcard
Once you finished a lecture, read back and pick the most key bits and write a maximum three sentences
Keep it very very brief
Think of pictograms for some words. e.g. little blog with stokes for a virus or a spark for electricity
Some info you can't fit on your page put it on the flashcard, like a diagram or a table
Little ramble on how this helped me :)
I am a sucker for flashcards, seeing them makes me so happy to revise. But making them when an exam is near is frustrating so if you make them before by the time you get your exam season you already have flashcards to revise from. How convenient!
Tip 5 - Write a sentence or research a bit everyday for your assignments
- Every time you feel like you done nothing today take a look assignment and write sentence - Take this step by step everyday and add information along the way
Pick a title first for whatever your assignment is
Do basic research on the title you chose
Do a basic plan
Improve on the basic research
Add information to the plan
and ect....
Little ramble on how this helped me :)
Doing assignments is tricky, very boring, they can be very long and stressful so we avoid even starting it until the day before it's due. Okay, we all work well under pressure but we don't really produce our best work under a day so investing little time everyday or every other helped me to produce more quality work than normal and it was less pressuring and stressful when I started the binge writing on two three days before the deadline, because all the research, preparation is done all I had to do was write and improve my work along the way.
I actually cannot recommend this enough because it saved me from a lot of breakdowns over my assignments. Just by adding something to it every now and then I basically finished my first draft by the time I actually want to start to write properly.
Bonus tip - Take the weekend off! - > If you're like me and get bored very easily with doing the work then follow these tips for the days you have school or uni, finish everything by Friday and take the whole weekend of .... TRUST ME you will be much more prepared for Monday.
Thank you so much ya'll for reading this, I do ramble a lot but it's a part of me that I embrace so I hope this was helpful for you and make sure to tell me your thoughts and feelings.
Till next time Lovelies x
