Have you ever experience having difficulty in
sleeping because you are thinking about those papers you haven’t checked or
encoded. To make it worst, your deadline is tomorrow but you still have previous
commitments that are piled up in your table or hidden in your bag.
I know how you feel because I'm a person who has a
lot of paper works. I'm a teacher, a tutor and part-time librarian in our
school, having that said you could easily imagine how much paper works I have,
which is so stressful. I always convince myself that I'll finish my work at home.
I'll do my work on the weekend and magically finish it all. The problem is, I
don't do it at home, I'm too lazy to do it at home. My determination to finish
my work at home just turns into an illusion the moment I get home. The result
is loads of unchecked and unrecorded papers, stress out body and mind because
of unmet deadlines and irregular sleeping pattern. Which is basically my life for the past 2 years and I can’t stand it.
Therefore, I tried to search means and ways to
make my time productive and convince myself to finish my work during working hours
so that I won’t have to bring it home every day or every weekend. Trust me,
seeing or thinking about work during those times that you should have been
resting is really stressful. I experienced terrible hair fall, weight loss,
weight gain and sometimes emotional eating or maybe just my cravings hahaha!
Ok! Enough with the intro let’s do this! Here are some
things I do to be productive.
1. 50 minutes work and 10 minutes rest. I read this in the internet and I can’t remember the website. It’s
this simple do the work for 50 minutes then take a break for 10 minutes after
that another 50 minutes work. Technically, it is just means that you need break
in between work and it shouldn’t be too long because you might forget you have
work or you might lose your momentum in work. Beyond doubt, it is effective for
me.
2. Find a
place wherein you could focus and do your work. I used to
go to the city library at 10am every Saturday to do my work because it is air-conditioned,
quiet, have wifi and they allow me to eat in my place and play low volume music.
However, they close the library at 4 pm and I’m still not done with my work. On
Sundays, I do my work at Dunkin donuts and buy a dozen of doughnuts so that it
wouldn’t be embarrassed that I stayed there for hours to finish work and used
their wifi.
Now I do it at home at the dining area because it is more convenient
for me, I wouldn’t have to worry about the time and transportation. We also have wifi now at home. Another reason
for me do it in the dining area is base on my experience working in my room is
not really productive for me because I see my bed and it temps me to go to
sleep. Therefore, bedroom is a BIG NO!
3. Do your in the at office or in my case at
school.
Come on! I know you have vacant period during work or am I the only one who
have that hahaha! The bottom line is use this time not chat with your co-workers
but to do your work so you wouldn’t have to bring it home. Yes! I know vacant
period is the time for you to relax and I also that know you won’t be able to
finish it with the limited time which us to number 4.
4. Do your little by little. Back then, I didn’t believe in this one I would
rather do it all at once however cause me stress because I can’t do it and it
just resulted to a burnout. Now I telling you based on my experience it is possible do it one at a time. Start with one
part, focus and work on it for 2 hours then do it again tomorrow, in 5 working days
you’ll have 10 hours and for me it was enough to finish my work. You don’t have
to do it all at once. The best thing about this is that if you finished on the
weekdays you’ll enjoy your weekend or if you don’t at least you’ll have less
more to do.
5. Stay away from distraction. Whether it is physical or mental distraction, stay
away from it. Like telling yourself, “I will do this after I buy snack in the
grocery I need food while working”, “I do it after I watch this movie I’ve been
waiting for” or “ I’m stressed out I need to clear my mind first before I do
this. I need to have a massage and pedicure first” Come on know your time. If you only have 5 hours to go and
you stress out then take a deep breath and start working. You’ll never get things done unless you start.
6. Don’t wastes too much time finding that work
mode of yours, it will come. Start where you are. I
know I said that you should find a place where you can focus on your work but
if you can’t it then start where you are don’t waste your time that time could
had been use for sleeping.
7. Listen to something to keep you working. This is again another experience based sharing,
most of the time I am able to focus on my work if I listen to sometime, it keeps me in my game. I have ready-made playlist
song I listen to while working. If I get bored listening to the songs I turn on
my laptop, play a movie, and listen to it. It keeps me up until the following
by that I mean I’ve been working for 24 hour hehehe!
8. Make a checklist or a to-do list. I love making checklist in my planner because it
outlines the things I need to do or haven’t done and seeing all the checks in
my checklist makes me feel proud of myself.
9. Ask for help. Sometimes if the work is to much I ask help from my mom or my friends and it helps motivate me to do my work and get the momentum. So do be shy ask for help.
10. Start NOW! The moment you get a task or work to do start on it right away. The two reason I know that people get piles of unfinished work are: 1. The time given to finish the task is insuffecient or 2. You didn't start right away and you and up running out of time. The time you had then can never be brought back so use it wisely and start now.
11. Know your priorities. Sometimes the reason I get pilled up with work is that I don't know my priorities. Sometimes I tend to over help other people and make it my priority while I still have other things in my hand. I'm saying this to remind myself and to give you an advice that it is ok to prioritize yourself and not help others. If ever you are going to help other make sure you have nothing in your hands right now.
12. Don't give up. If ever you are going to start working on your project or work and you are running out of time try your best to focus. Don't cry and say this is hopeless. You can do it! Make it as productive as possible.
13. Watch this video from Wellcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvcx7Y4caQE
10. Start NOW! The moment you get a task or work to do start on it right away. The two reason I know that people get piles of unfinished work are: 1. The time given to finish the task is insuffecient or 2. You didn't start right away and you and up running out of time. The time you had then can never be brought back so use it wisely and start now.
11. Know your priorities. Sometimes the reason I get pilled up with work is that I don't know my priorities. Sometimes I tend to over help other people and make it my priority while I still have other things in my hand. I'm saying this to remind myself and to give you an advice that it is ok to prioritize yourself and not help others. If ever you are going to help other make sure you have nothing in your hands right now.
12. Don't give up. If ever you are going to start working on your project or work and you are running out of time try your best to focus. Don't cry and say this is hopeless. You can do it! Make it as productive as possible.
13. Watch this video from Wellcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvcx7Y4caQE
It’s a pretty good video I
watched it several time to motivate me to stop procrastinating. It has great advises that you should try.
Remember you’ll never get things done unless you start so start
now one at a time.
