How can you find ways to break the cycle of stagnant productivity, and push yourself to actually want to be productive?
For starters, you want to first begin by acknowledging what it is that is causing your productivity to become stagnant. Below are a few signs in determining whether or not you are experiencing the stagnant blues:
- You’re continuously experiencing chronic procrastination and don’t feel like doing anything, ever
- You have a deep sense of feeling that you aren’t reaching your fullest potential
- You feel uninspired and unmotivated
- You’re avoiding your responsibilities
- You turn to mindless activities and distractions because it brings you comfort
How Can You Avoid Stagnant Productivity?
Because stagnant productivity can have a huge impact on your everyday life, it’s important that you acknowledge your problem areas. It’s so easy to beat yourself up over your lack of productivity especially when there’s so many things around you constantly reminding you that you should be writing the next best-selling book or creating a new clothing line or YouTube channel during this time period. Here’s three ways you can avoid stagnant productivity.
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Avoid doing household chores and watching TV during your designated productivity hours
When you’re trying to maintain productivity from home, specifically through work, you need to remove all distractions, including having the TV on as background noise. These distractions instantly take your focus off of the task at hand, and causes you to lose sight of what you were initially doing, which results in stagnant productivity.
You may be thinking multitasking is the way to go especially when there’s so much to be done around the house, but research has shown that multitasking can lead to a decrease in productivity. Use your designated productivity hours for getting work done and save the rest of the time for everything else!
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Create a systematic schedule for your household
Yes, this systematic schedule includes the husband and kids too! Many parents have become full-time homeschool teachers during the pandemic. Setting a schedule that works for your family is the key to having a productive work day. Sticking to a schedule will allow for you to maximize your productivity and minimize interruptions.
Set a designated breakfast, lunch, classwork, nap time, physical activity and dinner schedule for you and your family, and make sure you explain to them why this schedule must be implemented. Before finalizing your schedule, create a list of any and every possible distraction within your household, and proactively find ways to either minimize or eliminate that distraction from occurring during your productivity hours.
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Find an accountability partner
Sometimes it can be difficult to hold yourself accountable in making sure you get things done. If this is you, find a few wise people in your life that you trust to hold you accountable and keep you in aligned with making sure you aren’t being stagnant. Listen to them and take the advice they are offering—there’s a reason why you deemed them fit to be your accountability partner!
Let us know in the comments below tips and tricks you implement to avoid stagnant productivity!
