Starting now.

For me the key to being productive is to just start head on.

So, to keep it short:
1. Whatever you don't feel like doing is exactly what you should do (I've already talked about this, but it's still true)
2. Use a "bad" habit to start a more important "good" one (let me explain)
3. Keep track of your habits
4. Make doing things easy - have a specific space where you study, eat, train..
5. Make being productive your personality (I don't care if it's annoying, you're getting stuff done)


1. Whatever you don't feel like doing is exactly what you should do
I believe I've already talked about this one, but it's the easiest way for me to decide on what I'm going to do first, and what is the most urgent. This can be implemented for doing school or work assignments, but also the mundane everyday chores/things. You finished with work, got home, ate lunch.. You sit down to relax and you think "Ah, I really don't feel like doing [].." - that is exactly what you should get up and do. If you get it out of the way right away - it will no longer bother you!! We talked about productivity in one of our classes at uni, as well. This would be similar to "eat the frog first" concept that our professor mentioned. Also, if you're on social media, chances are you heard the trending sound "I don't know who needs to hear this, but doing the works takes much less energy, than avoiding the work." by @richwebz. The only way it gets easier is by diving right into it. If you ever feel like something's "eating you up" because you're procrastinating on doing it and you feel like you're not up to the challenge, you have to understand that the only way to get rid of that downgrading feeling is to get yourself to start and keep working until it's done - and it will be done. Once you feel that feeling of accomplishment and stability because you finished it on time and it's no longer bothering you - it becomes addictive. You want to get everything done on time. You want to finish your homework as soon as you get it. You want to clean your room as soon as it gets messy. You don't want things to hold you back because you get a sense of what it's like when they don't! It's a sense of freedom. When was the last time you spent the evening the way you wanted without guilt? YOU CAN TODAY. Nothing gets done unless you do it.

2. Use a "bad" habit to start a more important "good" one
Now, it would be the best if you could implement the desired habits in a healthy and sustainable way, but I found that sometimes I will rather implement a "bad habit" with a much bigger better one, than stay the same. For example, let's say I want to start waking up earlier. My alarm goes off and I snooze. Next day, the same. At one point I realized, if I pick up my phone right away and find something entertaining, I'll only lose 10 minutes before getting up, compared to 30 or an hour with snoozing. Even though scrolling on social media is the worst way to start your day, for me, at the time, it was much better than sleeping in for an hour more and feeling sluggish and disappointed in myself for the rest of the day. Another example, a more common one, is to get yourself to study/work by having your favorite snack while you're working. I still sometimes do that. The snack won't kill me, but not doing the work brings larger negative consequences. So I will eat cookies while studying. Snacks can be healthy as well, of course. My favorite are blueberries. The point isn't to develop another bad habit with nothing positive in return, but rather by combining more "instantly rewarding" actions with building the desired routines. You can always drop your "bad habits" later. For the first example, I started turning my phone off as soon as my alarm goes off. I drink some water
and read a few pages of a book. When studying, I get a cup of my favorite tea.. So far, this has been working quite well.

3. Keep track of your habits
For me, productivity is choosing at the moment the right thing to do, but most of the time, being productive comes down to our habits. What does "being productive" mean to you? Is it studying/working? Is it reading? Working out? Whatever it is, if it's a practice you want to do more often - keeping track of it will tremendously help. You can use different apps, paper, and other planning tools.. How I did it is I drew out a calendar and chose a few highlighters, each colour for one of the habits I was trying to incorporate. I have two of those calendars, one for personal growth, and one for my business ideas and content creation. Each night, I write down which of these habits have I performed, highlight it in the right colour and cross the day off. This is the opposite of writing a to-do list, and for my habit formation, it works better. First of all, it gives you an overview of the plan. It shows you that it's not a "today" type of thing, but rather a long-term commitment. Second of all, it makes you reflect. If you get into a slump - seeing this will reassure you how far you've come. It will give you credit for your hard work when you don't feel like you're doing enough, but it will also call you out if you're been skipping a habit. No matter how you're keeping track, keep it close and on display at all times. If you're seeing your "tracker", you'll be more likely to do the habits in the moment to be able to have something to track later. Also, if you have it on display you won't forget to write things down in general. Oftentimes when I feel like my motivation is dropping or I feel like I'm not doing everything it's simply because I haven't been tracking my progress. For example, if I put my calendars in the drawer. Keep it close, keep it on display, and track your habits every night.

4. Make doing things easy
This is a simple one that is, in my opinion, often overlooked. We as humans love going down the easier path. It's a part of the human behavior. So, if we want to be smart, we should look at how can we make habits easy? Having a specific place, scent or music are all factors that can be taken into account. If you want to improve you sleep, you shouldn't spend time in your bed during the day so that when night time comes, your brain makes an immediate connection of you being in the bed with sleeping. When studying, using a specific lamp will automatically get your brain into study mode. Having a playlist for getting ready in the morning can get you out of bed faster. These are all easy and highly effective ways how you can normalize certain behavior and start performing it without much thought, and without it eating up all your energy.

and finally, my new favorite one

5. Make being productive your personality
I don't care if it's annoying, you're getting stuff done. This is actually a big hack. Instead of saying "I need to be productive" or "I have to start working out" start saying "I am productive" and "I am an athlete/a person who works out". Give it a try. When you claim you "have" to do something - that doesn't sound fun. But when you say "I am a person that does this" - that sounds like a power move. From now on, you don't have to do anything, you are a person who simply does those things. You are a person who studies regularly, you are a person who goes to the gym, you are a person who is productive.. It makes a huge change. Tie it to your identity, make it a part of who you are. You have to study? So you're a person who learns new concepts every day, you're smart. You have to wake up early? So you're an early bird who gets ahead of others by completing tasks early in the morning. Play with it! You can even make an alter ego to help you with this.

Some of these tips I believe I've already mentioned, for some I got inspiration from the book called "Atomic habits" and some I have yet to share!

Just like anything else in life, productivity is trial and error. You're never going to start off perfectly. It's an everyday practice. It's through trying and failing, and a lot of persistence that you perfect your ways and stack up your habits.

Don't try to do everything all at once - that's never sustainable and you only set yourself up for failure.
Don't over-plan either.
To put it quite simply - if you want to do it, you can write the habit down, but you don't need to plan out every detail of your day. That's when you oftentimes feel productive. You get a dopamine rush from thinking about doing things, but you rarely follow through. Set a few habits and start tracking them throughout the week. See how you progress and make them feel as easy and natural as possible. What works keep and what doesn't - adapt.

At the end of the day - it's all up to you.

Anyways, that's about it for today.
I already wrote down 5 more tips so I will be doing part 2 in the future;)

As always, thank you for reading, your support means a lot <3

See you next week!