Productivity – Why You Shouldn’t Feel Bad

Productivity is something that makes us all feel good about ourselves like we have accomplished something great so therefor the day has been worth it.

However, when you don’t do anything productive, it can strangely make you feel really rubbish and a ‘waste of a day’.

I am writing this post to explain why you shouldn’t feel bad about not being productive, and how actually, we are all very productive in our own ways every single day.

What Productivity Means

You do not need to have written a whole book, or ran ten miles, or scheduled blog posts for the next two weeks to be productive.

There are tons of things we can be proud of and receive that sense of achievement from.
I did the whole glow up at home thing during the lockdown and felt great! I have a post about it here – Glow Up At Home

Being productive for me comes in waves. I will sometimes feel the energy to write loads and get so much stuff done for the blog and my Instagram, but some days, I really just don’t feel it.

We are all human, we all feel like this sometimes.

Productivity can also mean different things for different people. I am sometimes stuck with the idea that productivity means completing physical ‘big’ tasks, however, that’s not the case.

The real definition for ‘Productivity’ is

• The state or quality of being productive.

So, I don’t know about you, but it can literally mean anything.

Productive Things We Do EVERYDAY

Here are some things we all do most days that are in fact productive.

Stop worrying about not doing anything because all of the little tasks you automatically do throughout the day count.

• Getting out of bed and getting ready for the day!
• Eating healthy meals and staying hydrated is important for our overall health.
• Cleaning our living spaces.
• Taking care of our friends and family, or even our pets.
• Making your bed/tidying little bits.
• SELF-CARE! Yes, caring for yourself or taking some time off.
• Shopping for things you NEED.
• Going for walks/walking the dog.
• Educating ourselves on matters needed to be addressed.
• Reading anything, this could be books, news or magazines.
• Watering your plants.
• Communicating with others.
• Going to work (I don’t count this as my own productivity sometimes, although, it is…)
• Building your social media by engaging online.
• Taking photos and capturing moments to look back on in the future or for online.
• Taking time to be alone and having your own thinking space.
• Sleeping!

I think I could probably go on and on.

Basically, throughout your daily routine as normal, you are probably doing some or most of these things anyway.

So don’t feel bad about your productivity! You are smashing life and doing just fine.

How to do The ‘BIG’ Tasks

Of course, you don’t want me to just sit here and tell you that you are always productive no matter what.

So I thought I would include how to get those big tasks done even when you don’t feel like it.

If you have a deadline for something to be done, then, of course, it needs to be done.

If you have just written on your to-do list on a let’s say Monday, to complete a task but you’re not feeling it, then do it tomorrow!
However, if you are going to reschedule your tasks to a different day, then be prepared to do them.

The biggest thing I have learnt is to not burn myself out by thinking I can do one hundred things in one day. When writing your to-do list, think about the actual possibility of you doing it.
Otherwise, you are going to just feel bad about not doing it. Give yourself some achievable tasks and one big task per day.

For example, it could look like this;

Planning the Tasks…

• Big task – Write two blog posts and schedule for next week. *
• Smaller task 1 – Sort wardrobe.
• Smaller task 2 – Take the dog for a walk.

If you feel like you can do more, then do more, but slowly ease into it.

Complete your tasks in order of how much time they will take, and order of importance.

I put a little star next to the one that I need to get done so I can remind myself. That way, if I don’t complete the others, I know I have done the biggest one.

OR on the other hand, if you just know you aren’t going to do the big one, at least do two of the smaller tasks. I hope that makes sense!

Once you have done something then make sure you reward yourself! If you know there is something good at the end then you will feel more motivated to continue! You can reward yourself with a little break, doing anything you please.
(Post on motivation coming soon)

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Thank you for reading! This is the first post I have written with the new blog theme and I love it, I hope you do too.

Let me know what you think in the comments, and tell me if you have any other ways of being productive throughout the day. I would love to hear your views.

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