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11 Jan 2019 || 4:01 p.m.

Hi! It is always a weird one, isn’t it! Like you sense impending doom finals but its really hard to motivate yourself? But, hopefully these are a few easy tips to follow:

externalise your goals and make the commitment - if you really want to achieve your goals, that you must commit yourself to being disciplined. Being disciplined isn’t something you have, but something you do. You have to learn to put your responsibilities before your leisure. Without commitment, you will struggle to learn actual discipline. Externalising your goals is something that can really boost your motivation to get started and keep going, which in turn develops discipline.

recognise your weaknesses and temptations, then remove them - everyone has a few weaknesses that can stop them from developing discipline. For me, I get so easily distracted by tv shows or Tumblr. Apps such as Forest or RescueTime help to remove those distractions and help me to focus. When I can see that I managed so much time without them, I realise that I don’t need to check them every 2 minutes but can wait till I need a break. Set yourself up for success by removing the bad habits!

establish a plan for your goals - when it comes to improving your discipline, you need to work out a plan of how. The best way is to set yourself some overarching, long-term goals. This could be passing a class with an A, achieving distinctions on all assessment tasks, or improving over all grades. (It doesn’t have to be study related.) Then break each of these down into medium and short-term objectives. Breaking down your goals into manageable sections can allow to visualise you getting through each part instead of being confusing and overwhelmed with scale of your goals.

schedule your week - use some form of a  planner to map out your monthly, weekly and daily tasks. Make the effort to schedule times for certain tasks - be it 15 minutes, half an hour or an hour. These tasks could be clean out your school bag every Sunday, check weekend homework on Fridays, do allocated readings the night before your tutorials, etc. With time you won’t need to be reminded of these tasks since you’ll just know to do it. I have a selection of options on my Etsy or a few free here.

mark your progress - the best way to monitor how you are going is to track your daily productivity. Jerry Seinfield emphasises that using a calendar (or habit tracker) is the best way to consistently perform tasks day after day. He says each day he has written something he will put a large red cross through the day on a wall calendar. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.“ This way you can see how well you’re doing and motivate yourself to keep it up!! Here is a habit tracker I made!

stay persistent - keep at it! It might be tough and some days you might miss doing a task - but making sure you can recover from those days is what matters! No one is disciplined 100 per cent of the time. If you’ve got a friend from school (or even one from Tumblr), share your daily tasks and upcoming to-dos with them. Make them hold you accountable for getting things done. They can message regularly to ask how you’re going, provide some encouragement and praise your work! You should remember that your a new found discipline isn’t going to appear overnight.

be positive - you aren’t going to see a radical change from one day to the next. It is a long, arduous process that needs developing. Don’t be discouraged with the initial difficulties. No one is disciplined 100 per cent of the time. If you miss a day, don’t dwell but think that you’ll try to not let it happen again. Focusing on any negativities isn’t going to help you, so accept them and move on.

set priorities and reduce your overall activity

Whenever you’re facing more stress than usual, try to reduce your activities, set priorities, and focus on short-term goals. However, try to not avoid activity all together. This is difficult, because the way you think about tasks changes dramatically when you are stressed. Try your best to stop during times of high stress and ask yourself “What really needs to be done now? What can I let go until some other time?” 

Also, try to recognise that you only have a limited amount of energy - you can’t push yourself too hard - and remember to take time to rest and take care. Stress drains your energy more, so try to be mindful of that. 

spend extra time with decisions

Stress interferes with your ability to think. The greater the stress, the more likely it is that you will make poor decisions. Wherever possible, avoid making major decisions during times of stress. But, when a decision does have to be made, try to take more time with it, and talk to people about it who are objective - they may see problems or options you didn’t think off because of your reduced ability to do so while being stressed. 

plan ahead and take actions during times when stress is low

A lot of the time, you know when a period of stress is coming. When that is the case, try to take some time to plan ahead, make decisions, and take action in advance while you’re feeling better - this reduces the amount of thinking you’ll need to worry about during a period of high stress. Having a plan helps you to focus and prioritise tasks. 

For those times when a period of high stress may come suddenly, try to take some time out to relax and collect yourself, so you’re able to plan ahead and prioritise. This can be difficult, so it’s okay if you can’t. Just being mindful of how your body and mind can be affected by stress can help you through. 

some gentle reminders for if you are stressed

take a moment to breathe; close your eyes, put whatever you are doing down, and count slowly to ten

take a break if you’ve been working for a long time on something

write a list of what you need to do, and then slowly put the tasks into order of priority

take some time out of your day to relax and unwind to the best of your ability

try your best to not push yourself past your limits

reach out for help if you need to

you can do this

i believe in you

↳ 18.11.16. friday

11.23.18

↳ 18.11.16. friday

60/100 days of productivity