MY PROCESS FOR STAYING PRODUCTIVE ++ HELPFUL RESOURCES

Hello  Lovelies 

This post was supposed to be about APPS that help me stay productive because I've been getting a couple of emails with regards to that. But I had to do a quick edit for reasons I'll explain below.

I had planned out this week last week Friday [everything I had to do including blog posts to publish] but a series of events over the weekend threw me off balance and I've been so overwhelmed that even these apps couldn't even help me get anything done. 

It's already Wednesday and even though it seems like the week is almost over, my inner optimist knows that It's just the third way of the week and I could still get a couple things done before the week runs out. 

There are a lot of ways to get productive like clearing your space, having a "TO-DO List", manage time properly etc but people hardly share on consistency a.k.a staying productive; fear and frustrations regardless.   

Today I'm sharing on the things I do when I want to stay productive and this could be a possible guide for you. 

• PRAY: While I was busy feeling overwhelmed, this song came into my head "What a friend we have in Jesus" The line about forfeiting peace and bearing a lot of needless pain because we do not take EVERYthing to God in prayer kept ringing in my head. We often leave out a lot of  things when we pray thinking they are too irrelevant for God to attend to. When Jesus said people who are troubled should come to Him for solutions, He didn't specify neither did he differentiate one person's trouble from another. Even if what's troubling you is about picking out something to wear, you can take it to God in prayer. [see Matthew 11:28]. So whenever you feel burned out, do not hesitate to pray even if you're just able to mutter a few words, it goes a long way

• CONTROL your schedule: To be productive, you must first have a schedule. Because I already had a schedule, I'm able to get back on my feet and pick up where I left off. Consistency comes only when you're able to control your schedule. I'm not exactly good at this, but I'm learning. Write everything down so nothing on your schedule would skip your mind. And set a time frame [add one hour because of unforeseen events].

• Do not complicate your life unnecessarily keep it simple by; 

-Doing one thing at a time: This is also similar to controlling your schedule. I already had things to do on Monday and Tuesday but since it's already Wednesday, I do what's for Wednesday instead of going back and I would make up for those two days over the weekend.
You can't stay productive if you keep jumping from what you set out to do at 12 pm at 8am. This way there's a high tendency of getting everything muddled up which would leave you frustrated and anxious. I'm not saying let the shackles of routine tie you down but use your check/to-do lists as a guide to do all you're supposed to do one after the other and not all at once. 

-Not  taking on more than you can handle: This helps you to stay on track and keep your head clear and keeps anxiety far away from you.

- Hush the inner chatter- If you're like me and you get panic attacks a lot, directing your thoughts from what goes on inside your head would help  you. You hush the internal chatter by being mindful of your thoughts; separating the negative from the positive thoughts and consciously focus on the positive ones. This is not magic and won't work instantly but the more you become mindful of your thoughts, your brain would get used to dealing with your thoughts and emotions. You should also hush the outer chatter by paying no attention to negative criticism and avoiding comparison, we all know how that steals joy.

• Take a break once in a while

Do not wait to feel frustrated, restless or anxious  taking a break every now and then helps you to stay productive and refreshed. Listen to music, watch a movie, play a game etc whatever helps you relax  My personal therapy is to sleep and sometimes watch a movie. I'm sure you're probably asking where you'll find the time to relax while you're working well if you've been praying and you've not ben complicating your life unnecessarily, you'll definitely find the time to relax 

Lastly,

• Enjoy the process:  I realized that I'm the most productive and creative when I'm multitasking; odd I know, but that's what works for me.; it may or may not work for you, so experiment and figure out what productive process works best for you and stick to that.

Below are a few among so many other resources that help me to stay productive and make the most of my days. 

                                                      

 EVERNOTE: 

I love Evernote's mantra "The workspace for your life's work" because that's exactly what it is. I've always had it on my devices but never really used it much till when I had to do 31 days of Lovin Like Jesus. It helped me to organize, store and edit all my content properly. I use it mostly to bring my ideas and notes for the blog together especially when I'm on the move and I don't feel like writing. It's very easy to use and it cuts across all my devices. [It does practically everything; Write a to-do list, set reminders and dates, take notes on the go etc.]

SCRIBD:

Exactly like it says on the home page. You can own and read almost any book in the world on the Scribd app for free the in the first month of your subscription and for $8 every month after that. I think it's worth it. It's also helping me to be consistent with my reading goal for this year. 

POCKET :

I got to know about pocket on Dara's blog and I mentioned it in this post ... Ever since then I've been using it on a regular. I save every site I want to read later on there. It's very easy to use and saves me from having a million tabs open in my browser at once. 

PIC MONKEY & CANVA : 

Most of my blog post images are created using pic monkey and canva. Canva is an online app as well as an ios app. Picmonkey is just an online app. I use picmonkey for blog photos and I mostly use canva for quotes and Instagram posts

GRAMMARLY

This is the ultimate spellchecker. I downloaded it on my laptop and use it to spell check essays and blog posts before publishing. It's installed in my browser, so it saves me the stress of copying and pasting before I can do the spell check. It can also be used to check for plagiarism. I haven't upgraded to premium yet and I absolutely Love it! So I can imagine how much more I would when I eventually do.

This has to be  the longest post I've published on this blog. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed typing it and I hoped it helped you somehow. Do share in the comment below. 

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xx

Header image source: SEQUIN AND STRIPES