How Routines Can Help You Outgrow Unproductivity

The Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy for all of us. As many of us have never experienced a global outbreak before, we haven't yet known the feeling of being forced to stay in quarantine for a long period of time. Having to stay at home, twenty-four-seven, seven days a week could mess with our minds and mental health. Based on the majority of cases, this will eventually lead to a high level of unproductivity, especially within the younger generations.

Often times in this quarantine, we as college students continuously seek reassurances from others. Knowing our friends are doing as badly and as unproductive as we do, sometimes give us the contentment of realizing we are not alone, that it's okay to feel unmotivated. Though it is surely suggested that we should take our time to go through these difficult moments, a lot of us tend to slack off and make that as an excuse to avoid our actual responsibilities. Many of us have drowned into the pit of laziness and more often than not lead us into a more depressed state of mind.

Within these past 5 months of staying at home, I did too struggle with unproductivity. However, I've found a way to pull myself out from the contentment of doing nothing, which is by forcing myself to make and running my own routine. It is strange to think about how something that consists of the same activities being redone over and over again could help us to be productive, but it works pretty well for me.

Creating a healthy routine is not only good for our bodies but our minds as well. By having certain schedules for everything, our bodies will adapt to the time we set for ourselves. This will allow our minds and bodies to relax and be comfortable day by day with the activities that we have to do because they know when and where it will occur, and what to do to finish the task well. 

The other thing about routine is, it is not about creating one, but about maintaining one. When we have a routine set, it is easy to fall back to the same old bad habits and neglect every progress that we've made. It is fairly hard to make ourselves follow the new routine simply because we are not used to it. 

That is why, by maintaining the same routine, we are challenged every day to fight ourselves and stick to the things that we 'have' to do. This eventually will help us to lessen procrastination, as it is in our habit to get everything done by its designated time. In other words, a routine could help us to be disciplined with our responsibilities.

A routine does not have to be fully packed. Give ourselves time to relax, but also remember to finish all of our everyday tasks. Waking up early is one of the things in my routine that has helped a lot in increasing my productivity. With waking up early, it seems that I have more time in the day to use and I could do whatever I need and want to do. 

Keeping my phone away for one hour after I wake up and an hour before I sleep also helps to put my mind into focus in the morning, and relax when I'm about to have my rest. It is known that if we keep scrolling through our phone right before we intend to sleep, we tend to be on our phone way longer than we should be. Instead, I opt for turning my phone off an hour before I want to sleep and use that one hour to plan ahead what I want to do the next day. 

By refusing to go through my phone first thing in the morning, I find it easier to get out of bed and actually do something. A good trick to be productive in the morning is to do one of the things in the to-do list I have prepared the night before, and when I have finished at least one task, only then I could turn on my phone.