Productivity Challenge - Blog Posts

HOW TO CREATE AN ENERGISING MORNING ROUTINE

WAKE UP EARLIER. Waking up early looks different for a lot of us, and i’m not going to reccomend waking up at 5am for a lot of us. Whatever time you wake up now, I would suggest waking up 30 minutes or so earlier and see how you feel. 

If you feel like you really need those 30 minutes to sleep, then use it sleeping. Whatever time makes you feel like you are at the best, is the perfect time for you. It does take some trial and error to find this time, but it’s worth it. 

Another thing, I generally wouldn’t suggest waking up past 10am. If you sleep in a little too much, you do become a bit sluggish during the first hours of your day, but whatever works for you. 

SUNLIGHT FIRST THING. Going outside, a hot girl walk or simply opening your windows to allow the sun to come in helps our body to become awake. Natural sunlight is a sign to our bodies that we need to start the day. 

This also promotes a healthy rise in cortisol to support our mood, focus and energy. This natural increase in cortisol helps with melatonin production in the evening, which improves the quality of your sleep.

Exposure to unnatural light can disrupt this rhythm, so it’s best to stay away from any devices and turn off of your lights before and after you wake up. Ideally, an hour after you wake up, should be spent device-free. (aside from alarms or setting habit tasks) 

NO PROCESSED, CAFFEINATED OR SUGARY FOODS, before you have a proper meal. When we eat these foods before a nutritious meal, it can lead to a spike in cortisol and blood sugar levels first thing in the morning, which leads to crashing in the afternoon after the spike goes down. 

When we eat after we wake up, it stabilises our blood sugar levels and replenishes ourselves after our fast. If need to be, meal prep the night before so you can have a quick and easy breakfast. As long as it properly fuels your body. 

GENTLE EXERCISES. You’ve just woken up, so you don’t want to rush your body into something too hardcore until you feel like you’re fully awake. Gentle exercises could mean stretching, a light walk or if you’re feeling a bit energised, pilates. 

SET INTENTIONS. Set the theme for how you want to feel at the start of the day, during and end. It doesn’t have to be something productive, but a feeling that you want to achieve and maximise and use that feeling in what you do. 

For ex. In the morning, I want to feel calm. During the day, I want to feel productive. At the end of the day, I want to feel accomplished. 

SHORT TO-DO LISTS! To-do lists that are more than 3 major tasks usually are unmanageable. While you can break down those 3 major tasks, try to avoid having more than 3 major tasks. 

If you do have more than 3, consider moving them into a different date if its not urgent or cutting that task completely if its not urgent and unimportant. How you assess the urgency and importance of your tasks is up to you, as you know what productivity means to you. 

Remember the basics as well, such as hydration, mindfullness, and at least one fun activity in the morning. Thank you so much for the support, even while I was a bit inactive <3

One thing that has been making me feel truly miserable is my lack of will to study/work. Working I kind of understand due to my discontent with my career paths, but when it comes to studying I don’t really have that many excuses. I hate my university, but I love my major. So, it makes me downhearted to see how unmotivated I am nowadays to read about economy and related contents. I decided to change this. Everyday for the next weeks, I’m going to be studying for 30 minutes, at least or at most. And the strategy is: no fun pomodoro. I used to think that “Animedoro” was the best study technique out there, but recently I noticed how it’s a tricky trail for me. Since I have been lacking motivation, what I do is work for 20/30 minutes then grab my phone and do infinite scrolling or get lost in a Sex and the City episode. And I cannot make me stop. Today I stumbled into a video that talked exactly about this problem. Instead of doing something fun when you end a focus cycle, do something boring, that makes studying or working seems fun next to it. Or, and here’s my perception, something that doesn’t stimulate your brain in the wrong way. Here are the things that I believe requires thinking, so I don’t lose my focus flow (they are not necessarily boring to me, but some of them tires me quickly which makes me give up on them even quicker):

Reading the news.

Watch someone that motivates me to study/work.

Watch/listen to a podcast about something useful.

Sudoku video.

Math problems videos.

Solve a sudoku problem.

Read a few pages of one of the dense books I’m probably reading at the moment (I'm a slow reader so I know it won't fully distract me heheh)

If working, read an econ paper or something related to.

Or just do nothing. Go for a walk. Make some pancakes. Grab water and contemplate it.

<3 and if doesn't work, that's okay. I'll try something new <3

Here's the video in question:

day 6/ 21st of september / wednesday

rise and shine! i'm back after 5 days of no productivity :P saturday and sunday had lots of things to do so i didn't study. on saturday i went out to have dinner with my parents and my parents' friends, and during the day i ran errands. on sunday i had lunch at my aunt's house and we spent the day there. monday and yesterday i didn't study on my free time. only went to class and had to work afterwards.

but now im back!! and now im fully commited to this challenge!!

i think that instead of making my to do list on this posts, im gonna come back in the end of the day i write what i did. it makes me a bit sad to see twice the things i wasnt able to finish. on my proper list in my planner and here. but this is just me being silly. im still learning.

kisses and cheese see ya later <3

day 4 / 16th of september / friday :D

good morning from south america, my beautiful friends!

every week day i have my internship job so im not gonna add that on my to do list anymore

things i need to get done:

math problems (college applications)

physics problems (college applications)

thins i want to get done:

excel course

see you later :D have a nice day and dont forget to drink water and put on sunscreen!

so yesterday i obviously did all my internship work and i was also able to plan my essay. havent written it yet however thats what weekends are made for. i did my portuguese test, (mostly text comprehension problems) but i didnt manage to finish my math set of problems. gonna do it today.

and i did a little of my excel course :D

yesterday was a nice day. hopefully today will be better!

i made a decison as well; wanna try to use my rest time while working or studying to learn something new or getting better at some other skill. like practicing chess or drawing. maybe give another shot to morse code. the thing is, when i have a pomodoro session, which i like because is the way i track my time, and it ends, during my break i usually decide to watch 10-20 minutes of an episode of a tv show or something. but its extremely hard for me to stop! and then get back to work! ive been trying for mooonths. i use an adapted version of the animedoro method and its just not really working for me because i have a problem with limits. so maybe i should stop and only watch tv shows during my free time. gonna try today a skillmodoro or whaterver name ill come up with today and tell you in the future if it has been helping me. if it doesnt work im not sure what im going to do :/

another thing i wanna try in the future is posting pictures of my desk, notebooks, etc. a goal for the short term future :)

day 3 / 15th of september / Thursday

today i woke up feeling so much better. since im still feeling sick i decided to skip today's lecture but im gonna get some studying done so i dont use my time on tiktok and netflix :P

things i need to get done today:

internship work

math problems for college applications

portuguese test for college applications

write an essay for college applications

things i want to get done however it doesnt really matter if i dont do them:

excel course

see ya laterrrr <3

day 3 / 15th of september / Thursday

today i woke up feeling so much better. since im still feeling sick i decided to skip today's lecture but im gonna get some studying done so i dont use my time on tiktok and netflix :P

things i need to get done today:

internship work

math problems for college applications

portuguese test for college applications

write an essay for college applications

things i want to get done however it doesnt really matter if i dont do them:

excel course

see ya laterrrr <3

i decided to do this 100 days of productivity challenge because ive been feeling like a zombie lately and coincidentally a lot of this kind of post have been coming up in my feed. so let's try it!

day 1 / 13th of september / tuesday

things i need to get done:

• all of my internship work

• finish the chapter im reviewing for my uni lecture

• organize my f*cking room cause i cant find anything in this mess

things i want to get done but thats ok if i dont because im coming down with something which is making me extra tired:

• study math for college applications

• read that tree book i'm currently reading or read that book about revolutions that i haven't started yet

i'll be back when the day is over to check what i managed to complete!

see ya later kisses and cheese <3

little note: this is also a little exercise for my writing skills in english because it's been a while since i wrote anything in this language. if you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes please!!! let!!! me!!! know!!!! portuguese is my mother tongue so it would be interesting if i could practice some other language since i dont have the time anymore to actually study my target languages :/ (french and spanish and i would always consume some material with more advanced words in english)