How to be productive without getting stressed out

In my last blog post I talked about my weekly review process and of course there is more to being productive. This is my little guide on how to be productive without getting stressed out.

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Develop your intuition

We all have intuition in us but most of us bury it under our stress and daily grind. Developing back your intuition by being more mindful in your daily life will help you decide better when to work and when to take a break. Some days I tick of half of the weeks tasks and other days the only thing I did was going for a walk. Having that gut feeling back in your life will make a major difference.

Have a Google Cal for rough scheduling

For the longest time I didn’t use a calendar to time block to do’s. It’s super helpful to see how much can fit in a day and how long it will take. I use Google Calendar because I can easily move tasks to the next day if I didn’t do them. This is also a great way to see how much you get done on average and if you need a slow day in the middle of the week. I tend to work really good on Fridays for some reason.

Have a easy to change Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly & Current List

I suggest you to have task lists of different urgencies. I have a current, weekly, monthly & quarterly task list. This will help you to stress less and write down tasks that come to your mind on the go. Wunderlist is my personal favorite for this but Evernote, Trello and Google Tasks might be helpful for you too. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing a task off your list.

Check in with yourself weekly

I check those lists every weekend and update the urgency and add new things that come to my mind. You can read all about my weekly review in my last post. This will help you reevaluate your priorities and keep you in check with your bigger goals. I mostly check my monthly & quarterly tasks for my goals on this day. Also a great opportunity to journal a bit about your week and emotions.

For ever work task a self care task

This is something I still work on regularly since I’m either working too much or not enough. For every work task you should also put a self care activity into your day or week. This can be an entire self care day every week or just little acts of self care like a face mask, a bath, meditation, working out or cooking healthy food. Preventing burnout is one of the biggest goals you should have.

Have off days (1-2 per week)

This is super important. No work tasks at least one day per week, two days per week are better. Doesn’t matter how important you think your work is, your sanity and mental health is more important. If you have a job that makes this impossible (which is rare, you can do free sundays in most jobs) you should be cracking down on the point above and balance your work with tons of self care.

This is how to be productive without getting stressed out and I’d love to hear your tips in the comments under this post. If you want to read more about self care you can check out my eBook “MIND, BODY & SOUL”. Get a free chapter in my freebie library by signing up for my newsletter for free:

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How to be productive without getting stressed out by Rabea