Ever felt like your days pass by too quickly without you having achieved anything? Or maybe you feel like you just go through your day without being satisfied with yourself when you finally go to bed? The reason you might be feeling this way is that you are busy, but not productive. Yes, there’s a difference.

Here’s what I mean. Being busy is physical and mental work. True, but being productive is being stimulated, both with your mind and your body.
When you’re busy, you are tired at the end of your day. When you’re productive, you are satisfied when you finally go to bed. There’s a huge difference that you know only when you’ve experienced both.

So how do you have a productive day instead of just a busy one? We have some tips for you:

First things first, pre-plan your day before you start it. The night before, make a list of everything you have to do the next day, every smallest task. This will organize your day for you and shift all the stress and load off your mind onto a piece of paper.

Now, when you do this, remember, be optimistic and confident about your capabilities, but stay realistic and practical while you writing down everything you expect yourself to do in a single day.

Now that the list is done, prioritize. Decide the order that you want to do everything in, what’s more important than the other, what will require more time and attention.
Spend a little while organizing your to do list. It’ll pay off the next day, trust me.  

Another thing that you want to do before you go to sleep is clear your workspace and pick out your work outfit.
If you work from home, clear your work space before going to sleep. If you’re an office worker, clear your desk before you leave. Having a clean, spacious desk when you come to work is a whole other level of satisfaction and motivation.  

Now, you can go to bed. Get some quality, optimal sleep for a fresh, positive mind in the morning. Healthy sleep is truly underrated.  

Now that you’ve successfully completed your beauty-sleep, don’t throw it all away by staying in bed for an hour after you wake up, scrolling through your phone. Lingering in bed in the morning is the fastest destruction of all the prior hard work for making your day productive. Yes. Very important to not linger in bed.

Get out of bed, freshen up. Before you take a shower, take 5 minutes and stretch up a little. Stretching your muscles gives your body and mind an instant boost of energy, as well as positivity. Search up stretching guides on YouTube and follow the baajiz on there.
It’s like caffeine that lasts you all day long, no kidding.
However, do not shower right after you exercise. Let your body cool down a little, and avoid really cold or really hot showers.

Showered? Good. Time for breakfast.
Now, I know how mainstream, and old school it sounds to “have a wholesome breakfast” but there’s nothing more important and relevant. You’ll just have to accept that you need a healthy, fulfilling breakfast. Sorry. But that certainly doesn’t mean it has to be boring and plain. Play with your options and shake up your daily breakfast game a little.

Done with the breakfast, and you’re all ready to take on the day. But remember, having a busy, productive day doesn’t mean you have to exhaust yourself. Take breaks. Good breaks. Sometimes long, sometimes short ones, as per your body’s requirements (and your boss’s allowance). Breaks positively reinforce your mind and body. Our body is no less than a machine and like every other machine, it needs it’s charge every now and then. Give it just that.

The best way to avoid unnecessary fatigue and exertion is to avoid multi tasking. A lot of people, especially women, tend to multi task in order to get more work done. This is not always the best thing to do for your mental and physical health. Overexertion of both, the mind and body, can be harmful in the long run. Try to stay focused on one task at a time and give it your best. Do it right. Again, a difference between being productive and being busy.

Another way to avoid unnecessary fatigue is to learn to say “no” to unnecessary work. One of the many advantages of making a to-do list the night before is that you know exactly what you can accommodate and what will completely ruin your schedule. Learn to say no to things that do the latter.

Congratulations, you had a very productive day and you can finally sit down and relax, have some “me-time”, make a cup of tea and reflect on your day. This is very important. This is where you can FEEL the satisfaction of a long but productive day. You can feel it in your head, in your heart, in your muscles and your joints. You can enjoy the feeling of absolute bliss and satisfaction. A feeling like no other.

So, the final step to having a productive day is to sit back, relax and self evaluate. What you accomplished and where you lacked. Reflect. And don’t forget to treat yourself for the amazing day you had. Celebrate with a good dinner, face mask or ice cream, whatever you like.

After all, you had a successfully productive day, and that’s something to be proud of, right?