After a few months of utter nothingness and not moving forward, it was easy to pinpoint what I could have done differently. We all have our bad habits keeping us from our full potential. Mine above all is napping. If I could, I would seriously nap all day every day with Pretty Woman on a loop and tacos on my bedside table. Just roll over, take a bite of Baja fish, and slip back into my mini coma.
But since I can’t do that, I need to learn to be more productive and get rid of my terrible vices. To be honest, they aren’t even ginormous fixes. I’ve narrowed it down to a few minor things I need to change immediately:
Falling Asleep on the Couch
Coming home, slipping into my favorite fuzzy socks, ripping the girls out from my bra, and kicking back on the couch is my favorite part of my day. I flip on Hulu, sip on wine, and before I know it, my alarm is blaring and I’ve fallen asleep on my couch for the fifth night in a row. While in theory there’s nothing wrong with spending the night on the couch, it definitely doesn’t do wonders for the moring. It’s like if I’m starting my day off first thing on the couch, then I spend the rest of the day living as an actual couch potato.
Not Waking Up at My First Alarm
The snooze button is a morning drug and I am a hard addict in the need for immediate intervention. I set up my alarms for the morning with complete knowledge and awareness that the first alarms are just for funsies. The first alarm is “this is when you should probably get up”, the second is “okay, for real this time get up”, the third “girl, you are really pushing it”, and the final fourth is “you have fifteen minutes to brush your teeth, take the dog out, do your make up, and shove breakfast down your throat.” If I just manage to wake up on my first alarm, I might actually have a chance of having a productive morning and then a more productive day in return.
Saying “I’ll Do it Tomorrow”
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I still procrastinate tomorrow. If I had a dollar for every time I said I would do things tomorrow, I would no longer have to be a struggling writer. I plan to do certain things on a given day, get tired and lazy, and say the cursed words of “I’ll do it tomorrow”. No one ever does the thing they said they would do the next day! We just keep putting it off again and again until it’s put off for forever and a day. Instead of saying I’ll do it the next day or the day after that, I need to just force myself to do the task that needs to be done (looking at you, student loan documents).
Avoiding My Planner
You know when you tell your friend to make you eat healthier and remind you to go to the gym, then they actually have the audacity to call you every morning to see if you went to the gym or not? You know for a fact that if they didn’t remind you to go, you’d end up blaming them for you not going. But then they do remind you and it’s like they’re the worst person in existence. That is my entire relationship with my planner. I love feeling organized by writing down everything that needs to be done, but I hate being reminded that I actually have to go through with it. I write down everything that I need to do and then avoid it completely. II start thinking that not looking at my planner will make all my tasks go away.
Oh god, I’ve ghosted my planner. I’ve become a f*ck boy of procrastination.
Putting Too Much on My Plate
Whenever I set my mind on something, I tend to take it all on at once. Especially when I am trying to be productive, I will plan to do way too much on one day or in one week. Instead of pressuring myself to do it all as fast as possible, pacing myself would probably be the better solution. That way, I still have time for naps in between absolutely crushing it…I hope.