#1 Journaling

When you think of journaling, you might think of pretty little notebooks with the fanciest of doodles and drawings. But journaling is much more beyond that. Making it beautiful and aesthetically pleasing is a personal choice, not a mandate. 

Journaling is essentially a means to observe your own thoughts and feelings.

And I’d like to address something while we’re on the topic of journaling – Journaling is not something for just girls. If you are a human with thoughts and feelings, then journaling is for you too. I wanted to put this out there since I have not seen one male with the exception of my father who journals. I felt like there was a stereotype around how only girls do journaling. And if you don’t think this, it’s awesome; but if you do, know that every human being who understands that they have emotions can do journaling. (I mentioned people who understand that they have emotions because even someone who does not know how to write, like a kid can also journal)

#2 Not reading the news

At this point in time, I don’t really think that reading the news is a good idea. At least not if you want to keep your sanity in one piece! The news is almost always disheartening. You watch it and you feel pessimistic because you can’t do anything about it. However, what you can do is stop consuming the news and making yourself feel miserable. 

To some this might sound a bit counter-intuitive since we’ve been told for years to read the news and listen to it. Just give it a shot and don’t read the newspaper and listen to the news for a week. You’ll know the difference. Try doing this just as an experiment.

#3 Scheduling your day

Everyday we make a headstrong intention of checking off the tasks off our to do lists. Sometimes, unfortunately we fail to check all of them (or maybe even a few) off. The most common reason for the same is that we don’t clearly define when we’re going to do it. Not assigning the time to the tasks leads to uncertainty about whether or not and when the tasks will be completed.

This is why you need to schedule your day. Put your tasks in the calendar from your to do list. Give a time slot. When you actually put things in your schedule in the calendar they are much more likely to get completed. You start treating them like meetings and scheduled events and know that you don’t have an option to dodge it.

Moreover, you already know what you need to do. You don’t have to spend time skimming through your life to figure out what to do next. This in turn helps in reducing your decision fatigue. (Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.)

#4 Stretching 

This is a no-brainer. With online school and work from home, every single one of us needs to stretch our body every hour or so. And doesn’t even need to be an elaborate stretching routine. Any stretching that opens up your joints and gives them movements works. Stretching frees you up so much physically as well as mentally because your attention is stuck at one point for such a long time.

Besides, you can stretch while your Netflix show’s intro plays. It takes only that much time.

#5 Waking up early

Ever wanted extra hours in a day? Well you can get it.

You just need to wake up early for that. 

Yeah I know none of us like that. It’s cliché, it’s old people’s advice and most importantly unpleasant. 

Well that is true. I won’t be arguing with that. 

But it’s also incredibly satisfying, exhilarating and freeing at the same time.

Once you know how the morning feels before the sun’s up and what your mind can do at that time, you’ll be addicted to it. (You just need to get past the monsters under above your bed – your blankets)

I once woke up at 6 am and I swear I got more work done till 9:30 am than I did the entire previous day.

There’s peace, almost no distractions and I feel like the weather acts in your favour too.

Give these a shot y’all. I’ll be waiting to hear your experiences of trying out the same. Let me know if you’d want me to discuss any of these topics more in detail.

P. S. What is something that’s giving you a hard time or you are having trouble with? I’ll go first – waking up on time and completing my work.