10 Simple Things That’ll Make You Productive Every Day

Do you always find yourself thinking what to do for the day when your boss is not around, or you are just caught in the middle of idleness? Guess what? You are not alone. There are simple things for us to do to make our days count, and finally live up to the idea, “Carpe Diem”.

1. Exercise

There’s no excuse on this when you find yourself sitting on your desk and just fidgeting. There’s not even an acceptable excuse when you’re on your 30s and you still don’t invest in your health. Get up, do some minute push-ups, burpees, wall-sit, and/or sit ups. There is even a seven-minute workout app you may download to psyche you up when the day seems a drag. Health is wealth, darling.

2. Come up with 10 new ideas every day.

A new art project, a blog concept, a new write-up you may want to publish. ANYTHING. There’s nothing wrong with your ideas. What’s wrong is when minds get idle, and you think of being negative and unproductive. At most ten (or at least) things for each day will not only get you excited about these ideas but also make your brain function the moment you say hello to another great day.

3. Read the news.

Ignorance is bad. The way you perceive news depends on how you want your day to end either. Majority of the headlines speaks of negativity, but who cares? At least the essence of news is to be aware, to be notified, to be informed. Go grab that newspaper from your mailman and stay up-to-date!

4. Write.

There are ideas that will just spring from any given moment of our lives that not writing it down will make us forget it. It’s true. When you go to the mall, and you happen to stay in a café, or dine in a restaurant, grab a pen and paper and write about the things you notice – the water stain on the utensils, or even to the interiors of the place. Your waiting time will be fun.

5. Play the devil’s advocate.

There are couple of ideas we see and hear in the Internet, in between coffee breaks, or during seminars. Play the devil’s advocate and criticize. I mean an intellectual, sensible, and logical criticism here. Through this you get to understand fully the situation, and you get to converse with the most intelligent minds in the room. You won’t regret it.

6. Have a Word-of-the-Day

Technology has simplified the way we do things, right? Why not have a daily vocabulary app and improve your diction? How does ‘obsequious’ appeal to you?

7. Make two (2) lists. One is “Work-related Skills I Want To Have” and the other, “Things I Want To Achieve in the Future”

These two lists will make you want to see a bigger picture of yourself and how you want to make the most out of your life. There’s nothing wrong in dreaming big. The thing here is you get to know what you want. How about start with a beginner’s course in using Adobe software?

8. Make an “I DID” List.

To be happy, productive and successful means recognizing your efforts and being grateful for the day that has passed. Making an “I did” list ensures that no matter how the day ended up, you still get to see the positive side of it through the things you have achieved and accomplished.

9. Read a chapter of a (1) fiction, and (2) non-fiction.

This does not only make you human, but reading in general adds up to your being. (It also makes you oh-so-smart.)

10. Enjoy the Art of Doing Nothing

This may seem contradictory but it is not. Setting up some time to do nothing just leaves you a breather from all the things that you are used to do. Just be in bed, listen to music, and enjoy the rest of the day.