How to Stay Productive and Positive During Stressful Times

Whether you're working from home, attending classes online, or just trying to manage a Spring full of unexpected free time - there's a good chance that right now, you're trying to adjust to at-home productivity, and that can DEFINITELY be a transition. 😳

While we should all take the time we need to rest, relax, laugh and re-set as needed, tackling that to-do list, buckling down, and crushing our goals can help us feel just a lil bit grounded and in control of our corners of the world. ✨✌️

Let's find ways to keep ourselves positive and productive, pandemic or not! Do you think any of these tips will help your days flow better?!?

1. Find daily rhythms that work for you. ⏰👍

It can definitely be tempting to lay in bed ALL day and eat meals whenever you feel hungry (let's be real, does it really feel like specific days and hours are even a THING anymore?!!?). However, if you want to maintain some semblance of normalcy and get your way through your to-do list, it's probably a good idea to get back to a regular schedule. 

Find a happy medium between a completely rigid schedule and doing-nothing-all-day by finding comfort in regular rhythms and routines.  Wake up, brush your teeth, read a chapter of a book while you eat breakfast, and then dive into work. Take regular breaks, enjoy being close to your own refrigerator and being able to work from your couch... and then get back to it! Repeat as needed!!! 👏

2. Connect with people outside of your home every day.

With the guidance from our governments to stay home and flatten the curve, each of our social circles shrank big time. 🥺 Feeling isolated is neither fun nor good for us - and definitely doesn't make us feel like getting work done. Make a habit of reaching out to your people every day, just as you would if we weren't all sheltering in place.

Think about it: we're living through a very weird situation, but...we're all living through the SAME weird situation. That means everybody can empathize with the strange balance we're all trying to strike between regular productivity and pandemic-induced anxiety. EVERYONE. 🌎 🤯

Create an accountability group with your friends, make a coffee-room-chat with your coworkers, and call your family at night to ask how they've been spending their time. This will be a SUPER healthy outlet for everyone...because we're ALL feeling ALL the feels!! Being there for your people is always productive (and it'll help you be in a good headspace to get stuff done, as well!!). 

3. Find fun reasons to be productive.

If you're not used to working or studying from home, it can definitely be hard to get used to the concept of required home-work or set hours during which you need to be available... in a place you usually associate with relaxation. This can be frustrating, confusing, and stressful!!! 😢

To balance out this, pepper your to-do list with fun, life-giving 'assignments' as well as work-related projects. 

Need any inspiration? Arrange all your books by color, sort through your bath products and toiletries, learn to make PERFECTLY fluffy pancakes, video-chat with a friend to catch up, do your nails, get a quick stretch in, paint a mural - the limit does not exist!!! 🌈🥞🧘‍♀️

4. Join a community-sourced challenge. 

The world is in a TRULY unique, unprecedented situation right now...which means that none of us really know what we're doing. 🤷‍♀️ But (flip side!) guess what that means? We're all just figuring this out together! 

All over the world, people are finding creative ways to staying active, healthy, and happy while sheltering in place!  Do a self-isolation glow-up routine, quarantine workouts, join global spring-cleaning and organizing initiatives and reward yourself with movie marathons! 🏃‍♀️📺

Doing these challenges and programs will help string the days together, keep you focused on the future, and give you little pockets of satisfaction and success... just enough to get your adrenaline going so you want to get more done!! 

5. Get dressed in the morning. Do your hair. Put on makeup if it makes you happy. 💅

If your goals permit it, definitely take advantage of the low-key informality that working or studying from home gives you! It's time for your favorite leggings and tees and activewear to shine. 💫 Remember, though, that what you wear contributes to your mindset for the day. Putting on clothing that's clean and cute as well as comfortable will help prime you to think of each new day as a new opportunity to get stuff done!!!

Think of it as an investment not only in your productivity but your self-care. BONUS: take the time to play around with your wardrobe and your makeup. You may find that dressing just for yourself helps you find a look that feels more genuinely YOU! 💛

Remember: with each day, you get a fresh, new opportunity to care for yourself and for those around you - whether that's by working through projects, reaching out to your community, or simply relaxing.  

You don't need to use this time to write the next great novel or clean your entire home! Don't feel pressured to be productive all the time, we ARE in a pandemic, after all. Getting rest and relaxation and remaining as low-stress as possible is part of our national job right now. Find what feels good and remember to stay SAFE while you get your work done!!! 🙌