It is hard to stay consistent with productivity over long periods of time. You can be productive for a couple of weeks or months, and end up burning out. It is inevitable. For individuals striving to be as highly productive as possible every single day of the year...destiny usually sits around the corner of a burned coal factory. What happens when we burn out? We lose that drive that kept us on track consistently. How can we avoid it, or atleast postpone it as much as possible? Being burned out obligates us to re-evaluate the quality of our routine. Are we really being productive if we are maintaining a routine that leads to burning out frequently? The answer is no.

I've often found that a routine that burns me out, doesn't involve activities I'm genuinely interested in. I'd usually stay on track for a small number of weeks. Then would need to take big gasps of air. I'd begin to lose purpose and disconnect too much from the present. In other words, I'd try too hard. I still do, but I have managed to try not as hard, to start trying smarter. Now, I partially burn out every couple of months. "Partially" being needing to vary my routine by implementing new things and spicing things up every once in a while.

The following habits that I'll recommend are small, relatively easy to implement and have made an impact in my own life. Their value for me has grown ever since I implemented them. They are habits that have kept me rolling in my journey towards my goals, let that be financially, emotionally, socially, you name it.

  1. Sleep early, wake up early: This is probably the hardest habit of them all. Imagine it's 5 a.m. Alarm goes off. You open your eyes barely enough to see a shed of light that your phone emits. Doubts kick in. The comfortness of staying in your bed becomes your best desire. Now, imagine trying to convince yourself that your bed isn't so comfortable as it seems. Yes, no way that's true. However, if you decide to make the difficult choice of starting your day early, you'll appreciate that you got a clean head start to sneak in extra hours of work. Those extra hours of work, in the long-run, make – the – difference. The other side of the coin relies on going to bed early. The time that you go to bed, will make the early a.m version of yourself struggle less with the tempting request from your pillow telling you to stay. Get those 6-8 hours of sleep in by defining your own early a.m. time and your early p.m. time.
  2. Utilize your Sundays to plan the week ahead: Planning my week ahead is essential to make the week lighter in terms of defining my must-do tasks and distributing workload for my daily routines. Take a couple of hours to envision the next 7 days, do it with realistic expectations, don't try too hard. Furthermore, not only should you envision your must-do activities, but also envision how much time you want to spend with your loved ones, friends or hobbies. Find a healthy balance and prioritize producing the most from Monday through Friday.
  3. Read something every day: Reading develops our critical, logical and creative thinking. The important part about this habit, is to start from less to more. Commence by reading 3-5 pages a day of an interesting book, read one quick blog article about habits online, read one academic article about 'x' topic that shows interesting research, anything. Over time, gradually increase your reading load. This will inevitably expand your vocabulary and knowledge, making you more literate. You'll become more of a critical thinker. I believe nowadays that is lacking in our society. Only benefits come with being a frequent reader.
  4. Write something every day: Writing isn't only about expressing ideas out there for readers. Writing can become a bridge of internal communication where thoughts, emotions and intentions connect. Inevitably, writing becomes an action where authors talk with themselves. Start by journaling 2-3 thoughts that you have every morning about your life, let that be a memory, a present moment, a future goal, a person that you love or miss. Writing will become this habit of learning to be a better communicator with yourself. Like reading, start from less to more and let it be natural.
  5. Move: Just move. Go to the gym. Mobilize. Stretch. Do yoga. Do pilates. Go for a run, for a walk. Whatever it is that suits you, pick one and stick with it. Move. Be active. Stimulate your body for the greater good. Being sedentary eats your mind and body. Inevitably eats your soul as well. Move.

I believe these habits can provide value to someone that needs to kickstart productiveness in their routine. I would advise to start with just one, and start to nail down the rest as time goes by. The key to having a solid routine is about consistency, hence the importance of starting with less, and progressively overload with more over time.

Hope this blog helps, stay tuned for more!

-Aritz.