Emergency! You’ve fallen off the productivity wagon. You’re tired, you’re feeling down, you’re procrastinating, you might even be a little hungover, and you feel like chucking that to-do list in the bin. We’ve all been there, and more often than not when you’ve lost your momentum it’s doubly hard to get it back again. That’s why I’ve created this guide for just such emergencies. It covers five suggestions that I personally use. The key focus is to get that momentum back and get the wagon rolling again and that’s what the following will help you to do.
- Do something, anything!
This may go against a lot of what I talk about here – focusing on the right things and not doing stuff for the sake of it – but the one advantage of just doing anything is that it’s a quick and cheap way of getting some momentum behind you. Sometimes when you just can’t be bothered, doing a bunch of small and irrelevant but easy tasks like organizing the contents of a drawer or de-cluttering your book collection can give you the forward motion you need to focus on those bigger obstacles. - Get a good nights sleep
It’s a simple one this. If you’re tired, hungover or generally overwhelmed with everything, make sure you get a good night’s sleep. It’s hard to regain your productivity if you can’t think clearly or have a banging headache. You may be surprised how much your productivity is tied up with your energy levels. The best way to get recharged is to get sleep! - Clear the decks
I hate loose ends. They are a distraction and a major drain on your resources. Often, I’ll ignore them or let them slip under the radar because, all they really are is annoying, finicky little chores. However, when you’ve fallen off the wagon those loose ends create the muddy ground which makes getting moving again twice as hard. A little time spent clearing the decks now – moving your paperwork into folders or tidying up your home – will make things much easier when you finally get back on track. - Have a major mind sweep
If the metaphorical muddy puddles of having loose ends lying around everywhere isn’t bad enough, than the weeds and vines of uncaptured thoughts swirling around your head is likely to keep you rooted to the spot. Print out a trigger list, take a seat and start capturing all those thoughts, things to do and creative ideas that are swirling around inside your brain. Better out than in as they say. - Start ASAP
Fallen off the wagon? Get back on now. Don’t put it off. Don’t look for a fresh start with a new week, day, month or anything like that, you will just drive yourself mad waiting around to take action. Even if it just involves doing one of the tips in this post, don’t wait to regain that sense of purpose. Waiting for the idea time to pick yourself up again or waiting to achieve that spark of productive magic means you’ll be waiting around for a long time. It’s like playing a game of football. If you get tackled and loose the ball, you get back up again and keep playing – you don’t wait till the next match to start playing again.
November 9, 2009 at 01:46PM
Very helpful post. Couldn’t agree more with your suggestions. Doing something, anything and clearing the decks are life savers for me, when my productivity screeches to a halt. The mind sweep is something I’d like to do but I can’t seem to get such complete lists of ideas out without it descending into total chaos.
November 9, 2009 at 02:31PM
Thanks James for such an interesting and useful article. Sometimes if we’re tired, or the workload has been a bit much, it’s easy to fall off the bandwagon. I’ll be printing this out to keep in mind for the next time things aren’t going quite as planned. Start ASAP is great advice to keep procrastination out of the picture. Thanks so much!
November 9, 2009 at 05:21PM
Relaxing and getting a good night’s sleep is definitely one that is important. People are living on less sleep nowadays and no wonder they end up with so stressed and unwell.
November 9, 2009 at 05:36PM
Hey James.
I like this. This post is a good guide for when trouble arises. Doing something gets the ball rolling, instead of having it sit and stagnate like a river that stops flowing.
Getting a good night’s sleep is another big one, or else the next day can turn out pretty unfruitful. It takes planning the night before to actually have a good day the next day. It doesn’t just occur randomly.
Doing a mind sweep or writing your thoughts down is something we usually leave out thinking that it won’t help much, or that it is just a procrastination tactic, but we quickly find out a lot of things about what is on our mind, and then can pick one or two to target.
The wagon is easily jumped back on for those that give it a go.
November 10, 2009 at 03:28PM
Glad you all found this post useful, I enjoyed writing it (especially like searching for the right image to accompany it).
Whenever I come back from a holiday or a from having a few free days, my productivity tends to slump. That all important momentum is gone and it can be particularly difficult to get it back. I have the twin hurdles of wanting to do something constructive (work on this blog, write my book, etc.) with having to do a fresh start. The tips in this post are very much what I use to kickstart things again.
November 13, 2009 at 09:14PM
Just doing anything, like you noted, is one of the easiest ways to get going again. The longer you spend thinking and not acting, the longer you end up suffering and being unproductive.
November 15, 2009 at 03:06AM
Those are great suggestions. Cleaning the house is wonderfully therapeutic. It gives you both a sense of accomplishment, and calm.
What I find many times with my students is that they want to get everything done all in one day, and if they can’t… it doesn’t happen.
All or nothing thinking is a big productivity killer. Get yourself back into your routine and tackle one extra little thing every day without fail and before you know it you’ll be back on track. Everyday, things will look a little better, and you’ll be a little more motivated.
Consider it falling back on the wagon.