Don’t Let The Lazy Weather Make You Lazy

It’s been a lazy, hazy summer week here in Philadelphia. I don’t know about you, but these days are an absolute drain on my productivity … I go from daydreaming about being outside on a sunny, albeit very hot, day (not productive!) to daydreaming about doing nothing because it’s too hot to even think (not productive!). Neither one of those scenarios lead to important things being checked off of the to-do list (not good!).

Time to shake things up and get back to being productive, even as Mother Nature is tempting us with beaming rays of sunshine. Here are three things to try to kick-start your productivity!

Make a List

Tried and true. Take the list that is in your head and write it down on a piece of paper. There is nothing more satisfying than putting a giant check mark next to a completed task!

Stay Focused

Easier said than done, we know. The whole problem is that the lazy days of summer are stealing our focus! Well, it’s time to steal it back.

We wish we had the magic solution to how to maintain focus, but the real answer is that it’s different for everyone.

One thing that is working well here is to actually schedule mini-daydream breaks to think about all of the wonderful things we could be doing if only work wasn’t getting in the way. Try it – schedule a few 5 minute breaks in the day to just sit and daydream. You’ll get your fix of daydreaming, and it won’t kill your productivity too much.

Block Scheduling

When in a rut, it’s a great time to try something new. One of the things that saps our productivity is back and forth all day of a one hour meeting, then one hour of work time, then one hour meeting … you get the idea!

To shake things up a bit, try scheduling all of your meetings back-to-back, and then leaving large chunks of time to get work done. Knowing that, if you get all of your work done in less time than you’ve scheduled, you may be able to sneak in some summer fun may be the just the productivity boost you need!