Do you ever look on Instagram or YouTube and see influencers’ morning routines where they wake up at 5:00 AM and have the perfect day? I’m telling you now, you don’t need to wake up at the crack of dawn to be productive.
Productivity looks different for everyone. The media has ingrained in us that you need to wake up super early in order to have a “good day.” I’m here to tell you that you can sleep in and still have a productive day!
Productivity Looks Different for Everyone
Before COVID, I was living at school, waking up at 7:00 AM, journaling every morning, and had a to-do list that looked like a scroll. I thought that I was the epitome of productivity. Sure, that can be productive for some people. But honestly, that’s just not realistic for most people, or even for myself anymore.
Most days now, I wake up around 9:00 AM, try and do yoga, and have a to-do list that is quite short. My schedule is pretty different than it used to be, but guess what…I’m still productive.
When we see people post their morning routines that start at the crack of dawn, it can lead to the comparison game.
I’ve been there. I have watched countless morning routine videos where everyone wakes up early, works out, journals for an hour, and so on. When we see videos like that and we’re just not there, it can lead to a lot of self-doubt and sabotage.
Let’s think about this too, how real do you think those morning routines are? Do you really think that all of these influencers’ wake up EVERY morning at 5:00 AM and journal for an hour EVERY day? Definitely not.
Instead of seeing the best 15 or 20 minutes of someone’s day that they choose to put out there and thinking that they are perfect, let’s be realistic. No one is perfect. No one is productive every single day.
Find What Works for You
If you are just not a morning person, then having a 5:00 AM morning routine in order to be “productive” is not realistic for you. Some people are way more productive at night or in the afternoon, and that’s okay.
Who said that you can’t be productive at night? I’ve gotten a lot done in the past 6 months of my life, and I was waking up around 10:30 AM. I shifted my work from the morning to night. There’s no rule to this! Find what works for you.
Experiment and take note of what time of day you feel most productive. Maybe it is first thing in the morning. It could also be in the middle of the afternoon, or at night. There is no right or wrong to this.
Some Ways to be Productive
I already have blog posts with my Top 10 Tips for Productivity and 10 Tips to Keep a Clean and Organized Space. Instead of giving concrete tips as I do in those, I want these tips to be a little more abstract. Take what applies to you and interpret it how you will.
1. Reflect on your “why”
I’ve touched on this in previous posts, but it is so important to have a “why” when it comes to productivity.
When you have a reason as to why you want to be productive and get stuff done, it makes you much more likely to accomplish your goals. My “why” is because I want to finish college with straight A’s and build this community up.
If your “why” is because it’s what you see other people doing, that’s not going to work. Your “why” needs to come from within and from what you want to do, not what you see an influencer doing on Youtube.
2. Use SMART goals
I feel like most of us have heard of SMART goals (I’ll link a post with a full explanation, here). In short, SMART stands for Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
When you’re setting goals or tasks that you want to be productive around, you need to be SMART. For example, instead of saying that you want to start waking up earlier, here’s something you could say instead:
“I’m going to wake up at 8:30 AM, Monday through Friday in order to get my homework done earlier so I can unwind at night.”
Again, if you’re not a morning person or don’t have a strong reason as to why you want to wake up earlier, maybe think of a different goal. Remember that they need to be relevant to you.
3. Journal for 1 week
I like to do this exercise when I want to reflect on something in my life. If you’re trying to decide what time of day you feel most productive, what your why is, etc… try journaling for just 1 week.
It’s only 1 week, so even if journaling isn’t your thing, I promise that you can do this. Over the next week, I want you to observe yourself. Observe what time of day you feel tired, what time you feel energized, when you want to work out, etc…
A week is a great time frame to gauge these types of things without taking too much time. After that week, look back at your journal and see if there are any patterns or trends. Take those patterns and utilize them. If you consistently felt energized at 7:00 PM, then maybe that’s the time you should be getting your most important tasks done.
4. Unfollow or mute
If there are any social media accounts that make you feel less than because you’re not doing what they’re doing…girl bye. You DO NOT need that in your life.
Go through your Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, etc. If there is anyone who makes you feel bad about yourself, unfollow them. You can also just mute them and restrict seeing their posts if you don’t want to unfollow.
If anyone makes you feel bad for what you’re not doing, there’s no reason to be bringing that energy into your life.
5. Take breaks
You can’t be productive unless you take breaks. I’ve used the car analogy before, but imagine trying to drive a car from California to Texas with no breaks. Your car would run out of gas, and you definitely wouldn’t make it to Texas.
Same thing with our bodies and mind. If you want to get more productive with your days, you also need to carve out times for breaks. These can be 5 minutes a day, or they may be a week long. It’s going to look different for everyone, which is kind of the trend of this post.
Find what works for you. You can even use the 1-week journaling exercise to see what times you feel fatigued and when you need a break.
I hope that this has helped you realize that you don’t need to wake up at 5:00 AM to be productive. We’re all on our own journey and have our own path.
xoxo
