It is a Tuesday afternoon and you have found yourself in a position that is strange to you; you have nothing to do, you are off from work and you just got done with your last class for the day! You find yourself sitting on the couch wrapped up in the warmest blanket you could find. You’re flipping through Netflix with an overflowing feeling that something needs to be done, yet you can’t think of anything that’s going to allow you to remain at home. And, you don’t want to give up one of the only chill days that you have this month.
At this time, you should light your favorite candle, find the fluffiest socks you own, turn on one amazing show on Netflix and make yourself a huge cup of steaming coffee.
Once you are all comfy and your home is the coziest place on the face of the planet, it is time to organize something. Everyone has a junk drawer, or if you are like me, you have nine. This is the time when you take the drawer, dump it on the floor and start organizing it. Your off days should not mean that you are unproductive; no one ever feels good after spending a day on the couch in the dark. So, take this as a day to clean off all of your flat surfaces and drawers. Not only is this going give you an accomplished feeling, you will also have a clean home and the area around you will feel fresh and generally more open and nice to spend time in.
Schedule out your upcoming week! This is truthfully one of my favorite things to do on days when I have a little extra down time. I always scroll through Netflix for a few minutes, find a good movie to watch, surround myself in colored pens, highlighters and sticky notes. Then, I just go crazy. The way I plan out a week is I have two small notebooks that I carry around with me; one of them is an agenda made by Day Designer and the other is a basic small notebook that has lined paper. I take the planner and use the first few minutes to write everything down that is surrounded by time, so I put down my work shifts and my class schedule. In the other notebook, I include every other part of my life such as workouts I plan on doing, days I want to go to the gym, a weekly to do list and my budget.
Write down your weekly goals. You are growing and changing all the time, so allow your goals to change with you! When you write your goals down you are making yourself aware of the things that you want to accomplish. It also keeps it on your mind and allows you to be more likely to complete it. My weekly goals for this week are to work out five times, only eat fast food one day and to write something each day. It can be a blog post, a journal entry or part of a short story.
When you feel yourself falling into a slump or you find yourself with a little extra time, plan to do something that is going to better you as a whole instead of just slumping it for the reminder of the day. Many people find that when they stop being productive it is harder for them to find motivation to start again.
