Ever feel like your dreams are never going to become a reality?

It’s not like you’ve completely given up on your dreams. You occasionally think about how awesome it would be if you achieved them, but there are so many other things in the way.

Your job. Your boss. Your kids. Your parents. Your finances. Your mortgage.

All of these problems… I mean, responsibilities.

So you’re afraid of taking the leap of faith.

Afraid of what people will think if you quit your job.

Afraid of going bankrupt.

Afraid of falling behind in the rat race.

Afraid of not being able to provide for your family.

Afraid of not living up to the expectations of others.

Afraid of not living up to your own expectations.

Afraid of failing.

No one wants to be irresponsible, and everyone feels afraid sometimes. But does that mean it’s impossible to realize your dreams?

Of course not. The Michael Jordans, Steve Jobs’, Oprah Winfreys and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world show us that dreams can come true.

“But those people are so much more talented, so much more charismatic, so much luckier than me… I could never be like them,” you might be thinking.

It’s true—you might never be like them. Your dream might not be as big or impressive as theirs.

Your dream might just be to own a house. It might be to start a flower shop. It might be to write a novel. It might be to send your kids to college.

It’s not the size of your dream that matters. It’s the pursuit of your dream that turns your life into a thrilling adventure, an exhilarating story. That’s what really matters.

In this post, I’m not going to tell you about the huge changes you need to make in your life in order to achieve your dreams.

Instead, I’m going to share with you what you ought to stop doing. These are things we all do on occasion—things that quietly sabotage our dreams, sap our energy, and make us less alive.

Don’t do these things:

1. Say “I wish” or “I hope”: Whenever you do this, you put yourself in a mindset where the situation is beyond your control. What you can do as an alternative is turn your wishes and hopes into goals. For example, don’t say, “I wish my boss would give me flexible working hours.” Instead, set a goal that you’re going to have a conversation with your boss within the next three days about establishing flexible working hours. When you set goals, you choose to focus on what you can do to improve your circumstances, which is very empowering.
2. Complain: This is a favorite pastime for many people. There are always things to complain about: the weather, the economy, the healthcare system, the guy who sat next to you on the bus and hummed a really annoying song… but when you complain, you’re not making your circumstances any better. Instead of complaining, think about the many things you have to be grateful for. I recommend wearing a rubber band around your wrist. Whenever you’re about to complain, snap the rubber band as a reminder not to.
3. Blame others: If you want to achieve your dreams, you’re going to need to take full responsibility for your life. That means no blaming your parents, friends, relatives or bad luck for where you are in life. Recognize that some things are beyond your control, but take responsibility for the way every situation turns out.
4. Think of reasons why you shouldn’t take action: There will always be plenty of them. Think of all the positive things that might happen if you take action today.
5. Settle: Settling for second best is a sure way to prevent yourself from reaching your dreams. This applies to your relationships, finances, career and physical health. Decide that you’re going to create a masterpiece out of your life. Don’t give in to the allure of a comfortable but mediocre existence.
6. Procrastinate: You can probably think of at least one thing you can do immediately that will bring you closer to your dream. There’s never a perfect time to take action, so do what you can right now.
7. Hang out with toxic people: It’s been said that you’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. Hang out with negative, critical and judgmental people, and you’ll become just like them in no time. Those aren’t traits you associate with people who make their dreams come true.
8. Say “I should”: When you say you “should” learn a new language, start writing a book, or go for a public speaking course, it’s unlikely that you’ll actually do it. Say, “I choose to” instead. This makes you realize that everything in life is a choice. You really do have the power to choose, and to turn your dreams into reality.
9. Compare yourself to others: There will always be people out there who are better looking, smarter and more capable than you. But you’re not trying to achieve their dreams; you’re trying to achieve yours. Think about the characteristics that make you special and unique, and about how you can use them to accomplish your dream.
10. Watch so much TV: The same applies for going on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you’re not careful, these can become major time sucks. Most surveys show that the average American watches more than four hours of TV a day. I hope that statistic scares you. Imagine how much you closer you could get toward achieving your dream if you spent those four hours every day doing something more fruitful. I’m not suggesting that you go cold turkey, but set a daily limit for yourself and use a timer to make sure you stick to that limit.
11. Say “I don’t have time”: Do you make time to watch your favorite TV show? Do you make time to update your Facebook status? Do you make time to eat? We all make time for the things that are important to us. If you find yourself saying you “don’t have time” to do something you know you ought to, you need to reorder your priorities.
12. Say “yes” to everyone: Many people find it impossible to say “no” to requests and opportunities, even ones that aren’t in line with their values and goals. If you say “yes” to everyone, you’re effectively settling for good, when what you really want is great. The path of greatness is the path of intentional abandonment of everything good, in pursuit of only the best. Think carefully before agreeing to any request.
13. Try to be perfect: I’m not perfect, and neither are you. Accept yourself fully—achievements, strengths, weaknesses, failures, flaws and all. You don’t have to be perfect to realize your dreams, but you do need to be committed to personal growth. You can only begin that journey when you accept yourself completely for who you are
14. Try to please everyone: Like the saying goes, “You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Your dreams are personal. You’re not pursuing them to garner applause from the people around you or from society. Don’t make the mistake of trying to make everyone happy, because that’s impossible. So don’t even try.
15. Deprive yourself of sleep: When you don’t feel your best, you’re more likely to make impulsive decisions that aren’t in your long-term interests. If you want to achieve your dreams, you’ll definitely have to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain. If you’re sleep-deprived, you probably won’t have the willpower to make the right decision.

I haven’t achieved all of my dreams. Far from it, in fact.

I do know, however, that pursuing your dreams isn’t easy. Somewhere along the way, you’ll want to quit. You’ll want to run away. You’ll want to go back to your comfortable, familiar, boring life.

But I beg you not to. The world needs adventurers who are fully alive. Most people are barely surviving, barely making it through each day. Don’t be one of them.

Dream big. Start small. Act now—right now.

Many times in our daily lives, we face situations, where we should say “no” to a request. However, we find it to be a very difficult thing to do.

We are afraid to think what others are saying if we decline. We might also think that saying “no” will hurt our relationship with that other person – permanently.

In most of the cases, those fears are unnecessary. They are just our imagination and in reality, nothing scary will happen, if we turn a request down.

Why you should decline from a request

There are many reasons why you should decline to do something, if you are being asked to.

• Increased productivity
Saying “no” will increase your productivity, because you are not accepting any new work that would possibly distract you. Also, you are able to focus to your current tasks better, which ensures that they get done.

• Keep the deadlines
You are much more likely to keep your deadlines if you say “no”.

For example, if you are about to deliver some work to a client, you want to keep the agreed deadlines. Saying “yes” to an external request might potentially increase your workload so much, that you don’t have enough capability of handling all the work in time.

• You are in control of your life
If you have difficulties of saying “no”, then in the worst case others may take advantage of your kindness.

However, if you decide to say “no”, you are in control your life – not others. You decide what task to accept, what meetings to attend or what activities to participate on your free-time.

• You are true to your core values
We all have core values that we live our life by. For example, honesty is one of those values that is very important for me. That’s why I would find difficult to commit to an activity, which requires me to lie.

Your inner voice will most likely advice you to say “no”, whenever your values are going to be violated.

• Less stress
Closely related to productivity, saying “no” is also one way of decreasing your stress levels. When you are not overloaded with work and tight schedules, you have much less stress to handle.

That in turn affects positively to your well-being and happiness.

The right way to decline

Now that you learned about the benefits of saying “no”, you should also understand the different ways of saying “no” the right way.

These are the ways I have used myself. Although I’m not saying that declining becomes effortless by applying these tips, it still becomes easier.

1. Evaluate the situation
When someone comes to you and asks you to do something, you have to evaluate the situation first.

Obviously, if the situation is critical and the other person is depending on your help (for example in a traffic accident), then it is natural to answer “yes”.

However, in normal, everyday situations the request is most likely much less severe (your colleague asks you to come for a drink after work), so you have both the options “yes” and “no” at your disposal.

Also, you most likely have more time to come up with a justification why you are going to say “no”.

2. Be discreet, but firm
I tend to start my “no” answer in the form of “Unfortunately I’m unable to …” and then follow with the justification, why I’m not able to fulfill the request.

The main point here is to say “no” in a polite, but firm manner. Some people are very rude in their replies when they decline and that kind of behavior leaves me cold every time.

Although in those cases the message (denial) comes very clear, I still prefer the softer and more polite way of saying things.

3. Say your opinion clearly enough
Truly mean what you say. Your answer should be a definite “no”, not a “maybe”. Don’t leave other people wondering what you mean by your answer.

Say your answer in a clear and loud enough manner, so that the other person understands your point at once.

4. Be honest
When you say “no”, be honest with your reasonings. Don’t make up reasons why you are not willing to fulfill the request. When you are caught lying, it is embarrassing to yourself.

Also, if the other person happens to be your colleague or friend that you lied to, it will have negative consequences to your relationships.

5. Be selfish
This last point is perhaps the most important one when it comes to saying “no”. The thing is that

if the other person has a right to present you a request, you have the equal right to say “no” as an answer.

Also, you should also reflect your own situation to that request before you answer; Are you willing to fully commit to it, does it fit to your schedules and are you capable of handling the request in the first place.

Conclusion

I try to keep these tips and techniques as my guidelines when I evaluate a request – and when I decide to say “no”.

It is understandable, that saying “no” is not the easiest thing to do at times. But at the same time, if you are polite and honest, it is much easier this way.

However, this doesn’t mean that I’m saying “no” all the time. In fact, sometimes you have to say “yes” as an answer. This depends of course from the situation you are in.

By carefully evaluating the situation first before answering, is the right way to move on in that that scenario.

In this hectic pace of the world, you can easily over extend yourself and get pulled all over the place by different things and people. It is only a matter of time before you get overwhelmed and stressful. When you are overwhelmed, it is hard to focus yourself on getting the essential tasks done. Being in front of the computer is one of the most distracting places to be. Think about the time you spent on Twitter, Facebook and your email inbox. Most of us work in front of our computer for long hours, therefore it is important to learn how to focus and stay in control instead of allowing distractions and interruptions to take control.

1) Sit Down In Front Of Your Computer With A Purpose

Most people do not have a purpose in mind when they are in front of the computer. This can easily lead to mindless surfing and time wastage. You have to be clear about what you want to accomplish when you are going to work with your computer.

If you have to work with your computer, get to know your purpose first. What do you want to accomplish in an hour? What are the sites that you need to visit that are relevant to your purpose? Once you got that in mind, write it down on a piece of paper. Visit only the sites that are relevant to your work. This will help you to be more productive and decrease the probability of you straying into time waster sites like Facebook and Twitter.

2) Open Only Relevant Tabs In Your Browser

All the popular browsers can open up multiple tabs. It may be a convenient feature to have but it encourages multi tasking. Most of us open way too many tabs on our browser and multi-surf all the sites at one go.

Multi tasking can spread your focus too thin. Opening too many tabs at once will distract you from your work. You tend to stray and surf for stuffs that are not relevant to work. Open as little tabs as possible. Choose only to open tabs for essential sites that you need to help you complete your work. Keep working on disciplining yourself to only open tabs that are relevant to your work.

3) If You Lack Discipline, Try This

If you find yourself wasting too much time on time waster sites (Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon), try out this method. Firefox and Google Chrome allow us to use third party plugins. There are some wonderful productivity tools out there but one of the best tools you can use is LeechBlock for Firefox. If you are using Google Chrome, you can try out StayFocused .

These tools can help to block out time waster sites at any time of the day. When you spend less time on these sites, you have more time for your essential tasks.

4) Blast All Notifications Away. An Hour Of Isolation

Notification alert is an interruption and eliminating it helps a lot in imcreasing your productivity. Turn off notification alert from email, Twitter, Facebook and switch your cell phone to silent mode or turn it off. These are tigers waiting to pounce on you. Just when you start to focus to get things done, your phone rang and you can’t resist to pick it up and chat with your friend for an hour. You can avoid these interruptions easily by turning off your phone and notifications.

To prevent further interruptions, tell your colleagues to avoid interrupting you during the period when you are working. Create an hour of isolation. Put up a sign on your table to remind them that you are in your “hour of isolation”. One of the best ways is to put on your earpiece. Your earpiece is the best weapon against interruptions. There is a less tendency that someone will interrupt you when you have your earpiece on.

5) Parkinson’s Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

You need to create time blocks for your tasks. We tend to complete our work with all the available time we have. This means that a shorter deadline will help us to complete our project much faster. A project that can be completed in a week may end up taking a month to complete instead when there is a longer deadline.

This is inefficient and a waste of time. To be productive, you need to have a deadline (a suitable one of course) for all your tasks. If you think that you need around a month to complete your project, set the deadline a little nearer. This will help to stretch yourself and create the sense of urgency to get things done faster.

How About You?

What are your methods for increasing your productivity while you are working with your computer? Do share with us some ideas in the comment section.

My productivity has increased dramatically since last year and I have a good writing schedule, a good social media schedule, and a good networking schedule (still tweaking this).  Someone who has helped me with this is Dragos Roua who has a knack for all things related to natural productivity.

Four Books in Three  Months

Dragos and I had a little competition last year, which saw us writing 4 books in the space of a few months, Dragos finished first (swine that he is ).

It was last year I first read about his productivity framework Assess-Decide-Do, which sounds a bit simplistic, but like all things, it’s the simple solution that usually wins out.

Assess-Decide-Do

In this framework Dragos sets out a 3 step plan for helping us get on top of the things we want to achieve in life by Assessing, deciding and doing, which is his Life Management Framework.  This framework applies to everything we do in life from getting up in the morning to designing websites.

I had the good fortune to read his Life Management Framework and have to say that whilst it’s a simple solution to help with all the decisions and choices we make in life, it is extremely powerful.

The Sections of the guide

This guide is split up into three main parts:

The theoretical part of the framework

The practical part of the framework

The iAdd for the iPhone and iPad

The theoretical

The main crux of the framework is to be able to hang all your decisions about anything in life on three working principles:

1. Assess: your current situation, your options, your goals
2. Decide: establish if you’re doing or not what you assessed, chose an option, chose a path
3. Do: walk your path, enjoy it, be there, be in the moment, in the present, in the now and here

I love how Dragos has laid out each section in this guide and I have to say the most powerful part, for me, is the ‘decide’ part of this.

I am of the strong belief that life begins and ends with a decision, if we can’t decide what to do in life we will stagnate.  However the beauty in the guide is that it gives you the steps before and after the decision, which makes the decision and after effects of the decision so much easier.

There’s two other aspects that Dragos goes on to talk about in this framework and it’s about Focus and Flow. I found myself nodding my head as I was reading these sections and just saying to myself  ‘that’s great’ ‘perfect’ or ‘I never thought about it that way before’.

The guide also covers the imbalances of each part of the framework, which again I found myself nodding enthusiastically about – things like: Analysis Paralysis – Too much assessing.

I thought the theoretical side of the guide covered a lot of ground and gives a detailed description of a great framework in which to live our lives.

The practical

The practical side covers how we can apply the theory to our lives in general and again this was comprehensive and very enlightening.

Topics covered are: Asess-Decide-Do (ADD) for relationships, ADD for Personal Crisis Management (this was a great section), Add and Inbox Zero (this section made me rethink a lot of things about getting things done).

One of the best sections, for me, in the guide was when Dragos spoke about Deadlines:

Have you ever really thought what is the meaning of the word “deadline”? It has the word “death” in it. Never wondered why? Because a deadline is a line of death. Once you meet that line, you kill the task. You take its life away. You conquered it. You extended your presence onto its territory, occupied it and now you have the right to eliminate it from your system. That’s a highly motivating psychology. Also, it’s a very disempowering one.

This for me was a bit of a revelation.  Dragos goes on to speak about a great concept he terms as having ‘Livelines’ instead of deadlines.

The practical side of the guide has so much more in it including natural Productivity, sorry Dragos I am trying not give away too much but there’s so much good stuff  I don’t want to leave out.

The iAdd

If you’re an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad user this sections will be for you.

Dragos has created an app for the ADD framework (coded it himself as well, smart arse )

he gives a comprehensive overview on exactly how to use the iAdd app, but I am not going to review that here as, being honest, I was not interested in this section as I don’t own any of the above.  However my sons does and I bought the app for him and he thinks it’s a ‘great little app’.

In conclusion

There have been many life management tools out there and many I have read, but Dragos’ ADD framework is by far the easiest and most powerful one I have started incorporating into my life.

If you want to learn more about the ADD framework you can download the Assess-Decide-Do framework guide here (affiliate link)

If you decide to buy this guide I will make a commission, however I would never review a product if I thought it was not going to benefit you.

Here are the four stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence - The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has a desire to address it. In short, you don’t know what you don’t know.

2. Conscious incompetence - Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it. This is the stage where you know what you don’t know.

3. Conscious competence - The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration. You know how to do it, but you have to think your way through it.

4. Unconscious competence - The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes “second nature” and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). This is the stage where you can do it without thinking.  You just know what to do.

A good example of this is learning how to drive. When you first learn how to drive a manual stick shift, you very quickly learn that you don’t know how to do it (conscious incompetence).  As you practice you can start to think your way through it (the conscious competence stage).  As driving the stick shift becomes a habit for you, eventually you can drive without thinking, shifting gears effortlessly while you think about other things (unconscious competence.)

Another example I like is when I first learned how to type. My mom taught me from scratch and I remember practicing her method countless times. I built unconscious competence soon after and I could type pretty quick as a result. Today my skill to type quick really helps me a great deal and saves a lot of time.

Question: What skills have you learned where you applied the 4 stages of competence model?

We are all looking for ways of being more productive and cutting out time wasting activities in our lives.  There have been countless books written about it, countless blogs blogging about it, and countless gurus doing seminars on it.

Well, here is the one most powerful methods for being the most productive person you will ever be:

Work as if you are being audited,

and have to explain every single

minute of your day.

That’s it.  I can guarantee you that this technique alone will double your rate of productivity.

The technique works in two ways:

Notice time leakages

Working as if you have to account for all your time and explaining yourself will let you see exactly where you waste time.  When you know where you are wasting time you can cut the practice out.

Being mindful

When you work like this you are being what Buddhists call ‘mindful’.  You are focusing on the work you are doing and talking to yourself about it:

‘I am on the internet.  Why? I shouldn’t be on it I am being audited, I’ll get back to writing my notes up.’ All day long, you are constantly being mindful of what you are doing.  this is extremely powerful, as this is not a normal occurance.  Our mind wanders all over the place.  the technique above will stop it from wandering and help it to focus on what you deem important.

Of course you have to be disciplined to be mindful, but the more you practice the better you become.

The magazine is in PDF format but looks like a professional magazine and it’s obvious that Michael and his team has put in a lot of time and effort into producing this.  It’s not your normal PDF download.

As I said there are 17 articles on productivity and how you can get more done in your life and the list of blog authors is impressive.

• Alex Shalman Blog
• Black Belt Productivity
• Change your thoughts
• Cranking Widgets
• David Allen Company
• GTD Times
• LifeClever
• Marc and Angel Hack a Life
• Michael Sliwinski on Productivity
• Organize IT
• Positive Sharing
• Productivity 501
• Productivity in Context
• Put Things off
• Simply Get Things Done with Nozbe
• The Happiness Project
• Unclutterer
• Zen Habits

You can head over just now and check it out by clicking this link Productive Magazine by Michael Sliwinski

I had gotten into a rut, albeit a very nice rut, by being with my family all the time. When the chance to step out of my, now, comfort zone, came along I took it and it was a good feeling. We are not anti-social people we just want to spend most of our time together as a family as we know the boys will be grown up and will not want us hanging around them in a few years time.

A lot of us are stuck in a rut in a lot of areas of our lives, whether it be work, relationships, friendships, hobbies and our free time.

Here are 8 ways to get out of the rut.

1. The first step is to recognise you are in a rut. You will know this instinctively but maybe not been able to put a name to it. It’s that feeling you get when you think you just can’t be bothered doing the same thing that you’ve been doing for ages like going out drinking every weekend with friends, being stuck in the house yourself every night, doing the same old thing day in day out with your job. When you recognise this feeling, you can then do something about it.
2. Once you have recognised the feeling of being in a rut start to think about what you can do to mix things up a little. If you are used to going out drinking with friends every weekend suggest something else you can do together or go and do it yourself or with other friends. If your job is your rut , start thinking about what you want to do with your life. People are stuck in a rut as they don’t know what else to do and haven’t really thought about doing something different.
3. When you have thought about other things you can do in your life start thinking about ways of implementing them and incorporating them into your life. It may be just a case that you are stuck in a comfort zone and it can be scary breaking out of your comfort zone.
4. ‘Small moves Ellie, small moves’ (Contact, 1997), this is a quote from one of my favourite films and it is so true when trying to get out of a rut. Some people like to change their whole life and turn it upside down and that’s great if it works for you but the period of adjustment can be overwhelming. When you take it slowly and take ‘small moves’ to get out of a rut it is not so overwhelming and you can ease yourself gently out of your comfort zone.
5. If your job is your rut start taking action to change it. Think about what you REALLY want to do and start taking steps to getting there. See in your minds eye the outcome and how you will feel when you reach that outcome. Your imagination and your thoughts are key to change.
6. If your friends and your social life is your rut do something different from the norm. Sometimes we outgrow our friends and it’s okay to make new friends, give yourself permissions to do this. It might be hard for you and your old friends, but you have to recognise that you are growing both spiritually and mentally and it can be good to have new friends.
7. Changing your routine can also be a good way to start changing your life for the better. If you are used to getting up late every morning, rolling out of bed, going to work, going back home, lying on the couch and falling asleep to TV try changing this. Get up early, yes you have to force yourself, go for a walk and then relax until it’s time to go to work. This is a small change to a routine but it can have a major impact on your life. When you are up early and possibly walking you start to think about other things you can change, when you think about this you are more likely to act on your thoughts, when you act you will change.
8. If you are not used to being a sociable person start getting yourself out there. Even if you are quiet, you can practice the art of small talk and get out of your comfort -zone of being alone.

We have to realise that being in a rut is down to our thinking being in a rut, it’s not our lives it’s our thinking. When you recognise you are in a rut you will start to think of ways of doing something different. When you think of something different to do you will see in your imagination something new, when you can see it in your mind it is possible to do it, when it is possible to do it it’s time to get out and do it.

If you don’t take action, you will regret it, whatever it is you need to take action for. You are someone who is filled with the get up and go to change your life in so many fantastic ways if only you would get up and do something about it.

Here are 8 ways you can get up and take action:

Wipe the slate clean – If you have too many projects on the go, clear them all and start from scratch. When you have wiped the slate clean, concentrate on thing at a time until it’s finished and then move onto the next. If you can’t clear everything, just drop them temporarily, concentrate on one thing until it’s finished and then move on. You will find you move a lot quicker through everything you need to get done.

List everything – Make a list of everything you would like to do, whether it be cleaning the house to taking the dog a walk. Write it down.

Prioritise – Pick the most important thing you have to do for the day, or week or year, and then pick the next most important thing and so on until you have reached the bottom off your list.

Eliminate distraction – No I don’t mean kill your partner! Eliminate the things you do from day to day that distracts you from taking action for example TV, books, computer. When you eliminate distractions, your mind wants something to do and this makes you more inclined to take action on the things you want or need to do.

Take a day off – Maybe a bit contradictory this one. It’s a simple piece of advice but one that is hard to do. Just take a whole day off, the world will still turn, the work will get done and nobody will die because you are not there. You will come back refreshed and ready to take action again which means you will be a lot more productive than you would have been should you have kept going.

Clear the clutter – Clearing the clutter, whether it be from your desk, your house, or your wardrobe. When there is clutter in your life there is clutter in your mind, clearing the clutters clears your mind.

Analysis paralysis – This is the term given to people who are analysing things too much and it keeps them from moving on. Stop analysing and just do it. There comes a time when you have to stop evaluating something and just bite the bullet and do it, if it doesn’t work out do something else and start again.

Change the narrator of your thoughts – Do your thoughts predominantly sound like Elmer Fud on dope; ‘Yeah, I have to get up but I can’t be arsed, I’ll do it tomorrow’. Change Elmer Fud to someone who gets you going, someone who can motivate you into doing something. It can be anybody from your best mate to your wife or a film star, anybody as long as they can motivate you. This can be quite amusing and the results can be great.

10. Budget your work

Just as you would budget your money, budget your work. Decide what you need to get done versus what you want to get done. Split your work up into 3 categories:

* What I must do now
* What I must do later
* How much time will each of these tasks take?

It’s important through this routine to stay happy and not become a workaholic, because that defeats the purpose of personal growth through productivity. Be sure to budget your work and give yourself some downtime. However, don’t put down an important task while you’re still in the middle of it. Finish, and then relax.

9. Stay organized

Personally, I believe that organization and productivity go hand in hand. If you’re the type of person that keeps a clean desk and living area, then chances are you’re the type of person that gets things done efficiently and effectively.

8. Believe in yourself

This is important for anything you do. Remind yourself that you can accomplish something if you put your mind to it. This is usually easier to do if you’ve worked on a solid goal-setting routine so you have an idea of what you want to accomplish.

7. Set goals
As I just mentioned, an effective goal-setting routine is a great way to keep yourself in a good attitude about finishing things. Set little goals for yourself throughout your working routine, as well as bigger goals to work toward. This will make staying productive fun, easy, and even more productive.

6. Think productive thoughts

I’m sure you’ve noticed how I’ve been saying the word ‘productive’ somewhat redundantly throughout this article. That’s because I feel that the more you put thoughts of productivity into your head, the better your working experience will be! It’s better thinking about what you’re working on than thinking ‘what’s on TV tonight?’ or ‘I wonder how many diggs my story has..?’. It goes without saying that when you’re determined to get things done, you tend to do a better job than when you’re determined to procrastinate.

5. Enjoy what you’re doing

We want to make the good things last, right? This is why you should make your mindset positive about getting things done. Allow yourself to find the fun and enjoyment in being productive, rather than focusing on the cons. You’ll want to stick with something if you’re having fun doing it.

4. Be satisfied with your downtime

Make sure that what you’re doing in your free time is beneficial to your happiness. It’s much better to spend time with family or friends than to sit around and hang out alone. If you’ve enjoyed the time you’ve had with the special people in your life, you’re more likely to be confident and satisfied about getting back to work.

3. Stay healthy!

No one can be productive if they’re sick or feeling crumby, right? It’s extremely important to keep a good diet and healthy lifestyle. Go to the gym or go for a run every day or two and establish solid, healthy eating habits. Not only will this make you more productive, it will keep you happy and free from anxiety.

2. Relax

Don’t get stressed out about your work. Handle the situation maturely and positively by staying calm while getting things done. Your life is important, so don’t waste your time and enjoyment worrying about the little things.

1. Do what works for you

Use these tips in your daily productive life, of course, but also personalize the working plan. Try out different things and see what ones work for you. Everyone is different, and we all have unique ways of getting things done. The best favor you can do for yourself is use this post as a guide to help you along the way while implementing your own productive habits into your lifestyle.

If we want to be ‘productive people’ it’s important to stay productive once we’ve started. No working routine is going to stick if you haven’t gone to proper measures to keep it going. Remind yourself of these steps when you’re working to help you stay productive, happy, and healthy. So, keep moving along the productivity path, and enjoy it!

About The Author

Charlie is a student who writes personal development related articles. He focusses on positive thinking, productivity and zen related subjects in his posts and also adds in helpful tips on how to integrate technology into developing a positive living experience. Check out his blog at ich4z.blogspot.com/ you will no doubt be hearing a lot more from him in the future.