Habits are the routines of behaviors that are done constantly and subconsciously and are obtained through repetition. This can be whether waking up early in the day, exercising regularly or scrolling, scrolling lazy enough, and roll through Instagram fifty times a day. These are a kind of obsession that can be both either good or bad.
But it's your responsibility to acknowledge what sort of habit it is. Is it reasonable or awful? Is it helping you to move further and forward or is it dragging you back enough to relinquish your everyday life?
Anyhow, we can't deny the fact that quarantine has made it easier in our subconscious mind to adopt all those bad habits instantly and continue doing them over and over again. Not to mention, it has made it so much easier to carry out those disagreeable habits and has made it hard to control.
I've also been through some of these problems and needed a really hard time to recover and gain back my productivity. So, here are some ways which I've used and you can, too, to overcome your procrastination and bad habits.
Limit your screen time :
Your phone can either be an excellent servant or a terrible master of procrastination. Our addiction to our phones is immense. Sometimes it is so difficult to stay retrained from it for only an hour.
With all those messages and DM's from others or simply a notification is more than enough to leave all of the work and fall back to the distraction zone. One of the reasons that we are becoming slaves to the attraction of distraction is curiosity. We can't stop ourselves from wondering who is sending us messages or who is at the end of the phone call.
A lot of research has found that screen use for more than two hours a day is concealed by depressive symptoms. Too much screen time can lead to obesity, depression, anxiety, chronic neck, and mostly sleep problems. You can't remain healthy with all those symptoms, right? So, learn how to put your phone in its place and avoid all unnecessary text messages or simply put your calls on voicemails if it's not an emergency.
Stop scrolling through social media because it can be a good interruption between you and your productivity. It's not that hard, all you have to do is limit your screen timing to a maximum of 2 hours a day. Try adding boundaries or screen limitations to every app, so next time you lose track of time, it can remind you. Many apps, like Qustudio, help you calculate your screen time and can create time limit restrictions for every app.
Try a social media detox. The ways are:
- Turn off your phone data: Turning off your phone's data or WiFi can help to be retrained from all of the unnecessary notifications that you may have.
- Put your phone away: Putting your phone away from your work can help you get more focused on the work you might be doing, along with avoiding any kind of distractions.
- Log out of social media: Your phone can be a huge intrusion during work. Another way to avoid it is just to log out of your social media while you're working.
Quarantine has made everything online, from classes to official work, meetings, and almost everything is held online. But I am not talking about those things. I'm talking about the excessive screen timing which most of us are spending time on social. There, right there, things that needed to be fixed.
Health maintenance and physical activities:
The present pandemic of COVID-19 has caused a huge deal of our physical along with our mental activities. Ever since quarantine started, we barely move and all we do is eat. This has made it easy enough for our health to decline and the dreams of having those ideal body figures fade.
Let's be real! Every time you try doing something but end up sitting on the couch watching movies on TV, it is because you lose track of time and when you realize, you don't feel like doing it. You don't feel like doing it because of your lack of movement, which has made it easy enough for you to be less energetic. This is another example of a lack of movement. There's a proverb saying, "A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world."
So here are some of the best exercises which you can do for instant results. Also, if you're a beginner or doing these after a long time, make sure to try the beginners' version at first and increase the workout gradually to avoid any unwanted injuries.
- Lunges: Challenging your balance is an essential part of a good exercise routine. This promotes functional movement while increasing the strength of your legs and guts.
- Pushups: Pushups are the most basic yet effective workout ever. They are not only effective for toning your arms but also are helpful for your abs.
- Side planks: Not only from creating balance to your body, but it is also helpful for whole body burns and gaining those summer abs.
- Bicycle crunch: Another effective workout out there for body burnup and losing those fats.
- Skipping: Skipping is highly suggested as it creates a whole body workout along with losing weight and maintaining body shape.
Along with physical activities, you have to ensure your health by eating healthily. This includes a healthy food diet. It's important to maintain the balance of your physical activities along with the diet you eat.
Make a plan:
Sitting at home all day long has made us forget about our busy life schedule that used to be before. So, if you want to change your bad habits of not getting things done, then you might need to make your daily plans and start making goals based on the priorities of work needed to be done at a time. Without making a plan of your work or ideas of doing anything, you cannot accomplish that, you would remain at your desk frustrated about not achieving the outcome while giving enough effort to the task.
But it depends on where you're using the effort. If you're working on a task with full potential but spawning the effort in the wrong place, then it's more likely to say that you're not achieving your desired goals. So, it's necessary to set a clear goal and to set clear priorities based on your work.
Why you don't feel like doing anything:
This quarantine has come with a big cost and will leave us abruptly and distracted. We can't deny how much time we have wasted along with creating some bad habits that are so hard to control. It is hard to get things done when you don't feel like doing them.
One of the biggest reasons is because you're not sure about what to do. You have been assigned to do a task at work or to achieve a personal goal but you can't do it until you know how to earn it. People in this state are generally paralyzed because either they don't know what to do or how to achieve it. So, it's important to make a plan before beginning any task or to create a personal development habit.
Another reason is perhaps you spend too much time and energy deliberating about it during your off-hours. Too much thinking can lead our brains to depression. So, I would suggest you avoid this habit and put up with immediate action. You can achieve goals but you have to act through them to achieve them.
So, along with making priorities, act on it. Make self-development as your main priority and only through action can you overcome all your bad habits along with gaining productivity.
