It may be summer (for most of us) but that doesn’t mean that we all don’t have things to be done. It only means that we now have significantly less motivation to do them. Warm breezes divert our attention from our overflowing email box to our insatiable hunger for ice cream. So, we go to Dairy Queen, get a blizzard, and blissfully ignore our responsibilities for another few hours. Unfortunately, soon enough all of our responsibilities come back to haunt us and we are reminded of all the adulting we must do before we can have fun. In order to make your summer a little more fun and squash the procrastination bug, here are a few tips for tackling your to-do list.
Write a to-do list.
If you don’t write yourself a to-do list every morning, or at the very least every week, how do you know what you have to get done?! Find a system that works for you that you can keep track of everything you have to do. Whether this is a list on your phone, a reminder app, a sticky note, or your favorite planner. Pro-tip: Every morning when you wake up or while you’re eating breakfast, take five minutes out of your social media scrolling time to jot down a quick list of things you need and/or want to do today.
Set up rewards for yourself.
You want that refreshing
Starbucks iced
coffee so bad that you can almost taste it and there’s no reason you can’t have it! After you go register to vote, or finally drop off that package, or lug your winter clothes up to the attic. When you write your to-do list each morning try to write your tasks in the order you want to complete them. Every three to five tasks, include a reward for yourself. This could be an episode (or two) of your current
Netflix obsession, a trip to the coffee shop for a treat, or a well deserved nap. Celebrate every small victory
Create a goals list.
You’ve got a long summer ahead of you, what are you going to do with it? Create a list of things you want to accomplish this summer whether that’s a few big things or a bunch of tiny adventures. Some things I want to accomplish this summer are committing myself to my yoga practice,
writing daily, redecorating my bedroom, etc.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Didn't accomplish all 32 things you set out to do today? No need to worry! There are only so many hours in the day and it’s totally okay if your bed was just too alluring to resist for many of those hours. There is no need to put pressure on yourself to accomplish absolutely everything on your to do list in a superhuman amount of time. Try limiting yourself to two or three main tasks every day and one long term task every week or month. This way, you’ll still get things done without a mountain of stress about all the things you want to accomplish!
