How To Actually Get Things Done

How To Actually Get Things Done

 

How to actually get things done

Make the most of your day by learning how to get things done.

If you want to be productive and kick procrastination to the curb then in this blog post I will show you how to get things done. Getting things done isn’t easy, we struggle with it to a certain extent. There’s always something else that we need to do or a distraction that stops us from getting things done. Whatever the reason is it is hard to be productive these days. We all want to be productive and most of us struggle to actually do that.

It’s not particularly our fault, life is hectic. Time flies by far too quickly and often we’re a jumble of wires, trying to figure life out. There’s no time to do what we love and that is the problem. I have friends who have hectic schedules, they often find it hard to do anything when they have free time. Most of us don’t have the time or don’t know to use it wisely, I’m not an expert, but I was a major procrastinator.

I still struggle with it. I didn’t hit the lottery and all of sudden everything fell into place, some days are hard, others are easier. I just know how to work the system

and that is because of trial and error. I know what works and what doesn’t. All because I attempted to do the impossible, to seek something outside of myself. The great thing is if you want a checklist of all these steps, there’s a freebie down below.

 

 

 

 Schedule your day, the night before

 

 

Stop wasting time, an easy way to get things done is to schedule your day, the night before. This is by one of the easiest ways to become more productive and get things done. This way, you make progress because as soon as you wake up you can concentrate on the things that matter.

We waste more time thinking about what we have to do than we actually doing it. If you don’t want to do that, you need to write a short list of all the

activities you have to do. You can use different productivity tools for you do that from eating a frog to a simple to-do list. That is all it takes to get things done.

As complicated as it is, it really isn’t. All you have to do is dedicate at least ten minutes in the evening to write down what you need to do the next day. A quick suggestion is don’t try to add too many items to your to-do list. One of the worst things is to have a 25 item to-do list and barely make it half way down. There’s a difference between working hard and smart.

Focus on tasks that require immediate action and move from there. Keep it light, baby steps are far important than leaping over boulders. 

 

 

Wake up, at an godly hour

 

 

As hard as it may be, one of the best ways to get a lot of things done is to wake early, when you do that your mind will focus on the task at hand and it is easier to focus on what needs to be done.

Waking up early is one of the hardest things to do, but it’s a lot easier than we think it is. It all comes down to what time you go to bed. I go to bed really early so I can wake up at 4 am every day. Some days when I want to get more done, I actually wake up at 3 am. I have I cracked the code to wake up. You have to want it bad enough that you sacrifice sleep.

Even if you wake up, do a bit of work and go back to sleep for an hour before work or school. You have done far more work than people who wake up later than usual. Successful people wake up early and if you want to be happier, more energetic then you have to wake up early. As hard as it might be, you have to do it so you can move forward in life.

That is your first step. I recommend going to bed at 8 to 10 pm everyday. That way you get at least 6 – 7 hours of sleep. And that is all you really need. Waking up  early will help you to get things done, it will give you a edge over a lot of people. When I started waking up early, that helped me with procrastination and I started doing more and getting things done in time.

This is a productivity hack and if you are interested in knowing more productivity hacks to help you get things done, you can find the blog post I wrote about it here.

 

Block out the noise

  

 

To be in the zone, I use earphones or headphones. I tend to write more or concentrate for longer periods when I do that. There’s so much distraction out there that it is easier for you to lose your focus listening to someone talking on the phone or a dog barking.

There are studies that suggest, productivity actually increases when you’re listening to music using headphones. I definitely think you should try it out and see what happens.  

If you want to get things done, you need to block out the noise so that you can be more productive. There are many ways you can block the noise, you could listen to motivational clips or music. Blocking out the noise is one of the best ways to help you get things done. When you focus more on what you are doing rather than all the things you have to do this pushes you.

 

Eat the frog

 

Start with the hardest task first early on. I usually write when I wake up because it requires the most brain power. Sometimes I don’t write early in the morning and I realize it’s a lot harder for me to complete this task during the day. Eating the frog helps you focus on completing tasks that require more time or more brain power.

This is why it is important to wake up early. Our bodies are more energetic the less time we spend in bed. You should actually test it out and you’ll find out that you can complete hard tasks early in the morning without breaking a sweat. Not saying that it’s easy, but doing this early in the morning, does help you out in the end. What normally would have taken hours to complete or days because of procrastination you can do it in a few hours early in the morning.

In the first thing in the morning, start with your hardest task, whatever it might be and focus on finishing it. Brian Tracy wrote an interesting blog post about Eating the frog as a way to manage time, if you want to know more about it, you can read more about it here.

 

 

Take breaks

 

 

You have to take breaks, it’s human nature to do so. Perfection and productivity depend on taking breaks, the more breaks you take, the more you get done. The length of your breaks can be a few minutes or even one hour in between your work. 

You have to pace yourself and it’s alright to take breaks. Most of us believe that in order to be successful, it requires us to work like machines. But even laptops overheat and need to cool down. What more the human brain. You can’t concentrate if you don’t take time off. A lot of successful people take power naps and that helps them focus on the task at hand.

  

 

 Visualize what you want to achieve

 

 

If you want to make progress, one of the best ways to do that is to visualize what you want to achieve. Studies show that people who visualize practicing end up being more successful than those who don’t. Visualize everything you want to do during the day, you can start doing this early in the morning and think about it throughout your day. You’d be amazed at how much you’ll achieve if you do this. It will also help with procrastination and concentrating.

 

 

What is you main key takeaway from this blog? Comment below, would love to know what you think.

 

                                                                                                  Keep Pushing

 

                                                                                                      Vanessa

 

 

 

Why You Should Find Your Purpose

Why You Should Find Your Purpose

 

Why You should find your purpose

Follow your purpose, you’ll be surprised where it will take you

Finding your purpose has become a controversial topic, one that people utter in disbelief or is seen as taboo. There are two camps of people; one that follows the narrow and straight path, and the other that chooses to go on a different journey. The latter are seen as mavericks, the weirdos of society unless you are Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfreys, Marie Forleos, Zendayas, Roger Federers, and the list goes on.

Success seems to be reserved for the successful. Stories of the underdog rising to the top and building a millionaire dollar empire while working at home inspire us. They always inspire us because that is what success stories were designed for. Yet, many of us go back to our lives and we forget what we read prior. We forget that nothing remains the same. 

That is why finding your purpose is controversial. There are gurus that say you shouldn’t and in a way they make sense. Finding your purpose and going for it requires patience and determination. The road is a hard one, full of potholes, headaches, and pains that will definitely make you question everything. There are days when you’ll be broke, sleeping on your sister’s couch and people will definitely tell you that you are crazy.

It is a lonely road and that is why most gurus tell you to not go down the hard route but choose something safer. That is because not everyone can handle following their purpose or passion. Most don’t want to go through the hurdles, you have to jump over so you can find your pot of gold or three-leafed clovers. 

Despite the heartache that comes from following your purpose, I still believe you should.

 

 

Doing something you love will make you happier

 

There are a lot of people that believe happiness is a result of success and this can’t be further from the truth. Even if you have a great job with awesome benefits, but still feel aimless then there’s no point. As kids, were made to believe that high-paying jobs will give us the life we want. If that’s the case then why are so many people unhappy. If we look at the greats, despite all their problems, they were happy when they were following their purpose.

They had financial issues, marital problems and many died far too young, but they created an impact doing what they loved. The big difference between then and now is that you don’t have to be a starving entrepreneur or artist to make it.

One of the keys to happiness is doing what you love and not chasing the money trail. Money does not make you happy in spite of what people say. You could have all the money in the world and still feel empty. This has been proven time again, money isn’t the key to happiness, but living a purposeful life is. I wrote a post about how following your passions will make you a whole lot happier, you can check it out here.

 

Your story will help people

 

 

Since I was ten years old, I have believed that everything happens for reason. Maybe, the reason why I believed such a thing at a young age was because of a

Lindsay Lohan movie I watched. I started realizing that life was made of small and big moments that change the course of our lives. These small moments teach us pivotal lessons that prepare us for the bigger moments. It takes time for us to realize that and once it does, it changes the way we look at life. The first real death experience I had was when I was eight years old and I got into an accident.

It changed the way I looked at life. At first, I thought I wasn’t special, but the people around me told me otherwise. They told me I nearly died and for the longest time, I wondered why I didn’t die. I could have simply died and that would have been the end of it. The older I got the more pain I experienced from all areas in my life. I made friends with the wrong people, lost my self-worth a couple of times, became suicidal and I was aimless. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t think I deserved to go for it.

Despite believing that everything happens for reason, I refused to believe that I had survived this long for a reason. In all honesty, sometimes we believe that there’s nothing special about us. But our stories can change someone’s life in more ways than one. I wish I knew someone who had gone through what I had because that little girl believed she was worthless needed to know they weren’t alone. Often, that is why we need to tell our stories to believe that we were not alone in this journey. We all are special because of the way we can impact people’s lives.

You never know the impact your story can have on people who’re going through what you went through. 

 

 

You deserve to try it out

 

 

Everyone has dreams, whether it is big or small. The unfortunate thing is most of us never follow them. Too afraid that we’ll fail or we’re not worthy of going for it. I once watched a video of Will Smith and he spoke about how many believe that success is esoteric. At that time I wasn’t sure what he meant, but now I understand. There’s this fear that we are not good enough to be successful or talented enough to achieve anything.

I can point a dozen people who sucked at things at first. Take Tom Cruise for example, one of the first ever movies he did, he couldn’t act. The movie was too painful to watch that I wished it would die a quick death. Granted, very few people remember that movie. Even though Tom Cruise failed, no one remembers that. He became an icon due to hard work and perseverance.

Peter Voogd, a serial entrepreneur lost purpose and was bankrupt before he even started. A few years later he came back with an inspiring story of how he doubled his income in six months. There are hundreds of stories out there of people who weren’t at their best when they started their journeys. And that is the point that we often forget. It isn’t about how many times you fail, but rather about what you do after. If you don’t go after your dreams then you will always wonder what if.

I believe you never know where something will take you unless you give it a chance and that is the same concept here. You need to find your purpose, for your sanity and if you don’t you’ll always live a life of regret.

It is better to fail than to regret never going after something because you were too afraid of what might happen.

 

What is your main takeaway from this post and what do you believe is your purpose? Write your comment below? Would love to know your thoughts

 

 

                                                                                            KEEP  P USHING

 

                                                                                                    VANESSA

 

 

 

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome According to Marie Forleo

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome According to Marie Forleo

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome

 

how to overcome impostor syndrome according to marie forleo  

Marie Forleo offers a lot of great advice about how to overcome impostor syndrome.

Most of us spend our whole trying to figure out who we are and struggle as we try to fight off impostor syndrome. There’s always a point in our lives where we are hit by the impostor syndrome. A condition that more than 70% of people go through and it never seems to leave. There are questions we ask ourselves that we’re not sure if we can even answer. There are a lot of great ways to overcome impostor syndrome. 

More women go through this,  when they believe they are impostors. I understand the feeling of trying to be all you can and still feeling like an impostor. The interesting thing here is writers go through this a lot. I have been a writer since I was thirteen and I always saw myself as an impostor.

Lately, the voice is quieter and I ignore it, but it took time to get to this point. When you don’t handle impostor syndrome it can stop you from accomplishing what you want. If you feel like a fraud, chances are you’re not going to wake up and say you want to start a cooking blog. If you got past that stage then you are still being ridiculed with the voice that tells you that you’re a clown.

That voice laughs and sneers. It seems with time it gets louder, so sure that it believes it knows what’s best, but it doesn’t. You want to curl up in a ball and sink into your bed, only to be reminded that successful people don’t hide from the world, they grab it by the bull horns. Oh, the cliche. Yup, we have that internal monologue telling us we should do better. Rarely, do we remind it that we are human and therefore, need a moment or two to get our bearing?

There are so many opinions out there on how to beat impostor syndrome and most of the time it says you should ignore it. That won’t help. As a kid did you ever ignore your tormentors? If you were like me and didn’t like confrontation you probably did. What happened was they got even meaner and the words they threw at you cut deeper? So, don’t ignore your tormentor. Here, is what Marie Forleo says you should do.

The advice was so mind-blowing that I decided to write a whole post dedicated to it. So, here we go.

 

As a shame researcher, I know that the best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive: Practice courage and reach out.”

 

 

The Whole point of imposter syndrome is to shame you and make you feel as if following your dream is the biggest mistake of your life. You know, that voice that tells you, “are you kidding who do you think you are? Look at you, you can’t even walk and you think you can help anyone?” Oh, the jab.

But, if you want that shame to slip into the darkest corners of your mind, you got to do something that will terrify you. You need a big dose of courage, take a step back and tell someone about it. You can trust a friend with your innermost fears. I know that it is terrifying because what if they don’t understand where you are coming from.

Most people go through it so don’t worry, you are not alone, right there. If you need something to push you, remember to puff out your chest, take deep breaths and just do it. Don’t listen to the repetitive voice of fear that often makes you squirm.

 

Also Read: How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome?

 

Shine your light out, not in

 

 

This was golden advice. The problem with the impostor syndrome is that the focus is on us, when you focus your attention on people and helping them then

 we won’t think were frauds. Remember as a kid, stealing cookies when your mother told you that it would ruin your dinner. If you had siblings who boldly stepped out and stole a cookie jar, not thinking twice about it and they never were caught. However, when you attempted to do just that then well, it never ended well for you. The difference is your sibling didn’t focus on the negative, on themselves, but you were having panic attacks, eyeing every shadow, believing it was your mother.

When we focus on the negative it heightens everything. From our fear, insecurities and that’s because our light is shining on us. When we turn that flashlight to shine on being the best person, helping others, we don’t have time to worry about feeling like a fraud. 

Start a hype fail

 

You think you are a fraud, because you have spent your time listening to people say negative things about you. What if you focus on all the people who thanked you for helping them or told you that you inspire them.

It’s more rewarding. I know what you are thinking, that what if they were only being kind. We all go there, but very few people say things they don’t mean. Have you ever gone out in an outfit that you liked, but people either never said anything about it or they passed snarky remarks. Or maybe, they said you looked great, but the face didn’t agree with words. Yeah, we have all been there. So, you know the difference between genuine compliments and those meant to mess with your self-esteem.

Pay attention to the genuine ones and have a running list of compliments you have been given. If you want to go out you can have a literal file or journal where you store these. The purpose of this isn’t so you get a big head, but understand that you are not a fraud.

 

Track your successes and stumbles

 

 

We all fail, you can’t avoid it. We all make mistakes, that’s part of the learning process. Ignoring the mistakes you make is a guarantee that you will make the same ones. And if we didn’t make mistakes, how are we supposed to learn. Every year, you can do a review of your successes and stumbles. That will show you that you’re more than a label or condition.

That you have conquered your demons and stared fear right down in the face. Unless you acknowledge how far you have come, you will always go five steps backward. It’s hard thing to swallow, but your success story is one that no one can take from you. Your stumbles are your reasons why you are at this point in your life. Good or bad, they have given you a deeper understanding of who you are.

 

 

Also Read: What I learned About Success From Vanessa Lau

 

Get a go-to mantra

 

I love this one, the most because it is a little reminder that you can do this. How many times have you gone through a challenge and reminded yourself that you can do this? When you gave yourself a pep talk, you accomplished your goal and you felt better.

Whatever you tell yourself will come true. If you tell yourself that you are the biggest joke then you will be, so you have to keep telling yourself you can do this. You word it in a way that you respond to and you can even do a happy dance if you want to go crazy.

I had this friend who used to do a happy dance whenever she was about to do something she was scared about. Whenever she did that, she accomplished what she set out. The most important thing is believing you can do it because a little bit of faith can move anything even a mountain. That’s why need a go-to mantra. Something that will encourage you when times get hard.

 

 

Be humble

 

There are people out there that need to eat humble pie. Don’t be a know-it-all. Because no one knows everything, and if you don’t just admit it. You don’t lose anything from admitting that you don’t know what you are doing.

When you think about it even the most successful people admit that they don’t know everything so if they can do it then you can. You are not compensating from your impostor syndrome by preventing you have a solution for every problem under the sun. It can take time to get there, but it is worth it because you learn more from being humble. 

People are more willing to help those that don’t know anything.

 

These are a few ways you can actually stop impostor syndrome before it cripples you. What strategies do you like the most and what is your go-to manta?Remember, baby steps, it takes time to get to where you want to be so take it one day at a time.

 

                                                                                                                          Keeping Pushing

 

                                             Vanessa

 

 

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