Are you struggling to stay productive in lockdown? It is very normal to have days where you feel sad, low, or just not yourself! Your Bullet Journal can help you create daily habits which will make you feel more productive during this very strange and sad time.
tHE REALITY OF LOCKDOWN.
India is experiencing a deadly wave of Coronavirus. It is a deeply troubling and scary time for everyone. While not everyone is so lucky, some people are able to move their work into their homes and lockdown to help stop the spread. The reality of lockdown is that none of us have experienced something like this before. It is a global pandemic that has affected nearly every nation. Billions of people have been asked to stay home for months and although the virus is deadly so are the effects on everyone’s mental health.
There is a newly coined term that is called, ‘Languishing’. It is known as the neglected middle child of mental health and it is the name of the ‘blah’ feeling so many people are experiencing.
According to Adam Grant a writer for the New York times, “Languishing is a sense of stagnations and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”
Have you had days, weeks or months that have left you unable to concentrate, with a lack of motivation and a dulling of your emotions? It’s something that so many people around the world are feeling, a lack of hope and an absence of wellbeing. We are aloud to feel a range of emotions, in our house we always say, ‘it’s ok to have down days’ and with the pressure of living through a pandemic these day’s might become more common. Although Bullet Journaling isn’t a magical cure for this feeling, it can give you something to focus on, something to work towards and it can help you create a habit that will stick with you long after the pandemic passes.
The future is full of hope, remember to be kind to yourself and check in on family and friends. In this blog I will offer you some top tips on how your Bullet Journal can help you stay productive in lockdown, I hope it helps.
Read the article of Languishing here.
Checking in daily.
It is so important to check in with yourself daily so that you can monitor how you are feeling. I like to use my Bullet Journal to do this and I create spreads that reflect this. A great way to stay productive during lockdown is to have a great morning routine. The most successful people in the world all have one thing in common, a morning routine! So to start down our path of productivity, lets look at a morning routine that includes your bullet journal.
Tip 1: Try and wake up one hour earlier than you do normally. In the beginning, this will be hard but it will start to feel normal the more you do it. A whole hour is so much time to add to your day and you will feel as if you have already achieved something.
How to use this hour. Use this hour to slowly start the day. Stretch, make a cup of tea or coffee, and take a seat! Pull out your Bullet Journal and start filling out some spreads.
What spreads should I fill out? Start with a Brain Dump. When I wake up I am often overwhelmed with thoughts. Dumping them on a page is such an easy way of getting it all out. Then take any important thoughts you have written in your brain dump and transfer them into your Daily Logs. Once you have done this look over your daily to-do’s and what today has in store for you. I like to visually see or plan my day in my head after this. From here I look at my Habit Tracker Spread and see what habits I have for today. Sometimes they are habits I can add to my morning like ‘meditation’ which is great because I now have an extra hour!
Tip 2: The morning has passed and you are well into your day! Make sure to check your future log, weekly log, and daily log to ensure you are covering all of your to-do’s. These will help you stay on top of your workload, stay focused, and stay productive. Your Bullet Journal gives you the gift of structure in an otherwise ‘structureless’ time. If you use it properly you will thrive.
“Your habits will determine your future”
Jack Canfield
checking in weekly.
Tip 3: Once as week, sit down with your Bullet Journal. Go over what you still have to do but also reflect on how far you have come already. This is a great way of gaining perspective and motivating yourself which is important when you are working at home.
What spreads should I check? You can go over your daily to-do lists, weekly and monthly as these are productivity-focused. Then take a look at your brain dump to see if you missed out on anything you have been writing down every morning. Next, we would suggest doing some journaling that can free your thoughts. To be productive you also have to learn how to rest.
the importance of purpose.
Now that you have some new processes and habits you can start implementing to increase your productivity in lockdown, let’s take a look at purpose. Purpose is pretty central to everything we do as humans. Humans need ‘purpose’ to feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves. Without purpose, it is easy to feel down and lost. The definition of purpose is –
“The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists” (Oxford Dictionary)
OR
“A person’s sense of resolve or determination” (Oxford Dictionary)
One side effect of lockdown can be a loss of purpose because we are not actively going somewhere each day. Your Bullet Journal can help you with your lack of purpose because it gives you something to do each day and it keeps you going.
Tip Four: Our final tip for this blog is that you should work on what gives you a sense of purpose. If currently, you are struggling with not having somewhere to go to work or maybe you have lost your job, find something else in your life that can lift you up.
Here are some ideas –
- Find a hobby like running, walking, or sign up for a competition that you have to work towards.
- Focus on things that bring you joy like cooking or sewing.
- Find a free online course that can help you learn a new skill.
- Work on creating beautiful spreads in your Bullet Journal and use it daily.
Productivity, lockdown and your bullet journal.
With a mix of daily rituals, using your bullet journal to stay productive, and finding your source of purpose, lockdown could be a time for you to find a new way of living.
Here at Bullet Journal India we hope that you, your family and friends stay safe during this lockdown.
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