3 Ways to Be More Productive Without Burnout

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Feeling motivated and staying productive can become a challenge at times. People tend to try to balance too many tasks and activities at once to the point where they become burned out, unmotivated, and stressed. While being productive feels rewarding and comes with benefits, it’s best to try not to tackle too many things at the same time at the risk of becoming overwhelmed. As a working college student, it’s easy for me to become pressured to get all of my obligations done as soon as possible, but this gets fairly tiring very quickly and usually just ends in me procrastinating and getting absolutely nothing done instead. Over the years, I’ve learned different methods that help me stay productive without burning myself out; here are a few of them:

1. Make a schedule

This might sound obvious, but planning a schedule to get things done really helps with productivity. I like to include rest times as well to make sure that I’m not just jumping from one task to another and have time to refresh my physical and mental health before working on something new. Using a planner, downloading apps like Evernote, or even setting reminders on your phone to remind you of deadlines are all ways that you can make an efficient schedule for yourself.

2. Set goals

I’ve found that I personally try to get everything done in one day, so I can do what I want for the rest of the week. However, this just ends up in me being lazy for the majority of the week from overextending myself all in one day. Instead, I like to set at least one goal to achieve for myself every day. For example, on Monday I’ll go grocery shopping, on Tuesday I’ll catch up on homework, on Wednesday I’ll study for exams, and so on. By completing at least one thing that you want to work on every day, you’ll still be getting done what you need without doing too much at once.

3. Don’t make excuses

Sometimes I find myself mindlessly scrolling on social media for hours, knowing that I have responsibilities to take care of. Instead of putting my phone down and deciding to be productive, I just end up procrastinating even more, and I know a lot of people have similar problems. By telling myself to get out of a lazy mindset, it has become easier and easier for me to stop justifying my procrastination. I know how hard this can be, especially when you don’t want to do anything, but once you force yourself to get up and get things done enough times, it’ll become a force of habit and not a chore.