We all love the mindset of being productive and organised, or even being a part of the “IT girl/boy” trend of waking up at 5am, drinking that green smoothie, working out/doing Pilates, journaling etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching YouTube videos on these things for inspiration, but I sometimes find them to be unrealistic for the average person aka me lool

Here are some realistic, and I emphasise REALISTIC tips that I have found that have helped me on my journey to a better mindset, wellness, and productivity.

Screen time

Honestly, thank God for screen time. I’ve realised lately that I can fall into a habit of spending hours on my phone at a time, really not doing anything productive or beneficial to my day. Most phones currently have screen time options that you can set, either to restrict phone time past a certain time, or to restrict the number of hours you spend on your phone or a specific app. We use our phones for pretty much everything, for calling, texting or even work purposes. But realistically, we spend a lot of time on social media applications.

Let’s take Tik Tok for example, the app that takes up 3 hours of your day when you promised yourself you were only going to spend 5 minutes on there (so I’ve heard, I don’t use the app that much!). But as an example, setting screen time limits on apps like these can be a great start.

Get them ZZZ’s in!

This is another tip that is realistic! Sleep. It is so important, and easy to set goals around this as it’s something you have to do, to practically stay alive. One realistic goal following from point 1 is limiting time on my phone before I go to sleep. We all know we like to scroll on our social media apps or keep up with the latest laughter in our group chats, but it’s a bad habit to be on these apps for a long time before we get our night’s rest. It’s recommended to keep away from any blue lights for 2-3 hours before we go to sleep- replace it with reading, board games or taking a late-night stroll

Create a tailored playlist

If you’re like me, I can’t do many things without music! I have a playlist for everything, for cleaning my room, walking, getting ready in the morning, even for cooking – there’s always a song that can fit the vibe. Creating a tailored playlist very much helps with any activity that I may be doing.

Affirmations

I remember pre-pandemic, when we were actually forced to leave our homes to go into work 5 or more days a week, it was a real struggle, especially during the winter. I remember I started to write affirmations and would recite them every morning before leaving – just to give me an extra boost of motivation, then accompanied by Campus Rush music – Yahweh (that used to be my morning commute song of the day!).

Praise yourself

At the end of the week, I’m trying to give myself a boost of encouragement by releasing some positivity into my life! I’ve realised that I can be very hard on myself, or be self-critical of myself, and that is the reality for a lot of people out there. A simple inclusion of one positive thing that you have accomplished can help you to feel motivated and encourage your mood and mindset for the next week. To make it practical, I wrote down on post-it notes, 1 thing I’m proud of achieving and one thing I may need to improve on – these can still be beneficial!