Bernskiold Media

The Just Do It Approach: Forcing Yourself To Be More Productive

How many days haven’t you felt like doing everything in the world one minute, only to start at it and not want to do anything? Or, perhaps just not wanted to do anything at all? Believe me, I definitely do quite often, both in design work, article writing or just homework (mostly homework though). What I end up doing is nothing, meaning that I get behind. There are a couple of tricks that you can go about in starting to get things done, however.

Take Some Time Off

What you first want to do when you feel like not doing anything, is probably to do just that; nothing. At least for a little while. Give yourself fifteen minutes away from the computer, doing something totally unrelated to what you really don’t want to do. Be very strict in not staying away for too long however, as it can only make it all worse.

Just Do It 

Say you are supposed to get designing but you just don’t want to do it. Not really an artists block but it’s at least not good. What you may find solve your problem to start is just do it. Start doodling along, perhaps doing something that isn’t really part of the project, but related. If you are drawing or illustrating, start by doodling a bit. Nothing serious but you just do it. You start designing and the rest will follow.

The same applies if you need to write something but may be stuck on what. Just do it. Start by producing something. At this point it doesn’t really matter if it makes sense or not, just starting to produce words will lead you in to what you really need to do.

Don’t Forget: Take Some Time Off

This approach does demand that you take time off once in a while. A lot of the “unwillingness” in starting projects or designing comes from stress which in turn is caused by not doing what you need to do which again can be caused by the fact that you haven’t been taking enough time completely off your work. You’ll be surprised at how much more fresh you are after some time completely away from your work.