Summers can be tough, quite tough for most people, especially if you are most affected by certain summer blues such as: laziness, lethargy, lack of motivation, and a compulsive comfort-seeking nature. You might think, no wait, gaslight yourself into convincing yourself that it is the weather and not really your fault, but for how long?
Summer breaks may last 30+ days and there are several ways YOU CAN make the most of it. For some, laziness is fuelled by feeling unproductive due to the long period of not having anything to work on. However, for a significant section of the population, laziness kicks in from the fact that they have more time on their hands, and procrastination slowly takes its most aggressive form.
However, there are ways to remedy this situation and one can indeed make sure that their summer breaks are spent productively:
- Start by setting achievable goals: that easy? It really isn’t. The very act of setting goals might actually get you to give up at step 0. However, its baby steps. One can start small, such as read a short story or a novella per week, or take a 30-minute walk everyday. This helps you lay the foundation of a routine, exercises your body and your mind and will further motivate you to make it fall into a pattern. At the end of the week, you can celebrate your small but significant win by either giving yourself a pat on the back or actually go all out with treating yourself, as per your liking.
- Create a routine: now that you have found tasks that you think are doable and beneficial, you repeat them as you are rewarding yourself at the end of the week or whenever you think a goal has been achieved. Hence, you have now set a routine. Now, establishing such routines will fuel your productivity and help you remain focused. Here on, you can create a daily schedule for yourself and try to stick to it as much as possible. For instance, allot specific ties for the tasks you have decided you will carry out, such as a workout routine, a hobby class, study times, social interaction, etc.
- Let’s make activities more enjoyable?: Now that you have set a routine, everything’s falling into place, yes? But then you feel this bit of restlessness, as if something is lacking? Maybe everything is falling into a routine so it appears to be mundane now? So, how can you make your activities more enjoyable? How to make your tasks seem more like an activity than a task, per se? Firstly, for instance, if you now feel that pang of laziness hit you and don’t feel like hitting the gym for your leg day today, you know you fall back into the vicious cycle of laziness if you don’t. Your best bet, and a glorious suggestion, would be to go with a friend. Working out with a friend or a family member helps maintain your motivation. Another instance would be, if you don’t like reading books, your eyes are sore from all the tiny words and page-filling, profound, sentences. You can try switching over to graphic novels or audiobooks as the former helps with visual aesthetics and the latter with auditory stimulation. The end result: you now get what the book is trying to say and you actually are more invested.
- Make use of technology, don’t be a “noob”: Did you know that technology was actually incensed around 3 million years ago? Well now you do. Please make use of technology to your advantage, it will help you remain productive. There are apps that help with increasing focus, wellness and productivity. With the advent of technology, there is now a quick digital solution for everything. We really hit the jackpot when e-commerce took off on the internet. Hence, apps such as Forest and Focus@Will help you take short breaks between tasks and aid in time management. Make use of Habit trackers such as HabitNow, fitness trackers such as Strava, productivity apps such as Todoist, Microsoft OneNote and Google Calendar to stay organized.
- Take breaks! Pause, Breathe, Hustle, Repeat: now that you have a routine, remember you’re not a robot. Take breaks, give yourself time to rest and recharge. This should be your “your year of rest and relaxation” (not literally please). Set up a few relaxing tasks and activities for yourself, wind down and have fun! Summers bring great opportunities, stay focused but also stay relaxed.
Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and there’s no one “right” way to make the most of your summer break. Set achievable goals (you are not in a competition with the Kardashians or the Jenners), and find ways to make activities enjoyable, and you’ll be well on your way to a fulfilling summer break, even if you consider yourself unabashedly “lazy”.
