It is impossible to be productive every single day. Sometimes, we revert back to bad habits and fail to have a good, productive day. This is okay. None of us are perfect. It is completely normal to have a couple of days where you just don’t feel like yourself.
But if you are trying to do something great in life, you will need to get back on track as soon as possible.
In this post, I will give you four things that you can do right now to get out of a rut:
Change your environment
Whenever I am in a rut and unable to get any meaningful work done, most of the time, I find myself in the same environment. For a long time, I did the majority of my work in my bedroom. This was not a good choice because I was distracted so easily. I was always refreshing Twitter, or watching YouTube, or doing pretty much anything that kept me from getting my work done. Often, something that should take an hour would take me three.
I knew that a change was necessary, so I made one. Now, I do all of my work at the library. When I am at the library all I do is work. Nothing else. No Twitter. No YouTube. No listening to podcasts or music.
I felt myself in a bit of a rut, so I decided to change the environment where I worked. This has been a complete gamechanger for me. I now find it much easier to focus on what needs to be done.
If you are stuck in a rut right now, go and try to find a new place to get your work done. It doesn’t really matter where, as long as it is relatively quiet and comfortable. Then get to work! I am certain that a change in environment will help propel you out of a rut.
Go through the motions
Even if you are not feeling at your best or most creative, it is very important to just go through the motions. When you are stuck in a rut, your mind wants to convince you to not work because you are tired or not feeling well. And while this may be true, you still need to be productive. Nobody is operating at 100 percent 100 percent of the time.
When you aren’t feeling at your best, my best advice would be to go through the motions. You don’t have to do anything crazy, just keep it simple. If you want to work on your paper but are feeling run down, write one bad paragraph. If you want to go to the gym but are feeling tired, start small and lift some light weights. After all, one bad paragraph is better than no paragraph. And light weights lifted are better than no weights lifted.
On your “off” days, you probably aren’t going to write your magnum opus or lift your personal record. But, if you stay consistent and continue to work even when you don’t feel quite right, you will get out of your rut much faster, allowing yourself to get to the magnum opus or P.R much faster.
Follow the two day rule
If you struggle with consistency, chances are you find yourself in a rut from time to time. This is where the two-day rule comes in.
The two day rule — which was popularized by YouTuber Matt D’Avella — is a rule where you don’t allow yourself to miss two days in a row of any given task. This could be reading, writing, going to the gym, or anything that you have been trying to accomplish but just can’t seem to stick with.
Instead of neglecting whatever you want to do for weeks on end, the two day rule forces you to stay consistent. If you adopt the two day rule into your life, I guarantee that you will become more productive and get out of ruts much faster.
Wake up early
The days when I feel the most sluggish or lazy are often the days that I sleep in and let the morning slip away. Often one day of sleeping in turns into two, and then three, and then all of a sudden, I have wasted a week’s worth of mornings and fell into a deep rut.
On the other hand, the days that I am most productive are the days that I wake up early and get to work. If you find yourself in a rut, one of the easiest ways to break out of it is to wake up early.
Waking up early is so key to getting out of a rut because waking up early is a productive thing to do. Therefore, you are starting your day off by doing something productive. If you wake up early, chances are you are going to want to continue to be productive for the rest of the day. So maybe you will go to the gym or read a book. But if you sleep in, it is going to be much harder to be productive for the rest of the day. And even worse, if you sleep in, it is going to be much easier to sit on the couch and watch T.V or YouTube first thing in the morning.
If you wish to get out of a rut, wake up early.