I for one watched enough IG stories and YouTube videos in 2020 to last me until 2022. But we all know that day will shortly come where we’re back in the comforts and struggles of our own lives and scrolling through the feed to keep that sense of connection. This and a 1,000 other small, tedious, and exhausting life decisions are why we’ll likely fast forward to NYE 2021 and tell ourselves the same loop of a story about how this next year will be the year we take a giant forward in our quality of life.

To make sure we actually hold ourselves accountable to our dreams, we need to make some small, daily changes to how we operate. Here’s my short list of things to do right now to make sure 2021 is your year to be more productive:

1- Strip out screens

The only way to truly focus on what you want to do this year is to start turning down all the incoming noise, traffic, ads, news and distractions that our digital screens normalize as beneficial (and profit off of!).

All of this stays in our minds as heavy baggage when we’ve already filled up all of the overhead bins. So we end up sitting with our most important life decisions and dreams stuck in the mud as we juggle between 7 to 10 different topics on a normal day.

The easiest way to regain control of your life is to detach yourself from screens. Maybe just for 15 minutes a day, but that’s 15 more minutes than you’ve consciously done in the past. Find a way to downscreen for a good chunk of time where you can be creative, decisive, and focused on something of your choosing. Replace time scrolling on IG with this creative endeavor you’ve been wanting to get started on and we’re waiting for the turn of the calendar to kick you into action.

And once we’ve put down the screens for awhile we start driving the car again and start asking ourselves how do we want to spend the day constructively? Which nicely segways into the next point..

2 – Make time to talk to yourself

To really really get the most out of this year you have to start with regular daily talks with yourself. There’s more magic in time spent with your own thoughts than original content on Disney+. I’m serious, just starting with an internal chat to organize your frantic minds thoughts will do more for you than any new productivity app could.

So take it slow, and begin or end your days having chats with yourself.

Beginner’ tip: If you have trouble starting, record an audio note to yourself on your phone. It’s easy to audibly say how you feel and then listen back to yourself.

3 – Have meaningful conversations

Once we’ve established some internal dialogue, take that outward and reach out to friends and family and have a meaningful conversation. Talk about your dreams, your frustrations, a future business you want to start, and the whole kitchen sink! But just make sure you’re not just going through the motions with small talk and gossip, and instead actually having conversations that challenge your current way of thinking and in-turn create that mindset that craves to push your life forward.

4 – Develop one trigger to snap you into a productive state

Everyone’s enthusiasm and optimism is at a yearly high after New Year’s. I mean we just bumped Mariah Carey and binged on feel good holiday movies for the past month! But we will quickly get wrapped up in our same ol’ day to day movements as before the holi’s. And when that general malaise takes hold you could be in for a long winter 🥶 (if you live in the tropics then you’ll probably be fine 😉

So like I said above, instead of scrolling through another content feed, catch yourself opening up IG/Twitter/News, downscreen and do the next thing on your life list of things to do. Which is essentially, the next most important thing to do that brings you closer to your goals. If you need a cheat sheet, just look back to your new year’s resolutions and work towards completing something there. But start eradicating one small bad habit and replacing it with one small good habit. You’ll be amazed at how one good action begets another.

5 – Check in with yourself

You thought one paragraph was enough to get your attention! Now we need at least a 2nd bullet point to hammer home the point of how important it is to have a conversation with yourself! In fact let’s put it bold and in italics to show that it’s a central theme of this meta article:

“Have a conversation with yourself”

Start with 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, and have a consistent, uninterrupted convo with yourself. Some people meditate, some go for a nature walk, and others leave a voice for themselves. Having this time to check in with your true self is instrumental in keeping your ship pointed and heading in your dream direction.

If you just take one thing away from this post make sure to do something intentional for yourself each day, like checking-in with yourself. But the rest of you make sure to incorporate all 5 tips to super charge your productivity in 2021! 😁✌️