All posts by Deanna Ritchie

Laziness tends to get a bad rap. And, to be real — that’s a fair assessment. I mean it’s difficult to get things done when you’re just vegging out on the couch all day. For an entrepreneur — being lazy is almost impossible. Even thinking about being lazy doesn’t enter your mind. We may have to use a different word like “relax,” and even that word is scary. But, there are perks to being lazy.

Laziness isn’t all that bad. Let’s say that you’ve had a hectic day so far — and there’s no end in sight. Is it really the end of the world if you literally do nothing for 15-minutes?

What if you have one of those “lazy” days? As opposed to forcing yourself to work, which will probably be subpar, listen to what your body is telling, and take-off.

The point is, you can’t be “on” all of the time. Sometimes you need to kick back, relax, and be lazy. I mean if it worked for Einstein, Picasso, and Newton, then it probably will for you as well. But, if you still feel guilty about this, then here are seven perks of being lazy.

You’re less likely to burnout.

While most of us are familiar with burnout, though we may not realize how common it is. According to Clockify, seven out of ten people have really suffered with burnout. Why’s that a big deal? Well, this type of stress affects your productivity, as well as the following consequences:

• Ill health.
• A strain on relationships.
• Disorganization.
• Running behind and missing deadlines.
• Diminished work quality.
• A decrease in creativity.
• Loss in business revenues.

In short, burnout is incredibly dangerous. But, you can prevent this by allowing yourself to a little lazy. For example, taking breaks regularly to catch some z’s or just let your mind wander. As noted in Psychology Today, “Burnout puts your mind and body in a weakened state, so avoid jumping from one stressful, time-consuming project to the next in order to give your mind and body a chance to recover.”

Moreover, when you take it easy, you also set boundaries, like not bringing your work home with you. And, if you don’t feel like doing something, you have no qualms saying “no.”

If you are an entrepreneur — it is especially important to watch for burnout. You have to learn how to deal with burnout and the effects on you and your whole family.

It’s beneficial to your health and well-being.

When you’re less stressed, you’re obviously in better health — physically and mentally. However, when you embrace your laziness, you’re more well-rested. That’s easy to see why if since you’re making sleep a priority — you may even be known for taking catnaps during the nap.

But, there’s an additional advantage here; you’re going to improve your workouts. I know that that may sound counterproductive. The thing is because you don’t want to spend hours exercising, you’re going to be on the lookout for shorter, more intense physical activity. Research shows that these types of exercises are better suited for staying fit and weight loss.

Laziness makes you more effective and efficient.

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” — Bill Gates

Just like finding a shorter and less intense workout, laziness can make you more effective and efficient. Why? Because you’re going to find the fastest way to complete a task without exhuming a ton of energy.

In return, that could spark creativity or out-of-the-box thinking. Or, it could encourage you to properly delegate the things that you either aren’t strong at or just don’t want to do. The latter may sound selfish. But, if you dread doing an activity, then why would you force yourself to do it when there’s someone else willing to take it off your hands?

It encourages idleness.

“Laziness is a lost art,” writes Chris Bailey, author Hyperfocus. “I don’t mean laziness in the sense of filling each moment with mindless distraction. I mean proper idleness when we choose to do nothing.”

That’s important when living in a world full of distractions where “we rarely put our mental feet up. Instead, we spend our spare time bouncing between novel distractions — going from checking our email, to reading the news, to surfing Facebook, and so on — activities that often make us even more tired.”

Additionally, this interferes with our focus. And, this doesn’t give us a chance “to connect these swirling ideas,” adds Bailey. But, when our attention is resting, “our mind wanders to fascinating places. One study, which periodically sampled people’s thoughts while their minds were wandering, confirmed this. The places our mind wanders to include the future (48% of the time), the present (28%) and the past (12% of the time).

Moreover, an idle mind grants us to:

• Rest. Deliberating letting your mind wander “makes the mode energy-restorative, which helps us focus more deeply later.”
• Plan. Bailey writes, “strategic laziness allows us to set intentions and recall our goals in the first place.”
• Unearth ideas. “Our wandering mind connects all three mental destinations: the past, the present, and the future,” explains Bailey. As a result, “this allows us to experience significantly more creative insights than when in a focused state.”

You’ll improve your emotional intelligence.

There’s another advantage to letting your mind drift, it gives you the opportunity to reflect. While that’s an asset to your creativity and problem-solving, this allows you to become more self-aware. As a result, you’ll be able to increase your emotional intelligence.

If you want to be more productive and overcome a vast amount of human frailty — work on your emotional intelligence.

Even if you don’t want to literally sit back and do nothing, it’s been found that watching TV can also improve your EI. The caveat here is that you shouldn’t make this a common occurrence. It also depends on what you watch — in this case, it’s award-winning dramas like “The West Wing” or “Mad Men.” And no one can dispute the value of Ted Talks.

Allows you to procrastinate.

Wait. Isn’t procrastination a bad thing? Sure, if it’s something that you struggle with daily. But, there are also some benefits.

Susanna Newsonen MAPP writes that procrastination can be good for you because of the following reasons:

• Active procrastination makes you get more things done. When you’re an active procrastinator, you’re more likely to clear the items off your to-do list — even if it’s not the task you’re procrastinating on.
• Unnecessary tasks disappear with procrastination. When you’re dragging your feet, you may stop and ask why it’s important to you.
• Shines a light on what’s most important to you. If something doesn’t have purpose or passion, then why are wasting your time on such matters?
• Makes you more creative. As you procrastinate, “your mind is subconsciously collecting ideas and processing things to prepare you for it,” explains Newsonen. “That means that when you actually sit down to get to it, you have a lot more ideas in your head on how to go about it.”
• Helps you to make better decisions. Procrastinating buys you time to listen to both your rational mind and intuition.
• Leads to better apologies. “If you’ve done something wrong and you owe someone an apology, it’s better to give them (and you) time to cool off,” writes Newsonen.

You won’t waste time or energy on the unnecessary.

Lazy people avoid unproductive things. Whether it’s monotonous work, unnecessary meetings, busy work, or hopeless ventures, they don’t waste their time and energy on these items. Instead, they focus on what’s important to them — mainly their personal and professional priorities.

What about everything else? As mentioned earlier, either delegate these tasks to someone else or drop them from your schedule. When you scratch-out the non-essential — you’ll notice that you’ll have availability to get more things done.

How to master the art of laziness.

The list here is not all that complicated. At its core, being lazy — or at least knowing how to hustle and get things done and then have fun — should come naturally. Laziness — as mentioned here doesn’t mean wasting all of your precious time on things like watching TV. The “art” is about establishing boundaries, taking breaks, and focusing more on what it’s important to you.

Being lazy is rethinking your productivity and not over-planning. For example, just because you only worked for 4-hours doesn’t mean the day is a wash. Leave a few blank slots in your calendar allowing for more flexibility and opportunities to go with the flow.

Being a parent is a full-time job. Balancing meals, budgeting, school, and extracurricular activities can be quite the handful, even without an parenting calendar apps.

To get it all done, parents have to be efficient. They need to get organized and plan ahead, all while staying on top of their own priorities.

How can you get it all done and keep it straight? By plotting everything out in a calendar app.

Top Calendar Apps for Families

Calendar apps are pocket-sized life preservers for parents. For those looking to boost their parenting game, these 7 apps are top picks:

1. Calendar

With a name that’s easy to remember, Calendar is an all-in-one scheduling tool. Also popular with business owners and teams, Calendar’s clean layout and smart tools are perfect for parents.

One of Calendar’s most powerful features is its analytics dashboard. The app tracks your time usage and gives you an in-depth look into how your time is being spent. That way, you can make sure you’re getting a good balance of work and family time.

Calendar is free for Apple, Android, and desktop users. A premium plan is available for $10 a month.

If you’re looking to create a family-wide calendar, consider a team plan. The basic team plan is free, while the Pro Team plan costs $8 per month. Plans cost $2 per month less when purchased annually.

2. Bievo

Whatever it is your family needs to stay connected, Bievo has you covered. Bievo’s features include:

• Separate calendars for work and family
• Task lists that include events and deadlines
• Family Circles for connecting with extended family and planning birthdays and anniversaries
• Caregiver access, which limits what babysitters and nannies can see while keeping them connected
• Automated synchronization for easy importation of school and extracurricular calendars

Where Bievo shines is its customizable, family-wide access. Co-parenting, caregiving, and getting the word out to the whole family is easier with Bievo.

Bievo’s basic package is free. For $12.99 per year, Bievo Premium unlocks caregiver access and shared family lists.

3. Cozi

A three-time Mom’s Choice Award Winner, Cozi is one of the most popular family organizers around. Cozi uses a simplistic design to make organization easy for families of all sizes. Color-coding helps to distinguish between each family member’s events to avoid mix-ups and miscommunications.

In addition to storing your family events and activities, Cozi also lets you manage grocery lists and recipes from your phone. This information can be shared, so others can handle dinner when you need a break from your post as family chef.

Cozi is free for all. It’s compatible with Apple and Android phones, as well as tablets and desktop computers.

4. BusyKid

As a parent, you’re raising your children to become responsible adults. The trouble is, chore lists take you as much time to put together as they do for your kids to tackle.

BusyKid makes it easy to compile chore lists. It lets you set allowances, whether given as money or other privileges, and determine how they’re earned.

Using BusyKid’s online calendar, you can arrange tasks throughout the week for each child to complete. You can set pay days for their work, pointing them to BusyKid’s blog content about saving, investing, donating, and spending to help them use it wisely.

Best of all, BusyKid is free to use. If you want to use its financial features, however, you’ll need to connect a bank account or a credit or debit card.

5. Curago

Make family organization fun with Curago’s customizable calendars. Attach photos, select themes, and even comment on events to create a unique family scheduling system.

Curago has a sleek, modern design. To help every member of the family plan their day, it displays the weather, upcoming events, and top news stories.

Curago is free for Apple and Android devices, as well as web browsers. Good news for Apple lovers: Apple Calendar data can be imported automatically for a seamless migration.

6. WeParent

Families come in different shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common: They don’t let anything get in the way of their kids’ wellbeing.

Dedicated to helping co-parents share custody efficiently is WeParent. Planning out parenting responsibilities and weekend trips can disrupt the family dynamic, so WeParent uses reminders and task lists to minimize miscommunications.

First, WeParent has users choose their family setup: two parents, one parent, separated parents, or a blended family. Then, the app uses event scheduling, secure messaging, contact sharing, and photo storage to keep the connection strong.

You can try WeParent for free for 14 days on Apple and Android devices. After your free trial, WeParent costs $7.99 per month or $69.99 per year for the entire family.

7. FamilyWall

FamilyWall, which bills itself as “your family assistant,” has everything your family needs to run a tight ship. Shared calendars and to-do lists keep you all the same page. If certain activities are relevant only to certain members of the family, you can create groups specifically for them.

What sets FamilyWall apart is its real-time location tracking. Many parents feel anxious when their child is taking a little longer to bike home from school than normal. FamilyWall lets you keep tabs on them, with notification features to let you know when your kids arrive safely at their destination.

FamilyWall is free for Apple, Android, and desktop. Step up to FamilyWall’s premium plan for $4.99 a month or $49.99 annually. The family locator is included in the premium package, along with meal planning tools and easy syncing with Google Calendar and Outlook.

None of these calendar apps can do the hard work of parenting for you, but they can make it easier. Talk to your partner about the best online calendar for your needs. By weighing your options together, you’ll choose the best calendar app for your home team.

It’s a question that mankind as tried to answer for centuries. Are you more productive working from home? Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The concept of remote work has been around for a very long.  With the COVID-19 mess we are asking this question more and more. Ask yourself — are you more productive working from home?

As noted in a fascinating Fast Company piece, “there was no such thing as going to a different place to labor.” Around 1.4 million years ago, an extinct hominid species called Homo ergaster (“working man”) “foraged for plants and hunted animals for food” close to their dwellings.

Many millennia later, labor was clustered in the home,” adds Lydia Dishman. “Medieval England had the ‘longhouse,’ which was inhabited by peasants and their livestock at either end of the building. In the middle, there was the kitchen, as well as the center for spinning/weaving/dressmaking, dairy, butchering, and tanning.” During this period, it was common for merchants to work their trades from home too.

To be honest not much has changed. Even following “the Industrial Revolution, home-based work continued to thrive as shopkeepers, funeral parlors, and schools featured proprietors and teachers living and working in the same building.”

However, during the early 20th century in the U.S., immigrants would work in their apartments — some were know as “sweatshops” because of the heat.

After WWII, there were more in-home sales and telecommuting opportunities for women. But, it wasn’t until the 1980s that companies began to experiment more with flexible hours. It also didn’t hurt that technological advancements, like personal computers and the internet, became more accessible.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Research from 2019 found that 74% of respondents reported that flexible working has become the “new normal.” And, following the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s expected 25-30% of the workforce will be working from home multiple days per week in 2021.

The Pros and Cons of Working From Home

So, being able to work from your home has been around for ages. Why?

Well, probably out of necessity — current stay-at-home orders have proven that. For employers, it can also be cost-effective and helps them tap into a deeper talent pool.

As for freelancers, business owners, or employees who have this option, they cherish the following advantages:

• More autonomy and independence.
• No stressful and time-consuming commutes to work.
• A healthy work-life balance.
• Saving money since you aren’t purchasing as much gas, public transportation tickets, or ordering out for lunch.
• No workplace distractions, such as chatty co-workers.
• Ability to create your own inspiring work environment.
• Improved mental and physical health since you aren’t as stressed and have time to attend to your well-being.

Most importantly, working from home makes you happier and improves your job satisfaction. And, when put together, it will influence your productivity for the better.

At the same time, there are drawbacks to remote work, such as:

• Increased isolation — which can impact your mental health and performance.
• Working too many hours since there aren’t boundaries.
• Distractions like chores, housemates, pets, or Netflix.
• Feeling out of the loop with your colleagues.
• Not having access to the resources and tools you need to work effectively.
• Lack of a proper workspace.
• Unhealthy lifestyle — you aren’t walking as much, frequently visiting your fridge, and don’t have ergonomic furniture.

Obviously, those disadvantages will negatively influence your productivity as well.

But, that doesn’t answer this lifelong quarry. Are you productive working from home or not?

What’s the Data Say About Work From Home Productivity?

To help settle this, let’s dive into some data, shall we?

• “On average, remote employees worked 1.4 more days every month, or 16.8 more days every year, than those who worked in an office.” (Airtasker)
• According to data from RescueTime, “remote workers had a 4% increase in average daily time spent on their core work and an 18% decrease in time spent on communication (compared to office workers).”
• “Remote workers save 2–5.5 hours a day without commuting and in-person meetings.” (RescueTime)
• “People who work from home are 17% more likely to leave work ‘feeling accomplished about what they set out to do.’” (RescueTime)
• “Remote work has had only a small negative impact on productivity – an average reduction of 1 percent.” (Valoir)
• “The average workday is 9.75 hours, with an average start time of 8:15 am and average end time of 6 pm.” (Valoir)

Still not convinced? We got more stats for you.

• A study from Owl Labs, and published for its 2019 State of Remote Work report, stated that full-time remote workers are happy in their job 22 percent more than those who don’t. The reasons? Improved work-life balance (91 percent), increased productivity/better focus (79 percent), less stress (78 percent), and no commute (78 percent).
• Following a 2-year Stanford study, “showed an astounding productivity boost among the telecommuters equivalent to a full day’s work,” writes ScottMautz for Inc.com. “Turns out work-from-home employees work a true full-shift (or more) versus being late to the office or leaving early multiple times a week and found it less distracting and easier to concentrate at home.”
• “Additionally (and incredibly), employee attrition decreased by 50 percent among the telecommuters, they took shorter breaks, had fewer sick days, and took less time off,” adds Mautz. “Not to mention the reduced carbon emissions from fewer autos clogging up the morning commute.”
• According to research from Airtasker, “remote employees were healthier in terms of exercise. On average, they clocked in two hours and 44 minutes of physical exercise each week, which was 25 more minutes each week than office workers.”

Not all tasks are created equal.

While the data seems to prove that people are more productive working from home, there is a caveat.

A 2012 study found that productivity decreases when it comes to “dull tasks.” The reason? Well, since you’re in a less structured work environment, you’re more likely to succumb to distractions. In other words, you’re tempted to do laundry or walk your dog instead of focusing on boring assignments.

However, when it comes to creative tasks, you’re more productive. That’s because structure stifles creativity.

What’s more, not everyone is cut out for remote work. If you lack characteristics like self-motivation, discipline, being responsive, and possessing strong communication skills, then it’s less likely that you’ll be successful at working remotely.

How to Be Productive Working From Home

Regardless of what science has found, and if you have what it takes to work from afar, there are ways to ensure that you can be productive.

Establish routines.

Create a schedule where you primarily work during your most productive hours. Keeping track of your time can help you figure this out. Another trick is to align your schedule with your priorities.

Additionally, make sure that you schedule frequent breaks throughout the day. It’s the most effective way to keep you fresh since you need them to recharge.

Identify and eliminate distractions.

When it’s time to work, turn off your phone and notifications. To prevent FOMO, block out specific times to check your messages.

If you live with others, be clear on when you’re working and when you’re not. Sharing your calendar with them, closing your home office door, or setting up a signal system are useful tactics.

What about background noise? I suggest investing in a decent pair of noise-canceling headphones.

Set up a dedicated workspace.

Do you have a spare bedroom, garage, basement, attic, or shed? Consider converting them into a home office. Besides being quiet places to focus, with the space to set up a proper home office, this can keep your personal and professional lives separate.

Furthermore, make sure that you keep your work area clean and organized. A little mess may help with creativity. Overall though, it can cause your mind to wander.

Take care of your health and well-being.

Make physical activity a priority. As for your mental health, block out time for self-care, take walk outside, and prep healthy meals in advance.

If you work with a team, schedule virtual meetings with them to combat loneliness — it will also build rapport and keep you in the loop. In fact, “studies have found that teams are more productive when they communicate in bursts followed by periods of isolation for focused work.”

Beware displaced productivity.

“Displaced productivity is when you replace what you’re supposed to be doing with something else that still seems productive, but isn’t a priority,” writes Amanda Abella in a previous Calendar article. “For example, as I am writing this from my living room, I’m feeling the urge to do laundry.”

While this is still a good use of your time, it’s also getting in the way of your work. “The secret is to know when you’re using ‘productive’ tasks to procrastinate,” says Amanda. “Trust me; you’ll know when it’s happening because you will use every excuse – including cleaning the bathroom – to avoid working.”

Regardless of how you personally feel about social media, there’s no denying that it can be a powerful tool for you professionally. Social media has to ability to increase your brand awareness, establish you as an industry leader, address customer service inquires, and manage your reputation. In turn, this can generate leads, sales, and generate a loyal following.

But, before posting or sharing content willy nilly, you should take the time to develop a solid social media calendar. Why? Well, that’s an excellent question. And, let’s answer that in the following article.

What is a social media calendar?

Let’s take a moment and quickly rundown what exactly a social media calendar is.

“A social media calendar is just what it sounds like: a calendar for scheduling social content,” explained Breonna Bergstrom on the CoSchedule blog. Just like any other calendar, this can come in the form:

• A printed calendar or physical planner.
• An online or digital calendar, such as Google Calendar.
• Spreadsheets created through Excel or Google Sheets.
• Premade social media templates.
• Social media scheduling tool like CoSchedule, Sprout Social, or Plannable.

Each method has it’s own unique set of pros and cons. For example, going the digital route makes it much easier to share and collaborate with others. At the same time, constructing and managing a spreadsheet can be tedious and time-consuming.

My advice is to experiment with each and see which type of calendar works best for you and your team. As long as it helps you determine when, where, and what type of content you’re going to publish, you can’t go wrong with whatever calendar you use.

Why do you need to take time to develop a solid social media calendar?

I feel like we barely scratched the surface here. While a social media calendar can point you in the right direction, it also will save you time and preserve your sanity.

Just think about it for a second. Let’s say that during your morning routine you update your social channels. Because you didn’t plan out what you’re going to post, you have to scour the web every morning to find a piece of content that your audience will connect and engage with.

To be fair, that might only take you a couple of minutes — especially if you have an RSS feed or curating content from other industry leaders. Other times though you might waste 15-minutes searching for the perfect piece of content. And, that’s not even getting into the time it takes for you to create your own.

Doing that on a daily basis is like swimming against the current. It’s strenuous and wastes your valuable time. And, as the old adage goes, time is money.

Moreover, having a social media calendar allows you to maintain a consistent posting schedule. It also promotes accountability, lets you stay on top of your content across multiple channels, and lets you plan for holidays or observance days. Most importantly, it makes it easier for you to measure results so that you can continually improve your social media efforts.

Overall, having a social media calendar keeps you organized, eliminates excuses, and ensures that you’re making the most of your time.

How to create a social media calendar.

“Before you begin to fill out the social media calendar template you just downloaded, you need to determine what channels and content types you’re going to be using,” suggests Bergstrom.

For most of us, that should be pretty straightforward if conducting a social media audit. Just list the platforms that you’re currently active on. After that, evaluate the effectiveness of those channels by:

• Knowing where your target audience spends most of their time.
• Identifying the platform that has experienced the most growth.
• Determining which channels generate the most engagement and traffic.

After analyzing this data, you’ll want to answer an important question; what’s your goal? Remember, each and every social media post has a specific purpose. Are you using social media to tell your brand’s story? Is it educating or entertaining your audience? Or, are you promoting an event or new product?

Knowing what your goal is will guide in creating the right content for the right channel at the right time. And, with that out of the way, let’s take a closer look into how you can create a solid social media calendar.

Brainstorm content ideas.

“The first step is to develop content ideas,” wrote Abby Miller in a previous Calendar article. “These should be topics that fits your brands persona, addresses any questions or concerns your audience has, and that establish you as an expert in your industry.”

Some ideas to get the ball rolling would be:

• How-to guides, videos, or webinars.
• Customer success stories.
• Case studies.
• Playoff popular culture, news, holidays, or trends.
• Reading lists.
• Interview with a leader in your industry or business.
• Beyond-the-scenes of your business.
• Business-related infographics, statistics, press releases
• Weekly or monthly themes, such as Motivation Monday or 12 Days of Christmas.

“If you have existing content, go back and see if you can repurpose it,” adds Abby. An example of this would be converting an evergreen blog post into an infographic and sharing it on your social accounts.

“Ideally, you should develop enough ideas to schedule content for as far in advance as possible,” adds Abby. “I prefer to have enough ideas to last me for at least the next six months.”

Know when and where to post.

“Once you have an idea of the types of content you’re going to post, it’s time to create a posting schedule,” writes Sarah Aboulhosn for Sprout Social. “After auditing your past posts or competitors’ posts, you will begin to notice trends.” In particular, you’ll want to take note of “what days and times they were posted and on which platforms.” Pay attention to themes as well.

So, how often should you post onto social media platforms? Research suggests:

• Facebook pages: 1-2 per day
• Twitter: 3-10 times per day
• Instagram: 1-3 times per day
• Instagram Stories: 2-5 times per day
• Pinterest: 3-20 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-2 times per week

However, this can vary across industries and niches. According to Louise Myers, “At a minimum, you should post to your Facebook Pages 3 times per week.” Things get wild with Twitter as Myers suggests that you tweet between 3-30 times per day.

As for the other channels, here are Myers recommendations:

• “It’s generally recommended to post at least once per day, and no more than 3 times per day, on Instagram,” she wrote.
• For LinkedIn, at least twice per week.
• If you’re on Pinterest, at least once per day. But, 3-5 Pins is optimal.
• As for YouTube, you need to post a new video at least weekly.

I would recommend doing a little more research and experimentation. And, definitely pay attention to your analytics, like Facebook Insights, to see how often you should publish content — this can also let you know which times to post.

However, in my opinion, you can never go wrong with quality over quantity.

Add your campaign content to your calendar.

You know what content to create, where to place it, and how often. Now it’s time to add this information to a calendar.

Again, you can create your own template or use a pre-made option. Whatever you chose, remember to include the following information on your calendar:

• Posting days and time.
• The goal of each piece of content.
• Author.
• Campaign details.
• Sales cycle.
• Image details.
• Tabs for each channel.
• Link to post.

I should also mention that there are different calendar views for you to consider. For example, you may want to plan your calendar out for the next year. While not a bad idea, that can get overwhelming. So, you may want to establish mini-deadlines or break it up into seasons.

Even if you do plan out your calendar for the next 12-months, selecting a monthly view is probably the way to go. “Having a monthly view for your calendar is a really great way to not only be able to visualize your content for the next few weeks but it also helps highlight some of the big events coming up that you might need to focus on,” writes Sandrine Sahakians for Buffer.

“A monthly view can work for busy or light schedules,” adds Sandrine. “For busy schedule, I would recommend maybe using it to highlight the most important posts so that it doesn’t feel too crowded.”

However, the bulk of your work will probably be placed on a weekly or daily view. “The best way to be effective with your social media calendar is to have every single post for each day of the week already written out (or at least every single one you can get to),” says Sandrine.

“I would recommend you do this as early as possible and I think that starting the week with everything already planned out will most likely remove a lot of pressure from you.”

Schedule (or publish) your content.

With everything in place, it’s time to schedule or publish your content. Personally, I like batching my social media content. That means I will set aside a block of time specifically for social media content creation.

For example, on Mondays, I would use batching to develop all my social media content for the next couple of weeks. If I have the availability, I might even go further into the future a generate content for the next month or so.

And, to save time, I would recommend using a calendar that has a scheduling feature. That way you don’t have to worry about manually publishing posts.

Track and evaluate your efforts.

Finally, collect and analyze data to track your social media’s performance. You really want to pay attention to what’s driving traffic and engagement. From there, you can adjust your approach, like adjusting your posting schedule or the type of content you’re sharing.

Even better you can use this information to automate your social media activity. How so? By re-sharing your top-performing content on other sites like LinkedIn and of course, Twitter. Just remember to give correct attribution each time.

Without fail, it happens every year. The sun gets brighter, the sky bluer, and all I want to do is enjoy the outdoors. But, I still have to get things done — which seems impossible as I keep hearing birds chirping and the sun inviting me to back in its warmth. And if I don’t get into the sun at least a few minutes a day — I think I get a little depressed.

Thankfully, there are ways to remain productive when all you want to do is be outside. Here are ten of my favorite strategies.

1. Plan ahead.

Unless you’re a notorious planner, this isn’t always the most riveting task. But productivity just doesn’t happen. You need to make a plan. And, this is especially true when you would rather be doing something else, like relaxing in a hammock while sipping on a refreshing glass of iced tea or lemonade.

There’s no need to overwhelm yourself here. You could go old school and just create a list of your top priorities. You could also try techniques like the Rapid Planning Method or setting SMART goals.

Whatever method you employ, the key is to identify what’s essential and necessary. In a perfect world, this should be no more than three items. As for everything else? Either schedule them for later, delete them from your list, or assign them to someone else. In short, you want to reduce your responsibilities so that you have less to do in one day.

2. Start your day earlier — or later.

I’m a fan of waking up early. It’s quieter since no one else is awake. There fewer distractions because your phone isn’t going-off with calls, texts, and emails just yet. Als, you haven’t had a chance to gauge how nice it really is yet. And, you get your most important work out the way so that you can play. In a way, that’s an incentive.

Moreover, it’s been found that morning birds are usually more productive. That’s because they’re more consistent, calm, proactive, and refreshed.

If you aren’t a morning person, there is some good news. You can train yourself to wake up earlier.

• Prepare the night before by planning how you’ll spend tomorrow and going to bed earlier.
• Take baby steps like setting your alarm 15-minutes earlier and working your way up.
• If you’re groggy, exercise, or take a cold shower.
• Eat more protein and fewer cards during breakfast.
• Resist the urge to take naps.

At the same time, if you’re more productive later on, then create a reverse schedule. That means if you’re a night owl, you can enjoy the sunshine all day and then begin work as it sets.

3. Schedule your work around attention levels.

“On an average day, you will have different levels of attention,” writes Graham Allcott, author of how to Be a Productivity Ninja. “For ease, a crude analysis might highlight three different types of attention:”

• Proactive attention when you’re “fully focused, alert, in the zone, and ready to make your most important decisions or tackle your most complex tasks.”
• Active attention when you’re “plugged in, ticking along, but perhaps flagging slightly.”
• Inactive attention is when you’re struggling “with complex or difficult tasks.”

With that in mind, you should schedule your day around these attention levels. Of course, you can only do this after tracking your personal production peaks. But, after that, the concept is straightforward.

For example, if your proactive attention management time is from 9 am to 11 am, then that’s when you knock out your most important work. If idle attention time is from 1 pm to 3 pm, then that’s when you go outside for exercise or conference calls.

4. Predict when you’ll be less productive.

If you’ve tracked your time, then you have an idea of when you are and aren’t most productive daily. But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about here.

When you have some downtime, go through your calendar and see when you won’t be as productive. I’m talking about holidays like Memorial Day or the 4th of July or vacations. Despite your best efforts, it’s unlikely that you’re not going to get much, if any, work done when you’re traveling, chilling, or enjoying the festivities.

5. Soak-up the sun.

Find opportunities to stay productive while still getting outside. Examples include:

• Scheduling walking meetings, as opposed to your office or conference.
• Sitting outside while making your phone calls.
• Dining al fresco. Besides getting some fresh air and Vitamin D, eating lunch at your desk is bad for your health and productivity.
• Take your breaks outside. For instance, instead of reading or meditating inside, take these activities into your backyard. You could also go for a walk, run some errands, or just relax in a hammock.
• Compromise by working next to a window.

In addition to getting creative here, you could actually work outside. Simply grab your laptop, preferably not your primary work device, and find a comfortable spot to work.

If you have a backyard, work from a picnic or folding table if you’re fortunate enough to have a pool, set up shop there. Or, if you have the budget, build your own outdoor office, like converting a shed or customize your own through companies like outdoor Office.

If you don’t have this type of space, consider public parks and find a bench to work from. Some other ideas would be cafes or restaurants with outdoor seating or botanical gardens. Ideally, you would choose a spot with WiFi. If not, work offline or use your phone as a hotspot. And, consider your working preferences. If you prefer silence, then public spaces probably aren’t a good idea.

The most important thing to remember, though is that if you’re going to fight back against the glare. You can do this by sitting in the shade or increasing your screen’s brightness. You can also buy or create filters or screens.

6. Get accountable partners.

Do you have like-minded friends, family, or colleagues to keep each other on track? If so, make a deal with them like work until a specific time, and then go out and play. Okay — COVID has about killed me off — by osmosis. The isolation is awful, and I’m afraid for those who are suffering from this terrible virus. But I was doing okay until the riots.

Now — I’m not so good with all the distancing. Now, I’m begging my accountability partners just to keep track of me — text or call. Thankfully, my brother Brad has been working with me on some digital learning and career goals.

I’ve learned you don’t have to meet with your accountable partners — before COVID-19, I didn’t know this fact. But a daily text helps immensely, and a weekly phone call is life-saving. Sharing each other’s highlight of the week and the goals for next week has made all the difference to me.

7. Take note of distractions.

Taking note or writing down your distractions is a common productivity technique that everyone needs to master — regardless of the weather. For example, when it’s time to focus on work, turn off your phone, or silence your notifications. It’s the simplest and most effective way to prevent phone calls, texts, or email notification from interrupting your flow.

The same is true of social media. You’ll get a severe case of FOMO if you see others having fun while you’re trying to get stuff done.

8. Bring sustenance.

I hate being in the zone only to have to stop to get something to drink or eat. And, if you aren’t nearby your kitchen, that can be a real problem having to stop what you’re doing and run to the store. Determine that you will never run to the store in the middle of the day again. That one decision will also cut down on decision fatigue.

Whether if you’re in your backyard or a public space, have a small cooler with you containing water and healthy snacks. Besides satisfying your thirst or hunger, staying hydrated and full of brainfood will keep you focused and healthy.

Also, don’t forget to bring along some sunscreen and chargers for your gadgets — hear me — every device. You cannot get much done when you’re burnt to a crisp or dealing with a battery that’s dead.

The best suggestion for gadget prep — always have your cords, braided together in your bag. Have your cords run through your backpack from your devices to the plugin. You’ll never leave a cord again. A travel battery pack helps too.

9. Reward yourself.

Let’s say that you need to develop a proposal, fix a bug on your app, or discover ways to innovate your business. You block out two hours for this personal venture as a top priority — occasionally, take a friend if you feel like it. And guess what? You’ll complete them under that timeframe. Now it’s time to reward yourself by going to the park, beach, or your balcony for some much-deserved R&R. Sit in your hot tub or sit by the pool if you don’t have time to hit the beach.

I have a hard time not working. But it’s essential to rest, and it is beneficial to reward yourself. I read once that we need to finish many short term goals for good mental and physical health.

10. Give yourself permission to relax.

It’s not uncommon for things to slow down a bit during certain times of the year. And, this is particularly true during the summer. They say productivity drops by 20 percent in the summer and attendance dips by 19 percent. Project turnaround times increase by 13 percent — we’re more distracted and likely to socialize with others. I wonder what life will be like after COVID? Likely to over-socialize with others? Yes, I think so.

Enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasts, and take advantage of these summer hours. It will keep you fresh and help you avoid getting burned out. Most of all — after what we have just been through — and it’s not over yet — truly, permit yourself to relax.

What’s the point of tracking your productivity? Hey, if you don’t know how fast you are moving, there is no way to get faster. The main reason to monitor your productivity is to find out where you may want to improve, and in what way you might choose to change. Tracking keeps you focused on your goal, makes you more efficient, and helps you maintain a healthy balance. Keeping track also ensures that you’re working smarter, not harder.

Finding out when you’re most productive has some serious benefits. You’ll also want to know where you work the best — in order to hit peak production times. But, how can you find out your personal production peaks? Here are six ways you can find out how you are doing and where you are headed.

1. Time logs: The simple way to identify your peak productivity hour.

Believe it or not, it’s really not that difficult to track your personal productivity peaks. You just need a pen and a journal. Your Calendar is also a great place to keep track. Yep. It’s really that simple.

Of course, there are more steps involved here. But, it’s still the most straightforward method you can use to track how you’re spending your time.

• Pick a day and mark it in your calendar to start tracking your time. Just begin — or you’ll never make this commitment.
• List everything that happened during the day from when you wake-up to bedtime.
• Take into account factors that may impact your energy. Examples could be drinking coffee or being kept up all night because your toddler is teething.
• Record everything that you’ve accomplished in an hour. Ideally, you want to rate your performance on motivation, focus, and energy level.
• When you have some downtime, like during a break or at the end of the day, reflect on what you’ve done. The reason? You want to pick-up any patterns. For example, are you more energetic in the morning or afternoon? What times do you usually get distracted? When do you feel like you’re ready to go or need a rest?

How long should you keep a time log? For some, a week is sufficient. But, if you want a more accurate finding, the longer the better. Usually around a month is more than enough. However, some people prefer to track their time for up to three months.

If you want to get more in-depth, here some other suggestions you can try when tracking your time.

• Experiment. Maybe wake-up an hour earlier or sleep-in. Switch tasks around in your schedule. Take longer breaks, meditate, exercise, and alter your caffeine intake. All of these can influence your energy levels.
• Wake-up and fall asleep naturally — that means no alarm clock.
• Be aware of your ecosystem. “What this means is that the bedtime routine you have with your 2-year-old is going to possibly affect your performance in your 8 am meeting the next day,” explains Vanessa Kettner, a coach with Personal Best. “Or that traumatic 4 pm deadline you had every day in that job ten years ago might still be exercising its influence today.”
• Check your temperature. Don’t worry; this has nothing to do with COVID-19. Our body temperatures drop when we’re tired. So, record these fluctuations throughout the day to give you a better idea of energetic peaks and lulls.
• Make use of time and activity tracking apps. Most of these tools, like RescueTime and Toggl, run in the background of your computer or smartphone. They then track the time you spend on apps, websites, and projects so that you have a report on how you’re spending your time online.

2. Work with your Ultradian Rhythms.

If there was one pattern that I hoped you noticed while tracking your time, it’s when you have bursts of energy. For example, you may be most productive for an hour or so before crashing. That’s because of biological cycles called ultradian rhythms.

“Ultradian rhythms have been made famous primarily through a sleep study,” explains Wanda Thibodeaux over at Inc.com. “The ‘father of sleep,’ sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman, figured out that people go through ultradian cycles whenever they get some shuteye.”

However, Kleitman also “discovered rapid eye movement (REM) and proposed that sleep included active brain processes.” He “also discovered that a Basic Rest Activity Cycle (BRAC) is present when people are awake, too,” writes Thibodeaux. “Generally, these daily ultradian cycles involve alternating periods of high-frequency brain activity (about 90 minutes) followed by lower-frequency brain activity (about 20 minutes).”

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much science here. But, here’s the gist. When you track your time, you should be able to pick-up on these cycles.

Instead of fighting against them, use your ultradian rhythms to your advantage. Using any pattern or rhythm means spending those periods of high-frequency brain activity on your most challenging and essential tasks. For example, if your most wide-awake, alert time of day is between 9 am, and 10:30 am, then block that timeframe out for your top priority of the day.

As for the periods of lower-frequency brain activity? Those 20-minute blocks should be spent on activities that either don’t exhaust too much energy or help you recharge. Examples would be cleaning out your inbox, going for a walk outside, reflecting, or preparing for your next meeting.

3. Calculate your “Biological Prime Time.”

Coined by Sam Carpenter in his book Work the System, your “biological prime time,” as defined by Chris Baily, “is the time of the day when you have the most energy, and therefore the greatest potential to be productive.”

Obviously, your highest potential energy time is likely linked to your ultradian rhythms. But, you’re going to use a more systemic approach to calculate what your biological prime time (BPT) is.

To calculate his BPT, Baily charted his “energy, focus, and motivation levels for 21 days between the hours of 6 am and 9 pm.” Baily explains, “To control for any extraneous variables, I didn’t consume any caffeine or alcohol, worked out at different times every day, and woke up and fell asleep naturally.”

“My specific results aren’t too important, simply because yours will vary so much depending on your biology,” writes Baily. “But there are huge productivity benefits to charting your energy levels throughout a typical day.”

Likely the easiest and quickest method here is to use the time log method here. The key difference is that you’ll want to use a spreadsheet.

“From the moment you either wake up, or start working (it’s up to you), start tracking your Energy, Focus, Motivation, and Creativity on the hour, every hour,” writes Rob Nightengale for Make Use Of. “Set an alarm to remind yourself to do this. It should only take around 20–30 seconds per hour.”

“If you decide to only track from 9 am, you can leave the entries before 9 am blank,” adds Nightengale. “The same goes if you stop tracking at 5 pm.” With that in mind, “do try to only track during the same times each day. Otherwise, the data could be skewed.”

After that, it’s pretty simple. Just give yourself a score in “how you’re feeling in each area out of 10,” adds Nightengale. “Be completely honest with yourself here, and don’t fall victim to the Hawthorne Effect, where you may feel tempted to increase your scores just to make yourself feel better.”

“As you start inputting data, you’ll see the Totals and Average column will fill automatically,” Nightengale continues. “As will their respective tables and graphs on the right-hand side. You don’t need to touch these.”

Keep in mind though that if you only track 5 days instead of 7, “you will have to change the formula in the Average column to divide by 5 instead of 7.”

“By charting your energy levels (and focus and motivation levels, if you’re curious), you can schedule each day’s tasks based on when you have the most energy, focus, and motivation, and plan your entire day accordingly,” states Baily. “You can also visually see interesting trends in your day, like how much of a morning bird or night owl you are.”

If you don’t want to create a spreadsheet from scratch, Nightengale has been awesome enough to do the legwork for you. In other words, he’s created it for you, and you can download the Prime Time Calculator Spreadsheet here.

4. Follow the peak, trough, recovery cycle.

According to Daniel Pink, author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, we tend to through three predictable stages throughout the day; a peak, a trough, a recovery. Even without tracking your time or calculating your biological primetime, you probably already have some idea of these patterns.

But, let’s explore what they are in a little more detail.

The first stage is the peak. “Research shows we should be doing our analytic work during the peak, Pink told Sheryl Sandberg during a Facebook Live book discussion. “That is work that requires heads-down focus, attention, the keyword: vigilance,” he said. “Can you bat away the distractions?”

A trough is where our energy becomes limited. As such, this is when we make more mistakes. “What we should be doing during then is our administrative work: routine emails, all the variations of garbage we have to do in the course of the day,” Pink advises.

The lower production time is followed by a recovery where we feel re-energized. “We have a rising mood, which is good, but we’re less vigilant. It’s a good time for the creative work such as brainstorming, things where you need to be a little looser,” Pink stated.

Most individuals will move in that order. The exception is if you’re a strong night owl. If you are a night owl — the process is reversed.

These patterns are different for everyone. But, research from Priceonomics shows “that most people don’t really get going until 7 AM (a typical start time), and that after 5 PM (typical finish time), work quickly tapers.” What’s more, for most of us, our most productive time of day is 11 am, and it drops after lunch.

5. Match your work to your mental energy.

If you’re still trying to track your personal production peaks, then here’s a technique that Trent Hamm, founder of The Simple Dollar, has used:

Make an energy map of your days.

“Fire up your favorite spreadsheet program and open up a weekly planner spreadsheet, one that has the days along the top and the times along the left, split up into fifteen-minute or half-hour increments or so,” he writes. “Print off several of these (so that they’ll travel with you easily)”.

Now, you’ll just want to “keep it on your desk where you’ll notice it all the time.” The catch? Don’t use it for planning. Instead, “write in what you’re doing and use a number to describe how productive you feel, with a 10 being as productive as you possibly can be and 0 being asleep.”

After a couple of weeks, you should have some visual data on your natural energy levels.

Since you know when you’re most productive, Hamm suggests that you manage your energy by:

• Cataloging all of your routine tasks. The idea is to identify “which of your regular tasks require focus and concentration and which ones do not.”
• Making a rough framework schedule of your upcoming week the week before. Like Trent, I do this on Fridays. But, you can do this during the weekend if you prefer. Just make sure that you list all of your priorities and assign them to a specific day.
• Tighten up the framework the day before. “Each evening, I make a plan for what I intend to do the following day,” writes Hamm. “Since I already have a general list of the stuff I want to accomplish from my weekly plan, I just organize those items in an order that takes advantage of the natural ebb and flow of my energy throughout a given day.”
• Make “appointments” for specific tasks. For your vital tasks, schedule an exact time to focus on them. For Trent, that was writing his book. “8 AM, every day, one hour, then 10:30 AM, every day, a half an hour,” he writes. “This allowed me to make steady progress going forward, first with a detailed outline of the book, then filling in the pieces as I went.”
• Don’t force yourself to work through an energy valley. Even if you’re in the middle of something important, it’s best to stop and take a breather so that you can recharge.

6. Use your calendar as a self-tracking tool.

Even if you don’t live and breathe by your calendar, it can still come in handy in helping you figure out when you were most productive. For instance, if you reviewed last year’s calendar, you may have noticed some patterns. Did meetings occur at specific times? If so, what was the reasoning? Did you tackle a large project? How did you break it down? And, how long did it take you to complete each part?

How do you look up past data? Well, I recommend you check out this previous Calendar post from Abby Miller that lays out the process.

Even more promising? Online calendars continue to evolve; they’re becoming more intelligent. Take Calendar as an example. It uses machine learning to make smart suggestions on how you should spend your time and schedule events by using historical data.

Final words of advice.

After tracking your personal production peaks, manage them properly. That means reserving your most challenging or important tasks during your highest peaks. As for the activities that don’t require as much energy? Save them during lulls.

Most importantly, protect your time by saying “no” more often, single-tasking, and taking care of your health and well-being.

Do you sometimes feel like your Phil Connors in “Groundhog Day?” Right now, during quarantine, I certainly do. You know. You are seemingly living the same day over and over again.

Whether if you’re in a rut or working from home, it can certainly feel as if every day is the same. As a result, it’s pretty easy to lose track of time. But why exactly is this the case? And, how can you snap out of it?

Our experience with time is malleable.

“Perception of time has this ebb and flow,” psychologist J. Devin McAuley, the director of the Timing, Attention, and Perception (TAP) Lab at Michigan State University, told The Cut. “Objective time stays the same, but people’s perception changes based on several different factors,” such as memory and external cues.

According to researchers, there are various mechanisms used to explain how a person perceives time. “One idea is that essentially you have some kind of internal clock that is your internal sense of time, which is clicking along at some rate based on physiology,” McAuley adds. Think back to your daily commute or running errands. You probably stop at the same light so much that you have an idea of how long it takes from it to go from red to green.

But what if your overslept and are rushing to work? Because your internal clock is ticking faster, the light appears to last longer.

The influence of timing mechanisms.

Besides that, some other external factors can throw off your perception of time. Caffeine, stress, exercise, boredom, and even your age are some common examples of these external cues. Or, to put it another way, time flies when you’re having fun and plods along when you’re bored.

Case in point, a study published in Psychophysiology analyzed 42 participants before, during, and after experiencing a version of the Trier Social Stress Test. The results showed that social stress could fluctuate time perception.

In addition to stress, mental representations can also play a role. A study led by psychologist David Ellis from the University of Lincoln in the UK shows that people tend to forget what day of the week it is because of our feelings associated with them.

Days of the week matter too.

“Midweek days are confusable because their mental representations are sparse and similar,” explains the team’s final report in PLoS ONE. “Mondays and Fridays are less confusable because their mental representations are rich and distinctive, forming two extremes along a continuum of change.” For example, terms like ‘boring,’ ‘hectic’ and ‘tired’ were associated with Mondays, while Fridays were linked to more positive words like ‘party,’ ‘freedom’ and ‘release.’

“Indeed, more than a third of participants reported that the current day felt like a different day, and most of those feelings were on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, reflecting the midweek dip in associations attached to different days,” added Ellis.

“Our research implies that time cycles can shape cognition even when they are socially constructed. The Bank Holiday effect implies that apparent weekday is not determined solely by the seven days of the weekly cycle: transitions between the working week and weekend also play a role.”

In other words, if you’re returning from a long weekend or vacation, “your body’s complex system of time processing — and your subjective impression of the length of the workweek — may be thrown out of whack,” writes Stephanie Bucklin.

Routines have been broken.

Routines tend to change. That’s just a part of life. Think about chaotic things are in your home when your kids go back to school, or you’ve had to change shifts at work. Or, like most of us, you’re working from home because of COVID-19.

But, how does this influence how we can keep track of time?

“You naturally did something different on work-out days, for example, like you packed a gym bag, or waked up earlier, which made those days distinctive,” Zainab Delawalla, a clinical psychologist, told HuffPost. “You knew it was Thursday, not only by looking at your calendar, but because on Thursdays, you set your alarm for 7 am instead of 7:30 am, or you picked up bagels for the team on your way into work.”

“Without these distinctions, all the days ‘feel’ the same, and it’s hard to keep track,” she added. Even worse, when routines have been broken, this can negatively impact your productivity, health, and well-being.

Interference in Our Sleep Schedules.

What does sleep have to do with telling time? It’s essential to keep your habits changing for the better. Well, it’s all about circadian rhythms and our internal master clock.

According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, “A master clock in the brain coordinates all the biological clocks in a living thing, keeping the clocks in sync. Invertebrate animals, including humans, the master clock is a group of about 20,000 nerve cells (neurons) that form a structure called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN. The SCN is located in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus and receives direct input from the eyes.”

It’s your master clock that controls your circadian rhythms. So, interferences like daylight savings time and traveling to a different time zone can mess with this natural rhythm that regulates your biological — which we aren’t doing too much of these days.

And, COVID-19 is also disrupting our internal biological clocks. How so? Between new sleep schedules, insomnia, and increased exposure to blue light from the devices that we’re attached to. “And with much of our time spent indoors, we are limiting our exposure to natural light, which is an important external factor in resetting our circadian rhythms,” Delawalla said.

No separation between work and play.

“If you worked Monday through Friday at a certain location, then the weekends marked a change, “said psychologist Rebecca Leslie of Living Fully Psychological Services. “If you are now working from home and have nothing different that happens on the weekend, there is nothing to signify a change in days.”

The same is true if you’re working more then usual. Examples could be putting in 7-day workweeks when launching a product or currently working from home while self-isolating. As a result, the timing of days can get confusing because there isn’t an end to either the workday or week.

Your “anchoring” is off.

“Essentially, your weekly mental calendar is anchored by Saturday and Sunday,” explains Richard A. Block, a professor emeritus of psychology at Montana State University who studies the psychology of time. Because Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are smack-dab in the middle of your routine, they will usually blend together.

But, what happens when you lose sight of these anchoring cues? Obviously, it’s going to make it more challenging to keep track of the days of the week.

To back this claim up, Block mentions a study published in Memory and Cognition back in 1974. Researchers asked students on a college campus, “What day is today?” Asher Koriat and Baruch Fischhoff, the authors of the study, found that when people were further away from the weekend, they had difficulty remembering the day of the week.

To make matters worse, these anchoring cures could get thrown off even more. For example, a long weekend throws or having your trash/recycle day pushed back a day due to a holiday can cause some slight confusion.

“Days of the week is another set of temporal markers that don’t really have inherent meaning on their own,” says Anne Wilson, a professor at the Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and director of the Identity, Motivation, and Perception Extended in Time and Society (IMPETuS) lab. “We often recall the correct day of the week because it follows the same pattern every week.” That explains why any temporary disruption can throw us off.

How can you avoid losing track of time?

The prominent place to start is to add structure to your life. If possible, try to stick to your previous routine. For example, if you woke-up at 7 am and then leaped into your morning routine, then keep that up. If you held team meetings on Tuesdays at 2 pm, then maintain that recurring event. Keep in mind that your time is still significant. Treat your time as essential.

At the same time, you may have to be flexible. Take having to learn how to work from home with children. You’re probably going to have to adjust your schedule. Next, you’ll want to block out your day so that you can still get things done while teaching your children.

It’s also vital that you block out non-work activities and link anchors to them. For example, if you take an afternoon walk, then you could start dinner.

It’s also suggested that you differentiate your days and try out new traditions. An easy way to do to change things up is to create theme days for work, like doing all of your marketing on Mondays and taking all of your meetings on Tuesday. You can also do the same with your downtime, like Taco Tuesdays or taking a virtual fitness class on Wednesdays.

Other recommendations to keep track of your days:

• Making your workdays different from your days off.
• Getting outside every day.
• Adding a self-care routine to your calendar.
• Using grounding exercises like the 5-4-3-2-1 technique.

The most natural solution of all? Look at your calendar every morning to help your brain reset or stay on-track. It also wouldn’t hurt to set reminders for important tasks and events so that you won’t forget about them.

And, finally, make use of temporal landmarks. For example, if last night was Taco Tuesday, then it’s Wednesday. And, remember — we will be back on track soon. We have to!

40 million. That’s how many people age 18 and older are affected by anxiety disorders in the U.S. alone. To put it another way, approximately 18 percent of the population is affected by an anxiety disorder annually, making it the most common mental illness. Anxiety’s impact on time management is significant.

Even though struggling with anxiety is easily treatable and nothing to be ashamed of, only 36.9 percent seek out and receive treatment. Maybe individuals don’t seek help because they believe that it isn’t a big deal. Some people believe that anxious feelings are just temporary and will pass. Others may view anxiety as a sign of weakness. Whatever the reason — anxiety isn’t something that you should ignore.

When left untreated, anxiety can have a significant effect on you psychologically and physically.

Common symptoms include feeling nervous, restlessness, insomnia, hyperventilation, and nausea. Long-term effects include depression, chronic pain, digestive issues, or substance abuse. Some individuals will have an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

It shouldn’t be surprising then, that anxiety can also negatively impact your productivity and how you effectively manage time. When your tired and not feeling 100 percent, you aren’t going to have the energy to complete tasks promptly.

Anxiety makes it difficult to concentrate — it’s almost impossible to stay focused on what needs your attention right now.

But, those issues are merely scratching the surface of the trouble anxiety, and its destructive friends will cause you. Time management is your most important factor in success. Here’s a closer look at how stress influences time management.

Anxiety Makes Time Management Impossible

There are five major types of anxiety disorders. Each of these conditions can affect time management and productivity differently because of the various symptoms related to each. For example:

• Generalized anxiety disorder is a condition where you worry excessively about relationships, money, health, or current events. These thoughts are unprovoked and preoccupy your mind.
• Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is when you feel uncomfortable or self-conscious in social settings. As a result, you’ll avoid most social settings, turn down assignments, or not ask for help when you need it. Besides social phobias, you could have an irrational fear, such as a fear of heights. This category of stress impairs your thoughts and abilities from focusing or completing assignments.
• Panic disorders are when you have sudden episodes of fear. In turn, this can lead to physical symptoms like dizziness, increased heart rate, and shortness of breath. Understandably, the last thing on your mind is your work when you experience a panic attack.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder develops following a traumatic event. PTSD can cause symptoms like flashbacks, adverse changes in mood or behavior, or being easily startled. At work, PTSD (or small ptsd triggers) can be a problem if a co-worker unintentional frightened you. Getting back on track is sometimes impossible.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder is when you have “recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or repetitive behaviors (compulsions).” Examples include excessive handwashing and cleaning that provide temporary relief. These “rituals” can be distracting and time-consuming. They can also cause more anxiety if not performed.

“In the workplace, these symptoms can translate into difficulty working with colleagues and clients, trouble concentrating, preoccupation over the fear instead of focusing on work, and turning down assignments because of fear of failure, flying, going into the elevator, or public speaking,” writes Dulce Zamora for WedMD.

Time management can also cause anxiety.

Anxiety is a vicious cycle. As a consequence, making, creating, and sticking to a schedule, which is meant to help you with your time management woes, can trigger your anxiety. “You see, laying out a set schedule rather than making decisions as I come to them turns my entire day’s plan into an obligation,” writes Taylor Blumenberg. “I detest obligations, though I am well aware there is no way to completely avoid them.”

“Being obligated to do something takes away my control of a situation — even if I am the person who planned/assigned/volunteered for the task at hand,” explains Blumenberg. “It is ridiculous in a way, but also easy to understand the thinking behind. When given in abstract terms as above, the concept seems logical; in practice, however, it seems somewhat more absurd.”

Take a little time to figure out the best time management process if you have any of these additional stressors.

Additionally, Blumenberg says that another “issue for me with scheduled time management is the anxiety of timing” since she doesn’t have a great sense of time. Because she doesn’t like to keep track of time, Blumenberg is left “with either large gaps of time between tasks where I have overestimated how long something will take, or I end up racing to finish things in the allotted time.”

Consequently, this “causes stress — not only making, but following, a schedule almost more stressful than just doing things at random as I see fit, without losing any of the control that chasing a schedule forces on you.”

Ultimately, studies have found that anxiety disorders are connected with poor job productivity, as well as short- and long-term work disability. Additionally, it influences all aspects of your business.

Anxiety takes a toll on all business operations.

Perhaps the worst effect of being anxious is that you’ll miss deadlines. Because you can’t focus on your priorities, you may end up procrastinating or spend an unnecessary amount of time battling irrational thoughts.

If you’re working with others, you may avoid your team due to social anxiety.

You may have to ask others for help with your work, which is also stress-producing. Needless to say, this can bring the project to a screeching halt as others wait for you to wrap up responsibilities.

More troublesome? Anxiety can cause you to miss important deadlines.

It could also make others perceive your organization for being a non-collaborative work environment; you may damage your reputation. That may not sound terrible, but it can prevent clients, investors, or potential employees from wanting to work with you.

Finally, you may be anxious enough to be absent from work or loss of motivation. Again, that does almost irreversible harm to your productivity and image. Any of these situations will have an impact on your bottom line and potentially put your business in jeopardy.

The Best Ways to Reduce Anxiety

The good news is that there are simple and effective ways to cope with being anxious. As highlighted in a previous article for Calendar, these include:

• Identifying your triggers so that you can find solutions. For example, if you struggle with social anxiety, then consider working with a therapist or practicing deep breathing.
• Take care of yourself by exercising, eating healthy, and meditating.
• Learn how to self-soothe yourself.
• Do the things that you enjoy to eliminate your stress and focus on the positive.
• Take frequent breaks throughout the day and schedule time off.
• Focus on what you can control and only spend time on those responsibilities.
• Reassess your to-do-lists and ditch whatever is causing your stress. If you can’t completely delete them, then delegate or outsource them to someone else.

Still struggling with anxiety, and it’s impacting your time management and productivity?

One of the best ways to kick anxiety is to know what your triggers are. When you feel a trigger or a trigger takes you by surprise — immediately take a walk, raise your desk and stand for a while, hop on the office bike and watch TV, but, stop the anxiety quickly. Don’t allow the stress to fester even for a second.

I’m a firm believer that you have to save yourself — no one else will.

At home, to keep anxiety from coming to work with you — you can exercise, eat right, sleep right, keep your social connections secure, or take a hot bath. You can keep your creative pursuits going — paint, draw, music, or dance. These things can help you keep stress at bay in the first place.

If you still have some anxiety, consider working with a coach or mentor. Most business coaches and mentors seem to understand anxiety and pressure. Make sure that you also establish boundaries, like saying “no” when you already have a full calendar, and track your time so that you can accurately estimate how long it will take to complete a task.

Need more? Then break down projects into smaller and more manageable pieces to stop anxiety.

Set up a more flexible schedule if this will put your mind at ease. Don’t be afraid to speak with a qualified therapist to help you work through this mental health concern.

Growing up, there was an unwritten rule. Put your stuff away, or it’s going to get tossed by mom. Make your bed, or you’ll get called home from school to do that little chore. I’m sure these were lessons in taking responsibility. But, I honestly think that mom didn’t like clutter. Here are twenty ways to declutter your life, reduce stress, and clear your mind.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself agreeing with mom. For example, I cringe whenever I visit someone’s house or office, and they have stuff thrown all over their dining room table or desk. Obviously, I keep this to myself because I firmly believe people should live how they want to live.

Personally, clutter is stressful and distracting. It’s almost impossible to find items when you need them. And, it occupies your mind from getting stuff done. How can you focus on your work when that stack of paper is screaming for your attention?

It turns out that research has got my back on this. One study shows a link between clutter and procrastination. Numerous other studies have also found that clutter increases stress, decreases productivity, and makes it difficult to unwind. Moreover, clutter can encourage bad habits, such as unhealthy eating and sleep problems.

Too much clutter can signal a lack of control. And, most worrying to me is that clutter can clog neural networks. As a result, you’ll be slower and less efficient in processing information.

Overall, clutter can negatively influence your health, work performance, and possibly even your relationships. Thankfully, there are simple and effective ways — like the following 20 ways — to get rid of clutter in your life once and for all.

1. Create a decluttering checklist.

I think decluttering is a problem for most of us, maybe because of fear. What if I throw away that pair of pants and (horror), regret that decision — even though they were uncomfortable, looked hideous, and I hated them? What if I need to troubleshoot a problem someday, but I tossed the manual? You get the point.

One way to alleviate fear is to realize that removing the clutter from your life doesn’t mean living a life without any possessions you cherish (well, unless you move, then all bets are off). You’ll be reducing the number of things you own. For example, do you need to have a closet full of blankets? I need many quilts in the closet, but do you? You probably only need a lighter one for when it’s warm and thicket comfort for the colder months. You may even want to keep a throw on your couch. But, you probably don’t need much more than that.

To help get you started, create a decluttering checklist. It can help make this process less frustrating and give you a visual representation of what needs to be reduced. I love the book, “essentialism,” by Greg McKeown. You can also follow The Essential Declutter Your Home Checklist or use it as an inspiration to create your own.

2. Don’t overwhelm yourself; start small.

Let’s be real here. How likely are you going to clean and organize your entire home, office, or life in one day? That would be so ambitious it would overwhelm you, and likely prevent you from ever getting started.

Instead, take baby steps. Maybe set aside five minutes each day to straighten up a small area like a desk drawer or your car. After building up some momentum, set aside more time. Dedicate a Friday afternoon to get your office back in order.

Use this Saturday to declutter your kitchen, then next weekend work on a different home project. I have to break up cleaning binges with art binges. TV binges of old Christmas movies while ditching out my old stuff works pretty well. Listening to podcasts while you clean works quite well (you can’t go wrong with Tony Robbins on any subject he covers).

3. Does it bring you joy?

If you’re familiar with Marie Kondo, then you already know this tip. But, for those who aren’t familiar with her, it’s pretty simple.

Whenever you’re cleaning your home or workplace, physically hold or touch the item that you’re deciding about. Next, ask yourself, “does it spark joy?” Okay. You may not have to ask that literally. But, the idea here is to consider how you feel as you hold the object. For example, Kondo didn’t want to throw away an old and ragged t-shirt from an event she attended because when she held the shirt, it brought back good memories.

What if the object doesn’t invoke such feelings? Toss it — part ways with it. I admit to a “shitshow-box.” There are some things that I cannot part ways with, and I no longer force myself to go through those items. I only allow one small-ish box, and I only open this box if I want to “cry over spilled milk.”

4. Conduct a calendar audit.

Clutter isn’t just the items taking up physical space. It can also be the entries you’ve added to your calendar. Usually, Calendar clean-out includes minute activities and anything that you do automatically, such as brushing your teeth. Other examples would be unnecessary meetings, committing to too many social events, and recurring events that no longer fit into your schedule.

Review your calendar and remove these tasks and events from it. Going forward, start saying “yes” to less and use a scheduling assistant. You should also share your calendar with others to avoid double bookings and scheduling conflicts.

5. Adopt a no-freebies policy.

We’ve all been here before. You attend a conference or festival and come with a ton of free swag. I mean, who couldn’t use a new, and free, t-shirt, pen, water bottle, or beer koozie?

It may seem like a good idea at first. But, in reality, it’s just more stuff adding to your clutter — and it’s stuff you really don’t need. While this definitely takes some will power — stop stockpiling on all these freebies. I found some kids in the neighborhood that dig on that stuff. Let their parents worry about my trash.

6. Reconsider your routine.

Routines provide structure to your life. In turn, this reduces stress and makes your days less chaotic.

Establish a morning and evening routine. Jot down all of your daily and weekly obligations and add them to your calendar. Batch similar tasks together. And, only commit to what you can realistically achieve in a day.

In short, establishing a routine brings order to your life. It will also help you become more productive and prevents you from muddling your day with unimportant activities.

7. Unsubscribe and remove.

Struggling to keep up with your inbox isn’t just a serious waste of time — it’s a distraction that’s impairing your productivity and cutting into your enjoyment of life. With that in mind, one of the easiest ways to address your inbox is to unsubscribe from the emails that you never read. The same concept applies to newspapers or magazines that you never opened.

Speaking of digital distractions, remove any unused apps from your phone. As an added perk, it will help keep your device running at peak condition. You may even want to uninstall apps, like Facebook or Twitter, from your smartphone (I’d die, but you could probably handle it). The reason is that this will prevent you from looking at your phone every time you receive a notification.

8. Don’t get sentimental.

We all have items that we have an emotional connection to. You don’t necessarily have to throw away all of these items. But, again, the goal is to reduce them.

If you’re having difficulty with this, there is a simple solution. Just take a picture of the item and put it on the cloud. Not only will this help you let go, but it will also preserve the memory and not the possession.

9. Automate.

Here’s a simple way to clear your mind; embrace automation. Examples include setting up auto bill pay, scheduling social media posts, or creating out-of-office auto-responder emails.

10. Remove toxic people from your life.

Several years I befriended someone who I genuinely enjoyed spending time with. They were just a lot of fun and always wanted to explore any area when we could. The problem, unfortunately, was that they could also be a handful. There were several times when they would call me up after having a bad day. And, to be clear, it wasn’t just a quick synopsis. They would go on and on (which I love to hear), but soon, I was depressed. Sometimes I felt worse about their situation that they did.

But, if I ever needed to talk to them, they either didn’t listen or wouldn’t respond. Eventually, I decided to end the friendship because it wasn’t just one-side — it took a giant chuck out of my soul.

Evaluate all of the people in your life. And then, remove the people in your life who aren’t worth the time or energy.

11. Shred, recycle or trash anything outdated.

Do you have receipts from a decade ago? Is there a jacket in your closet that no longer fits you? Are there outdated medications eating up space in your bathroom cabinet? If so, don’t hesitate to shred, recycle, take to good-will, or trash these outdated items.

In a recent move, I filled an entire black garbage bag with old receipts, bank records, homes purchased and sold, etc. I should have shredded them — but I hadn’t kept up with that chore. Also, I had written down every expenditure I’d ever made in my life (including cash) from the time I was 15 years old. I gave it all away to my friend — the large blue recycle bin.

12. Simplify your goals.

There’s nothing wrong with setting goals. Goals give you focus, aid in motivation, and allow you to measure your progress. However, targets are only possible if you’ve established a small number of specific goals and objectives.

Review your goals to make sure that they’re not too broad or unrealistic. From there, develop an action plan on how you’ll follow through with them. Write all of your steps if you need to do that.

13. Tidy up your workspace and vehicle.

When you think of decluttering, you probably assume that’s getting your home or personal life in tip-top shape. But, it should also involve your workspace. The main reason is that your messy desk is killing your productivity. The process works for women, too, by the way.

Instead of continually putting this chore off until “tomorrow,” schedule a time in your calendar to tidy up your workspace. Ideally, this should be a time during a productivity lull, like in the middle of the afternoon. And, at the minimum it should involve you:

• Clearing and cleaning the top of your desk, as well as your drawers.
• Assigning a home for all of your stuff and trashing anything you don’t need.
• Filing paperwork using the standard alphabetical filing system. However, you can go further and scan these files so that you have digital versions. Now you can shred the original documents if they aren’t required.
• Removing unnecessary files or programs from your computer.

Additionally, take the time to tidy-up your vehicle. It’s better for your health, preserves the interior, and can improve fuel efficiency. It will also give you some peace of mind, like not having to worry about finding your insurance or registration if you ever got pulled over. Stick like items together. I have a small bag for make-up, a ziplock with some power bars and a water bottle, and a notebook and pen.

14. Use the four-box method.

The four-box method is an effective and painless way to help your conquer clutter. Just found four boxes and label them with the following categories:

• • Trash: These are items that you no longer need or want. But, they’re also not worthy of donating or selling.
  • Give away/sell: For the things that may have value to others, donate or sell them.
  • Store: Seasonal clothing is a perfect example of this. There’s no need to keep your Tommy Bahama shirt hanging in your closet when it’s 30 degrees outside.
  • Keep and put away: For the things that you use regularly, detonate a home for them and put them away when not in use.

15. Don’t buy anything unless it serves a purpose.

Just because there’s a fantastic sale doesn’t mean that you have to purchase it. For example, I recently got an email notifying me that there was a buy one, get one deal on sunglasses. It was a bargain. But, I already have two decent pairs of sunglasses, so there was no need to add to the collection.

16. Make it a social event.

Sometimes it’s just fun to do things with others. And, that’s even true when it comes to decluttering.

Besides giving you an excuse to spend time with your family or friends, they can also help you determine what to get rid of and what to keep. Just remember to offer to return the favor. You could even make this game with your children.

17. Stop multitasking.

Despite what you may believe, multitasking doesn’t work. It’s impossible.

“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves,” neuroscientist Earl Miller told NPR. “The brain is very good at deluding itself.”

“Switching from task to task, you think you’re paying attention to everything around you at the same time. But you’re actually not,” Miller said. “You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously, but switching between them very rapidly.”

That means that multitasking isn’t just counterproductive. It also causes your brain to struggle as it attempts to figure out what’s going on.

The better alternative is to focus on one thing at a time. When it’s time to focus on deep work, then that’s the only thing you should be focused on. When it’s time to clean out your closet or inbox, that’s the single task that deserves your attention right now. Everything else will have to wait until later.

18. Practice mindfulness.

One of the best ways to clear your mind, as well as decrease stress and anxiety, is to practice mindfulness meditation. The reason that mindfulness works is that it redirects your thoughts and attention to the present, You will stop being consumed by the past, future, and negative self-talk.

19. Unplug and unwind.

Your brain needs time to rest and recharge. As a result, you’ll be more productive and less stressed.

Schedule frequent breaks throughout the workday and get away momentarily. Go for a walk, read, or look out the window for a couple of minutes. At home, establish boundaries. For example, when it’s time to eat dinner, don’t look at your phone. During the weekend, go out and do something that you enjoy that’s not related to work.

Besides giving you a chance to decompress, disconnecting allows reduces the amount of media that you’re consuming. Obviously, you want to learn new information and skills. But, too much can clog your brain.

20. Make decluttering a priority.

Finally, there’s more to decluttering than just cleaning and organizing. It also about staying committed to living a clutter-free life. The easiest way to do this is to schedule frequent cleaning sessions in your calendar.

For instance, you could block out from four p.m. to five p.m. on the last Friday of every month to tidy up your office. Every Saturday morning could be reserved for household chores. And, so forth.

The idea here is that by scheduling these sessions, you’re committing to follow through with them. You keep your word — like you would with an appointment with a client or doctor. Also, because you’re staying on top of this, cleaning and organizing your life won’t be as overwhelming.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I made a quick trip to the local hardware store. I had a wild creative project that I wanted to get started on — immediately. I’d made a list of everything needed so I’d be in and out of the store quickly. When I got back to my car, I was hungry and didn’t have anything planned for dinner. I decided to grab something on the way back home but spent ten minutes trying to figure out what to eat. Here are 15 ways to improve your decision making.

In the scheme of things, this wasn’t a big deal — but the slow-down did upset me. What if every day was like that? With all of the decisions that you’re expected to make daily, time can be eaten-up in a snap. As a consequence, you’re less productive — but worse; you often end up making a poor decision.

For example, because I was indecisive and on the verge of feeling hangry, I was tempted to go through a drive-through. A better decision would be to order something a little bit healthier from a local pizzeria — a salad and one slice of pizza — well two slices, but you see what I mean?

The good news is that making decisions doesn’t have to be a struggle. There are ways that you can improve your decision-making skills in life — and in business. You want your decisions to be faster and better for both short-and-long-term time management.

1. Use both sides of your brain.

“Each time we make a choice, I believe that our left-brain arm-wrestles with our right,” writes Micheal Levine, author of the column The Divided Mind. “The left (and more pragmatic side) tells us to act logically, while our right puts up a dramatic fight for following the heart’s content.”

The solution here is to find the right balance between both sides when making a decision. One effective way to achieve this is by conducting a cost-benefit analysis where you weigh the benefits against the negatives.

2. Simplify the battlefield.

“As a leader in the U.S. Navy SEALs, I had to ‘simplify the battlefield’ and make rapid-fire decisions that had life-and-death consequences,” Mark Divine, retired U.S. Navy SEAL commander, founder of SEALFIT, Unbeatable Mind, and The Courage Foundation, told CNBC. To “simplify the battlefield, Divine developed a system called PROP, as in “prop up decisions.”

The PROP model works like this:

• First, identify and determine your priorities, such as “get cash positive.”
• Next, “outline the Realities you face, such as limited resources or timeline.”
• After considering your priorities and realities, come up with “the most plausible options available.” For example, making the decision “to cut staffing or offer a deep discount.” Sometimes the best option is obvious. But, Divine recommends ranking your choices to be certain.
• “Finally, choose the best option as your Path forward,” says Divine. “Execute that immediately with a simple plan and shift fire as you meet the next set of realities.”

3. Rest or sleep on it.

Throughout life, there are times when you must take immediate action. For example, your child picked up a small item, which presents an obvious choking hazard, and it’s heading right towards their mouth. Or, your business just experienced a cyberattack, and all of the sensitive data you have stored is in jeopardy. During times like these, you don’t have time to think. You need to act.

However, with most of the decisions you must make, you usually have some time to mull things over a bit. And — thinking — is often in your best interest.

“When you have to make a big and important decision, it may be best to do it when you are rested, focused, and motivated,” writes Jeremy Nicholson M.S.W., Ph.D. The reason is that when you’re fatigued, you’re more likely to go with the most comfortable or most convenient choice — even when it’s not the best option.

One study found that clinicians are 26% more likely to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics during their fourth hour of work.

To remedy the problems that can result from split-second decisions, “when possible, think through important decisions when you are well-rested, clear-headed, and have the energy and motivation to dedicate to the task.” If you can’t “sleep on it,” then take a step back, even it’s just for 30 minutes, and circle back to it. Make as many decisions as you can that you won’t have to decide again — ever.

Like: I will not drive alcohol, ever. Decision complete — and you don’t need to EVER think of it again. A simplified decision-making process will save your business. Personally, if I’m stuck between multiple choices, I go for a walk. It gives me a chance to clear my head and recharge before making my final decision.

4. Practice being decisive.

“If you’re chronically indecisive, build that decision-making muscle by starting small,” recommends decision coach Nell Wulfhart. “Give yourself 30 seconds to decide what you’ll have for dinner, what movie to watch, or whether you want to go out tonight.” The key is to follow through with your decision.

Keep repeating this process as it will help train your brain to make decisions faster. And, keep working your way up to more important decisions.

And, if this gives you anxiety, ask yourself one simple question; what’s the worst that can happen?

5. Put your ego on the backburner.

I feel that this is an area entrepreneurs need to work on. It’s easy to understand why, though. You’re personally invested in your business and know it like the back of your hand. But, sometimes, that can prevent you from making the right decision. And you certainly don’t have to make a perfect decision — you likely won’t be perfect, anyway.

For example, let’s say that you didn’t hit your sales goal. Is it because you’re targetting the wrong audience? Did you not follow up with your leads? Or, is the price point wrong? You need to look at the facts instead of your assumptions and feelings.

You may not like what you hear. But, analyzing data and soliciting feedback from your employees and customers can clue you in on why you failed to hit your target.

6. Practice mindfulness.

“Most people have trouble admitting they were wrong when their initial decisions lead to undesirable outcomes,” said Andrew Hafenbrack, lead author of a study published in the journal Psychological Science. “They don’t want to feel wasteful or that their initial investment was a loss. Ironically, this kind of thinking often causes people to waste or lose more resources in an attempt to regain their initial investment or try to ‘break even.’”

According to his research, “a brief period of mindfulness meditation can encourage people to make more rational decisions by considering the information available in the present moment while ignoring some of the other concerns that typically exacerbate the ‘sunk cost bias.’”

7. Ask others for advice.

Studies have found that peer pressure is hardwired into brains. Because of this, even if you’re a well-adjusted and independent thinker, you may be swayed by others when making decisions. And, sometimes, that could lead to you making an awful decision.

Despite this, there are times when you should consult others when facing a tough decision. Ideally, these should those who are directly affected by your choice. However, you could also seek advice and feedback from people that are trustworthy and honest. You could also turn to experts, a mentor, or those who challenge your thoughts.

8. Outsmart the anchoring bias.

The anchoring effect is a type of cognitive bias where you base your decision on the first piece of information presented to you. You’ve probably seen this in action when purchasing a new car or home. You’re shown an item that’s out of your price range and then one that is cheaper. The second option may now appear to be the better buy even though it’s still overpriced.

Thankfully, there are ways to outsmart this bias. For starters, beware of the weaknesses and prejudices in your thoughts. Next, delay your decision. And, finally, drop your anchor by doing some research or making the first move.

9. Set time limits.

For smaller decisions, give yourself only five to ten minutes. Remember, going back and forth on these trivial decisions can become serious time-wasters.

For more important ones, allow a little more time. Depending on the exact situation, this could be a day or even a week. The idea here is to give yourself the appropriate amount of time to do your research and weigh the pros and cons.

10. Use your past as a guideline.

“When we have a lot of choices, it can increase the anxiety and noise in our head,” says author and psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig. “It’s not uncommon to be confused about which direction to take — what’s right or what’s wrong.”

Dr. Ludwig’s advice? Use your past as a guideline when making decisions. Thinking about what you have chosen in the past may not always work. Each situation is different, so take a moment to reflect on your past experiences before making your decision. It may be able to help you make a more informed decision.

11. Shake up your routine.

While your past experiences can steer you in the right direction, you also don’t want to become too complacent. After all, complacency can prevent you from taking risks or seeking out fresh perspectives. In turn, this encourages you to take shortcuts, aka heuristics, and stick with the status quo.

As any successful entrepreneur would tell, you need to challenge the status quo to be disruptive and think outside the box. You also need to keep up with the latest trends and consumer tastes. If not, you’ll be making outdated decisions that aren’t helping you achieve your goals.

To prevent getting stuck in a rut, continuously learn new skills. Get out of your comfort zone and have new experiences. Hang out with diverse people. And don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas. You can then apply your new knowledge, experiences, and feedback to improve your decisions.

12. Disprove yourself.

Even the smartest people in the room make stupid decisions. The reason? Confirmation bias. In a nutshell, confirmation bias is where we only seek out evidence or make a decision because of pre-existing beliefs. As a result, you may make the wrong choice because it aligns with your beliefs.

An effective way to combat confirmation bias is to disprove yourself. To do this, Mayo Oshin suggests that you “seek out all possible ideas that may contradict your current beliefs” whenever faced with a challenge. “This will prepare you to make a well-rounded good decision instead of an irrational bad decision based solely on your beliefs and emotions.”

13. Seek the right information, not more.

In your quest to make the best decision possible, you may dissect facts, relive the past, contemplate the future, and seek expert advice. Most of the time, this can be helpful. But, if you go too deep, you may fall into a rabbit role.

Instead of defining the problem, you keep consuming more information. You constantly question yourself. And, you put way too much thought into outcomes that will never transpire. Not only will you experience cognitive overload, but you’re also getting further away from coming up with a solution.

When you’re at crossroads, it’s often best to go back to the beginning. Clarify the problem, goal, or desired outcome so that you can search for the right information.

14. Plan ahead.

It’s not realistic to have a plan for every possible scenario. But, you do have control of certain areas in your life where you can prepare in advance.

For instance, on Sundays, you could plan out your meals for the week. Even if you don’t batch your meals, you could at least come up with a menu. You have made the decision. Now you know what you have to purchase at the store. You now know what you’ll cook each day of the week. You could also use your Sundays to pick out your clothes and review your schedule so that you know how you’ll be spending your time.

The process may sound simple. But, when you plan ahead, you’re reducing the number of decisions you need to make. As a result, you won’t experience decision fatigue and will have the energy to make more sound choices.

15. Trust your first instinct.

Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz, once wrote, “Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.”

It turns out The Fonz was right. Dr. Joel Pearson, one of the world’s leading authorities on human consciousness, states that intuition does exist. His research has discovered that unconscious emotions have the power to improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making.

Should you solely rely on your gut? Of course not. But, there are times when your first instinct is right. And, whenever you have that feeling, you shouldn’t ignore it.

For example, let’s say that you’re interviewing a candidate. They have a solid resume and answered all of your questions correctly. But, you’ve got a hunch that they just won’t fit in with your company’s culture. Listen to what you’re gut is saying so that you can narrow your search down to a candidate who would be a better fit.

The main point here is to make good decisions — or at least better decisions for the long term.

Decide what your day is going to look like and stick with that plan. Yes, you have to be somewhat flexible — but if you are too amenable, (a-woman-able?), you’re back to many many decisions. We’re cutting back on those pesky thoughts in favor of getting things done quickly. Work on productivity hacks that you’ll do automatically so you can save that decision-making-space.