Productivity Challenge - Blog Posts

HOW TO CREATE AN ENERGISING MORNING ROUTINE

WAKE UP EARLIER. Waking up early looks different for a lot of us, and i’m not going to reccomend waking up at 5am for a lot of us. Whatever time you wake up now, I would suggest waking up 30 minutes or so earlier and see how you feel. 

If you feel like you really need those 30 minutes to sleep, then use it sleeping. Whatever time makes you feel like you are at the best, is the perfect time for you. It does take some trial and error to find this time, but it’s worth it. 

Another thing, I generally wouldn’t suggest waking up past 10am. If you sleep in a little too much, you do become a bit sluggish during the first hours of your day, but whatever works for you. 

SUNLIGHT FIRST THING. Going outside, a hot girl walk or simply opening your windows to allow the sun to come in helps our body to become awake. Natural sunlight is a sign to our bodies that we need to start the day. 

This also promotes a healthy rise in cortisol to support our mood, focus and energy. This natural increase in cortisol helps with melatonin production in the evening, which improves the quality of your sleep.

Exposure to unnatural light can disrupt this rhythm, so it’s best to stay away from any devices and turn off of your lights before and after you wake up. Ideally, an hour after you wake up, should be spent device-free. (aside from alarms or setting habit tasks) 

NO PROCESSED, CAFFEINATED OR SUGARY FOODS, before you have a proper meal. When we eat these foods before a nutritious meal, it can lead to a spike in cortisol and blood sugar levels first thing in the morning, which leads to crashing in the afternoon after the spike goes down. 

When we eat after we wake up, it stabilises our blood sugar levels and replenishes ourselves after our fast. If need to be, meal prep the night before so you can have a quick and easy breakfast. As long as it properly fuels your body. 

GENTLE EXERCISES. You’ve just woken up, so you don’t want to rush your body into something too hardcore until you feel like you’re fully awake. Gentle exercises could mean stretching, a light walk or if you’re feeling a bit energised, pilates. 

SET INTENTIONS. Set the theme for how you want to feel at the start of the day, during and end. It doesn’t have to be something productive, but a feeling that you want to achieve and maximise and use that feeling in what you do. 

For ex. In the morning, I want to feel calm. During the day, I want to feel productive. At the end of the day, I want to feel accomplished. 

SHORT TO-DO LISTS! To-do lists that are more than 3 major tasks usually are unmanageable. While you can break down those 3 major tasks, try to avoid having more than 3 major tasks. 

If you do have more than 3, consider moving them into a different date if its not urgent or cutting that task completely if its not urgent and unimportant. How you assess the urgency and importance of your tasks is up to you, as you know what productivity means to you. 

Remember the basics as well, such as hydration, mindfullness, and at least one fun activity in the morning. Thank you so much for the support, even while I was a bit inactive <3

One thing that has been making me feel truly miserable is my lack of will to study/work. Working I kind of understand due to my discontent with my career paths, but when it comes to studying I don’t really have that many excuses. I hate my university, but I love my major. So, it makes me downhearted to see how unmotivated I am nowadays to read about economy and related contents. I decided to change this. Everyday for the next weeks, I’m going to be studying for 30 minutes, at least or at most. And the strategy is: no fun pomodoro. I used to think that “Animedoro” was the best study technique out there, but recently I noticed how it’s a tricky trail for me. Since I have been lacking motivation, what I do is work for 20/30 minutes then grab my phone and do infinite scrolling or get lost in a Sex and the City episode. And I cannot make me stop. Today I stumbled into a video that talked exactly about this problem. Instead of doing something fun when you end a focus cycle, do something boring, that makes studying or working seems fun next to it. Or, and here’s my perception, something that doesn’t stimulate your brain in the wrong way. Here are the things that I believe requires thinking, so I don’t lose my focus flow (they are not necessarily boring to me, but some of them tires me quickly which makes me give up on them even quicker):

Reading the news.

Watch someone that motivates me to study/work.

Watch/listen to a podcast about something useful.

Sudoku video.

Math problems videos.

Solve a sudoku problem.

Read a few pages of one of the dense books I’m probably reading at the moment (I'm a slow reader so I know it won't fully distract me heheh)

If working, read an econ paper or something related to.

Or just do nothing. Go for a walk. Make some pancakes. Grab water and contemplate it.

<3 and if doesn't work, that's okay. I'll try something new <3

Here's the video in question:

day 6/ 21st of september / wednesday

rise and shine! i'm back after 5 days of no productivity :P saturday and sunday had lots of things to do so i didn't study. on saturday i went out to have dinner with my parents and my parents' friends, and during the day i ran errands. on sunday i had lunch at my aunt's house and we spent the day there. monday and yesterday i didn't study on my free time. only went to class and had to work afterwards.

but now im back!! and now im fully commited to this challenge!!

i think that instead of making my to do list on this posts, im gonna come back in the end of the day i write what i did. it makes me a bit sad to see twice the things i wasnt able to finish. on my proper list in my planner and here. but this is just me being silly. im still learning.

kisses and cheese see ya later <3

day 4 / 16th of september / friday :D

good morning from south america, my beautiful friends!

every week day i have my internship job so im not gonna add that on my to do list anymore

things i need to get done:

math problems (college applications)

physics problems (college applications)

thins i want to get done:

excel course

see you later :D have a nice day and dont forget to drink water and put on sunscreen!

so yesterday i obviously did all my internship work and i was also able to plan my essay. havent written it yet however thats what weekends are made for. i did my portuguese test, (mostly text comprehension problems) but i didnt manage to finish my math set of problems. gonna do it today.

and i did a little of my excel course :D

yesterday was a nice day. hopefully today will be better!

i made a decison as well; wanna try to use my rest time while working or studying to learn something new or getting better at some other skill. like practicing chess or drawing. maybe give another shot to morse code. the thing is, when i have a pomodoro session, which i like because is the way i track my time, and it ends, during my break i usually decide to watch 10-20 minutes of an episode of a tv show or something. but its extremely hard for me to stop! and then get back to work! ive been trying for mooonths. i use an adapted version of the animedoro method and its just not really working for me because i have a problem with limits. so maybe i should stop and only watch tv shows during my free time. gonna try today a skillmodoro or whaterver name ill come up with today and tell you in the future if it has been helping me. if it doesnt work im not sure what im going to do :/

another thing i wanna try in the future is posting pictures of my desk, notebooks, etc. a goal for the short term future :)

day 3 / 15th of september / Thursday

today i woke up feeling so much better. since im still feeling sick i decided to skip today's lecture but im gonna get some studying done so i dont use my time on tiktok and netflix :P

things i need to get done today:

internship work

math problems for college applications

portuguese test for college applications

write an essay for college applications

things i want to get done however it doesnt really matter if i dont do them:

excel course

see ya laterrrr <3

day 3 / 15th of september / Thursday

today i woke up feeling so much better. since im still feeling sick i decided to skip today's lecture but im gonna get some studying done so i dont use my time on tiktok and netflix :P

things i need to get done today:

internship work

math problems for college applications

portuguese test for college applications

write an essay for college applications

things i want to get done however it doesnt really matter if i dont do them:

excel course

see ya laterrrr <3

i decided to do this 100 days of productivity challenge because ive been feeling like a zombie lately and coincidentally a lot of this kind of post have been coming up in my feed. so let's try it!

day 1 / 13th of september / tuesday

things i need to get done:

• all of my internship work

• finish the chapter im reviewing for my uni lecture

• organize my f*cking room cause i cant find anything in this mess

things i want to get done but thats ok if i dont because im coming down with something which is making me extra tired:

• study math for college applications

• read that tree book i'm currently reading or read that book about revolutions that i haven't started yet

i'll be back when the day is over to check what i managed to complete!

see ya later kisses and cheese <3

little note: this is also a little exercise for my writing skills in english because it's been a while since i wrote anything in this language. if you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes please!!! let!!! me!!! know!!!! portuguese is my mother tongue so it would be interesting if i could practice some other language since i dont have the time anymore to actually study my target languages :/ (french and spanish and i would always consume some material with more advanced words in english)

𝐻𝑒𝑦 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 🌺

𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝘩𝑖𝑐𝘩 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑔𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝘩𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠.

● 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎☕

● 𝐿𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎 🕯️

● 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎 🪞

● 𝐶𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 🧺

● 𝐸𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐🧚🏻‍♀️

● 𝐶𝑜𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 🎀

● 𝐶𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 ☁️

● 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎🍀

● 𝑅𝑜𝑦𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 👑

● 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎 🔭

● 𝐵𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 💅🏼

𝑆𝑜 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡𝘩 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑦 𝐼 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝘩 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑎 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝘩𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝘩𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑡. °𓏲⋆🌿.

𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑙: https://www.tumblr.com/a-lady-and-her-quill/781024127509299200/hey?source=share

10.05.2025

Day (30/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Bio record

Eng notes (it was 6 pages long of qna ugh)

Math hw

My hands are frkn DED I tell you. I can't write no more—

Omg we are done with the 30 DOP challenge with @moonlight-n-moondust @mistrisen @pxasee @kookiepixel @astra-wberry (I'm sorry if I left anyone out !)

I haven't been as consistent as I'd like to but I had a nice time :) tysm everyone !! Nice work <33

Hwaiting ✊🏻 ✊🏻

07.05.2025 (wed)

Day (28/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 1:10 hrs

Just my live lec :(

06.05.2025 (tue)

Day (27/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 3:35 hrs

💤 5:30 hrs + 20-30 min nap 💤

Bio - co-dominance, incomplete dominance, multiple allelism & down syndrome from principles of variation & inheritance

Finished off the 2nd half of lec 5 org. and ppn

Live class on current electricity

Math hw

Questions from ex: 2.2 and miscellaneous ex. of inverse trigonometry

omo we are almost done with the productivity collab challenge. Planning on starting 100 dop soon after that :)

05.05.2025 (mon)

Day (26/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 2:10 hrs

💤 5:30 hrs + 20-30 min nap 💤

Lec 4 & half of lec 5 of org. and ppn.

Not the most productive day but at least I came up with a study plan b4 I could spiral again lol. Gt cram my speech and read through topics in bio I have a test on tmrw morning as usual :P

BYEEE

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

04.05.2025 (sun)

Day (25/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

There was no offline school today because of NEET (I have only a year left AHHHHH), but we did have online classes.

They started at 9, and I woke up at 9:05—but thankfully class actually began at 9:10. The teachers were struggling with the online setup and it totally took me back to COVID times lol.

Anyway, class ended around 12:40-ish, after which I procrastinated, cleaned my room (which was an absolute pig’s pen for the past week or so), ironed my uniform, and did other random stuff. I still haven’t even broomed my room yet—planning to do that tomorrow.

It’s almost 7 pm rn and these are the things I've still yet to do will have to end up pulling an all nighter just when I was planning to get my sleep schedule fixed wtf.

They gave us so much work just because we had Sunday, which wasn’t even technically off. Watch me as I die?

Also I’m most stressed about the speaking test in English which they count towards our internal marks so AHHHH.

Bio - test on reproductive health

Bio - record

Bio - notes +diagrams

Chem - haloalkanes and arenes test

Chem - notes

Phy - test on current and electricity

Math - relations and functions test

Math - hw

Eng - Speech

01.05.2025 (thu)

Day (22/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 1:10 hrs

F-ed around, attended my live class and did random shi until I had to get ready for dinner. I can't rmbr the last time we went out to eat dinner lmfao

30.04.2025 (wed)

Day (21/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

ypt hrs ≈ 1:35 hrs

💤 4:30 + 20 min power nap 💤

• Watched my live lec on organisms and ppn and did some hw. Nothin else hehe ^^

29.04.2025 (tue)

Day (20/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 2:15 hrs

💤 5:00 + 1:30 hr nap 💤

(forgot to post it yesterday lol)

Tried to nap on the bus but it didn’t really work which left me in a REALLY bad mood. Went over some random shi b4 my live class, but skipped coffee which turned out to be a BIG mistake. About 30 minutes into the live, I was dozing off and ended up taking a proper nap from 5 to 6:45. Procrastinated a bit after that, and finally watched the lecture I’d missed napping. It’s just been a pretty bleh day overall. I think the mid-week burnout is officially here :D

Lec 2 of organism and population

Revised random stuff from yesterday

Toodles ~~

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

28.04.2025 (mon)

Day (19/30) DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hrs ≈ 3.45 hrs

💤 ≈ 6 hrs + 20-30 min nap 💤

Revised lec 1,2 & half of 3 of electrostatics

Completed lec 3

Did like 6 practice problems (I swearrr u think u know a topic until you do the problems. Then you realize u actually know NOTHING :')

I’m sick AGAIN.

Was so tired at school today—didn’t even roam around during break, just slumped at my desk the whole time.

I know you’re supposed to sleep a lot to recover and everything, but it’s hard when studying even one lecture takes foreverrrr. I have SO much to do and I literally can’t afford to sleep right now. Ughhh.

Toodles ~~

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

14.04.2025 (mon)

(2 of my many many handwritings lmfao)

day (5/30) of DOP COLLAB CHALLENGE

Ypt hours ≈ 4 hrs

💤 ≈ 5 hrs + 20 min power nap otbrh 💤

The eng test went pretty okay :)

Studied for my chem test

Completed random notes of eng & phy

Math hw

Phy lec 1

Would've liked to do one more but I was sleepy and wanted to get at least 6 hrs of sleep (per night is the goal lmfao). My head kinda hurts too hehe =D

BYEE (⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

Also, my watch which I'm very emotionally attached to kinda broke today— like the thingy that holds the straps ?? Anyways I'm so heart broken cuz I got it for VERY cheap and it lasted like 3 yrs or smn atp 😭 I'm still wearing gonna wear but 😢

13.04.2025 (sun)

(the way he looks at her >>>)

HEY YALLL >°<

Day (4/30) DOP CHALLENGE

Ypt hours ~ 1:32 hrs

💤 3:30 + nap (2 hrs)

Ended up WASTING my weekend binging grey's anatomy and then some (I love Christina and Owen so much it HURTS)

Also, had phy test today. It kinda sucked ass and I have no one to blame BUT myself but instead of spiraling down in self hatred decided to do some work :D

Kind of revised for my bio test and did 60 more questions— got 2 wrong

Got a 44/45 on the actual test

Napped from 5-7

Did math hw

Gt rev/study stuff for eng tmrw morning

Barely did anything today so gt try harder tmrw 💪 💪

GNNN LOVESSS ~~

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

12.04.2025 (sat)

Forgot to post yesterday cuz all I wanted to do was sleep after studying :)

Day (3/30) of COLLAB CHALLENGE

study time ~ 2:10 hrs was too busy and sleepy trynna cram for the test I forgot to record my study time on the app

💤 11hrs lmfao 💤

Studied from 11pm-12am and then napped slept till 3:30 am and studied till 4:40am after which I ✨rested✨ my eyes till I had to be up (by 5)

Toodles ~~

10.04.2025 (thu)

Day (2/30) of COLLAB CHALLENGE

3:21 hrs on ypt :P

💤 Sleep → 4 hrs I'm dying 💤

Got my Bio test back—scored 15/20. Was expecting 16-17 so it kinda stung, but I wasn’t fully shocked either. Definitely humbling though, thought I had that chapter down, but clearly not.

Math test today too -_- there was one question I wasn’t sure about but I did do it right the first time and then changed it last minute. And now there’s a high chance my original answer was correct. UGH. Mood was off after that, but I remembered my Bio marks and that was all the motivation I needed.

What I got done ~

Blurted the whole of Bio ch 1 (SRIFP) for Sunday’s coaching test

Read the reader carefully

Did 150 questions in 40 mins (got 6 wrong—4 due to dumb rushing)

Submitted Thursday workbook Qs (mandatory pre-test stuff)

Was supposed to clear Chem backlog today but LOL no ✨ fully sleep deprived ✨

Skipping Chem for now, going straight to bed. Also have a Phy test on Sunday—same chapter as the lecture I haven’t finished. So fingers crossed it all somehow works out :'(

Cyaaa

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)💗

productivity tag game

Thank you @mcplestreet for tagging me!

goals: Finish outline for Draft 2 of Project Istanbul, share with beta readers, then begin writing Draft 2. Also reread Hamlet and Macbeth.

productivity tip: Caffeine (obviously), YouTube videos of typing sounds, 'office ambience', mild jazz. The Forest app for timed sessions―this is fun because you 'grow trees' each productivity sprint. I've also heard the Pomodoro technique is useful.

current project: Project Istanbul― literary noir/mystery/thriller novel set in Istanbul, Turkey. Check out my recent wip intro post for details.

exchange something: Some jazz for you: "Générique" by Miles Davis

quote: “Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader.” ―Vladamir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature

Leaving game open for whoever wants to play!