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On Creativity

A ‘creative head‘ is how I’ve described myself to people for many years, since I’ve always thought of myself as someone who has a creative vision and can find odd ways of turning one thing into another and seeing things in ways which others don’t always notice or even care to look at.
But recently I’ve gotten more into asking questions about it – what does creativity mean and does it mean differently to different people? What is ‘creative vision’? And what is creativity even about?

I’ve gotten a lot into thinking about creativity and that’s what I want to talk about – let’s talk about creativity.

What does it mean to be creative?

To be creative, in the most simplest sense, means to use one’s imagination to create something. When we speak of ‘creating something’ it is often thought as creating something new and original, something that has never been made, something truly mind boggling and innovative. While all this might be true in some instances, it is not true for all creatives out there. Most creative ideas are about making new connections between old ideas in order to creating something different.

Creativity is about using old methods in newer ways to find solutions for problems or making things using new connections between old ideas.

With the ever consistent change in reality, new and improvised creative ideas are more and more welcome and we tend to see a lot of these in mainstream media too. All those ‘gadgets’ and ‘hacks’ we see around us that are bound to make life easier are all a result of somebody’s creative thoughts.
While some of these hacks and gadgets seem silly and a waste of time to most (*ahem* 5 minute crafts *ahem*), some of these do actually work – and when you do find any such hack that might actually change your life, you can thank someone’s creativity for that.

And if you’re wondering the same thing as I am..

What do I need to be creative?

It is often said that creative people are born as such and that it us something inherited. While it may hold true , there is a certain level of creativity that everyone is born with, it just needs the right push to come out fierce and strong. For each individual to show off their creative side all they need is the right guidance and the proper environment to raise that creativity to reach their true creative potential.

Know that almost everybody’s hidden creative side can be pulled out to shine in it’s own unique ways and that creativity is different for all – it comes in all different ways, shapes, sizes, qualities and quantities.

Scientifically speaking, there are a few cognitive skills that you’ll need to develop in order to have the most efficient creative thinking.

  • The ability to generate new ideas – be it original or from combining old ideas to create something better.
  • The ability to retain things in memory and easily go back to things in memory. To reach back to stored or old information – at the right place and time.
  • The ability to interpret ideas from one’s own experiences and associations by being attentive and present in each moment.
  • The ability to easily snap out of generic routines and accepting sudden change.

Now, after reading that, if you think that you have what it takes to be creative, then you might ask yourself…

Why do I need to be creative/what does creativity bring to my life?

In the most simplest way – creativity brings 2 main benefits to our lives

  • with the everyday stresses and troubles of life creativity is like a gateway to mini paradise. A place where you can be away from your problems and create things that make you happy. It allows one to step away from existing train of thought, do something different and come back to the problem with a clear head.
  • creativity allows one to look within themselves – it provides a window to peek within ourselves and find out exactly what we want and don’t want in life. It’s the best way to learn ourselves and develop a better relationship with ourselves.

Now, have I sold you on being creative? I hope I have! And if so, then allow me to introduce you to some tips on

How to be Creative

1) stop judging your own creative ideas. Give yourself the permission to do what you love and laugh off the mistakes you make along the way.

2) instead of simply brainstorming, thinking and planning your creative visions, actually make something! Put the fear of uncertainty behind you and get to work – create!

3) give yourself enough time to create something, but stick to a schedule. Letting yourself too much time for something will only lead to procrastination and delay.

4) churn out as many ideas as you can. It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad – think of new things and don’t hesitate to put it out. Remember, the best ideas often hide between the most mediocre ones.

5) put your ideas out infront of people. It may feel daunting and scary to take that stand but showing your work infront of people holds you accountable for it and helps gain new perspective.

Besides this, there are some more things you should know as a creative.

Inspiration – You won’t always get hit by a lightning bolt and get the Eureka moment that will lead to crazy breakthroughs. Sometimes inspiration won’t hit you in the most magnificent ways, instead, it can be something as small as a ladybug on a blade of grass. You need to be able to have a broad mindset and see things differently.

Getting in flow – Creativity is not something you can randomly pick up whenever you want and drop whenever you feel like. To excel at creativity and reaching to your level best, you need to be consistent. Creativity is about constantly coming up with new ideas, improvising and re- building things. To reach a “flow” state in creativity you will have to be consistent.

Solo or team – Creativity requires the best minds and the best of minds. While being a creative does mean that collaborating with the best minds around you is essential, allowing the best of your own mind to come forward is also of equal importance. Bringing out the best in you will require solitude and being alone with your own thoughts and ideas. Remember, the best creative minds tend to be introverts and spend their time with themselves while also valuing the response and ideas from the people around them.

“Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”

~ Edward de Bono

A Little More On Procrastination

I’ve spoken about being a major procrastinator many times, but it’s time to go a little deeper into it and learn more. (If you’re a procrastinator like me and you’re reading this, chances are you’re procrastinating something right now, think about what it is.)

What does it mean to be a procrastinator?

To procrastinate means to delay something that needs to be done as soon as possible and actively finding ‘better’ things to do rather than doing the things that need to be done.
It’s knowing fully well, the consequences of delaying something yet doing it only to face trouble at the end – be it by rushing through work or a project or having to listen to long lectures from seniors.

Procrastinators are these exact people!
We tend to put everything till the very last moment knowing fully well the negative outcomes of it yet focusing our attention towards things that are less attention demanding and something that can distance us from the work that needs to be done in the present.
Procrastinators tend to have a much more optimistic idea of time and tend to push everything for later thinking they’ll ‘manage’ everything just fine. (Which is mostly just putting their luck to the test)

But then why is it that people tend to procrastinate?

(According to so many different sources)

It is commonly said that procrastinators only procrastinate to distract themselves from their fears of failure or inability to commit themselves to a particular work or continuously do it for a long span of time.
They tend to procrastinate only to have more control over their emotions.

According to some studies, procrastinators don’t really have control over their habit of procrastination, for them it is a response behaviour towards extreme authoritarian lifestyle one has had in the past or even in the present.

According to some other studies, procrastinators procrastinate because they tend to prefer the “now” and value how they spend it instead of planning or worrying about the future.
They prefer having fun and enjoying the present rather than waiting for it in the future.

Some studies also claim that most of the procrastination done by the average person is unconscious and can probably be avoided if people simply focus more on their everyday life and be more organized.

There is also the final group of people that think the people who procrastinate do so because they lack the motivation to actually work and are unaware of the powers of their own emotions – of the present and the future and the role these emotions can play in getting the motivation they need for getting things done.

But what is the actual reason for procrastination? Why is it that we feel so much better just pushing things to the side and instead focusing our attention to less important, more fun tasks?
The answer to this could be absolutely anything – it would differ from individual to individual, you will just have to look within yourself for this one.

Now if you do actually realise how or more importantly why you procrastinate – is there any way to stop procrastinating?
In the most honest way – no, there isn’t something you can do that will magically change you from master level procrastinator to the diligent, hardworking, good child.

You can’t change yourself just magically, but there are some things you could do to make procrastination better for yourself.

How to use procrastination better?

-> The first and maybe most important thing is to embrace procrastination as a part of yourself. Know that you can’t change everything about yourself, so instead of finding ways to change it and look for ways that you can be yourself and still get work done while being happy.

-> The most difficult step is putting aside distractions and getting to work. It’s really easy to say “Just do it” but real life application of that is a lot more difficult.
A few steps to consider before saying “Just do it” are
1) make a to do list – preferably with more easier tasks at first and the tasks getting progressively difficult.
2) making a mental (or physical) note of each thing you have to do and alloting time to it based on how long it will take you to do that specific task, and if you can, allot yourself some extra time just incase.
3) use deadlines to your advantage – while alloting yourself time to work on something keep the deadline in mind and allot yourself a timeline which ends earlier.
4) create “punishments” for yourself for work not done (no, don’t go beating yourself with a lamp like Dobby), make the punishments something that will test your self control, for example, something like no sugar for a whole week or not going on social media for a week.
5) control the distractions around you – as much as possible. It isn’t easy to turn everything off and live like a monk, and it probably isn’t the most wise thing for many people, but try to limit the distractions around you and try to hold yourself accountable for the things around you.

-> When setting up to get into the work zone know that it takes time to get into the rhythm of work and different types of tasks tend to have a different rhythm to it. So when you place work for yourself, try to group out similar tasks together to stay within the similar rhythm and not having to switch your mind from one type to another type of task.

-> When you get into the “Just do it” mindset, remember that it won’t necessarily last for hours. So whenever possible try to write down all the things you need to get done and the possibile steps to do it and the things to keep in mind – this will be your blueprint.
So the next time you feel even the smallest bit of energy, pass a glance at this blueprint and that will give you the idea and motivation to finish the task at hand.

-> Speaking of motivation – know that simply having an idea in your mind or a goal ahead of you won’t always motivate you to stop slacking and start working. Sure, it does help to have a visual idea of what you’re working towards, but sometimes feeling instead of simply seeing can be more help.

-> Lastly, learn that overcoming procrastination and using your bad habits for your own advantage will take some time and a lot of effort and relapsing back can be completely normal but you need to be able to overcome those hurdles and not fall back.

Being Busy Is Good?

In today’s time, we as a society have glorified the idea of being ‘busy‘. People that are seen constantly stressed, buried in their work are viewed as more accomplished than someone not swamped by work and worry.

Today’s hustle cultre views these so called ‘hard-workers‘ as the image of the ‘perfect employee‘ and holds this standard of being busy on a pedestal.

Is being busy actually bad?

No, it’s hard to say that everything about hustle cultre or being busy is bad. But it’s definitely a point to note that these do glorify the idea of constantly being on the go and working and have even made it the norm for today’s generation to constantly be working and measuring their own self worth by how much they’ve accomplished.

Think about it, how many times have you criticized yourself because you didn’t do ‘enough work‘ or you didn’t ‘work harder‘?
How many times have you actually been happy on a day off and been glad that you took care of yourself?
Have you ever felt miserable for taking the weekend to rejuvenate and work on things that make you happy instead of working extra?

According to the standards we’ve created for ourselves, anyone who isn’t busy and doesn’t spend every second immersed in work simply doesn’t stand up to these standards and is just termed as ‘not hard working‘ or simply ‘lazy‘.
This outlook of society makes us judge our own self worth by the amount of work we do and the labels society puts on us.

Glorifying the idea of always being busy tends to make us much more about self and can, in a sense, make our thoughts and actions even more selfish.
We tend to get more stuck in our own little world excessively brooding about our own work and our own problems which obviously have a negative strike to our mental health but also end up in us neglecting close friends and family.
Cancelling plans last minute, not being present for special occasions and being missing from important moments tends to become ‘normal‘ for busy people.

Now, once or twice these actions may be ignored or forgiven but constant occurances tend to leave cracks in relationships which might eventually leave you feeling lonely and distant, unable to maintain those relations.

The current idea of busyness doesn’t necessarily put in ‘quality of work’ as an important factor, instead, ‘quantity of work’ becomes the deciding factor.
When we place priorities in the wrong areas it does end up being counter-productive and instead of actually getting things done we might only be wasting precious time.
It’s necessary to keep track of how and what you spend your time. Know if the time you spend on doing something is actually for something ‘productive‘ or is it just being busy.

How to know if you’re actually productive or just busy?

Being ‘busy‘ isn’t something you’re forced to do, it’s a life choice – something you make and continue.
Know that being efficient isn’t about the number of hours you spend doing something that may or may not have a positive outcome. Efficiency is about the number of positive results you get on doing things.

Think about the things you do on a daily basis that you think are ‘productive‘ – does it actually give outcomes that help you grow? Does it help with things you’re struggling with/find difficult?

Being busy is just about passing time doing things that seem productive,while actually, using time for things that support growth is real productivity.

Answering emails is one such task that might seem and feel productive but it has more cons to pros. It doesn’t matter how many times a day you check your email, you can always expect more to be there eventually. It always makes you feel productive but in reality it just gives you that extra stress that hampers with actual productivity.
It’s often advised to check your emails only once or twice a day to allow some actual productivity instead of spending hours each day in ‘pseudo-productivity‘.

But why is it that we fixate ourselves in pseudo-productive work?

When we’re constantly under stress and lose work-life balance (which is a consequence of hustle cultre) we tend to mess with our attention span, and the constant pressure from work and personal life harms the cognitive bandwidth.
Even though having narrow cognitive bandwidth might help you hyperfocus on something, it also has its cons – popularly termed as Tunneling.
Tunneling, according to dictionary.apa.org is defined as

https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-tunneling
"a psychological state, typical of people concentrating on a demanding task or operating under conditions of stress, in which a single, narrowly defined category of information is attended to and processed. "

In the most simple terms, tunneling is being extra focused on things that are right infront of us that may not be so productive, which is caused by extreme stress in our lives.

A definite point of importance is that when we become so fixated in our own lives doing ‘productive’ work, we tend to have less time for things that actually matter, like our own physical and mental health.
We tend to have less time for decisions that affect us, instead we make impulsive decisions because taking cautious, calculative steps isn’t an option anymore.

So how can we get rid of busyness and make time for things that actually matter?

• It might make us feel important to be constantly busy and get that validation from society. But remember that the same busyness has long term effects on your health.
These long hours of stress and lack of sleep and completely ignoring self-health can lead to problems like headaches, insomnia, fatigue, seizures, etc. When you make changes in busyness, you will only have positive changes in your physical and mental health and will improve relationships with people you’ve been pushing away.

• Take a deep dive into the work you’re always busy doing – then think if spending all that time and resources is actually a wise decision. Spend time doing things that you actually find valuable – does it feel productive?

• Learn to ignore the voices, views and opinions of society that promotes hustle cultre and being busy. Keep in mind the actual goal you have, that which you strive for. (I know it’s so much more easier said than done, but give it a shot!) Challenge the idea of being busy and go for what you believe you want to do.

• Understand the importance of saying no to things that don’t serve purpose to your life, instead, spend that time on things that drive you and things you find yourself excited to do.

• Sometimes you can find true satisfaction in doing less. You could do hundreds of tasks a day but they won’t necessarily bring you happiness, but even doing one task that drives you can be the source of your happiness.

• Encourage yourself and people around you to get the image of being busy out of their mind and instead set being productive as the idealistic mindset.

Unlearning

The 21st century has been the time of great discoveries, inventions and learning. With all this learning comes even more new things and concepts that might seem strange to some, but it is absolutely necessary for us to learn these to move forward.

One such concept is “Unlearning”.

But an important question to ask would be

What is unlearning?

When you remove something from your memory, you lose it and never think about it again and eventually it fades away from your mind leaving space for new, important information – that is unlearning.
Living in today’s day and age, it is a necessary skill to have.

Unlearning old activities/skills that once seemed useful and productive and replacing it with skills much more valuable, new skills that can help you get ahead and take your community forward – this is a very important skill, one which might seem really difficult (and even is, if we’re being honest) but is necessary nonetheless.

As it is a fairly new concept, it might be difficult to fully grasp it and more importantly, to understand it’s purpose.

Why is unlearning necessary ?

As said before, people need to develop unlearning to move forward and carry society forward side by side, to have better work ethic and overall have a new, fresh outlook towards all aspects of life.

The concept of unlearning forces the mind to constantly learn, re-learn and discard old learnings ; keeping the mind fresh, agile and sharp.

It isn’t necessarily important that everything you learnt or the skills you developed in the past have to be useful to you in the present or in the foreseeable future.
Unlearning is all about removing the unimportant/useless skills/information from your mind and clearing up space for much more productive and useful things.

There is also a high chance that whatever you re-learn isn’t the complete opposite of what you had previously learnt, instead, it could just be a modification of the old information/skills, morphed to suit you better.
But this requires expanding your mindspace to allow more and new information, which will definitely require you to get rid of the old clutter occupying your mind.

Also, if you’re someone who likes to constantly change things up, especially when it comes to professions and/or hobbies or if you’re simply looking into jobs, unlearning can be a great skill to have as many new, up-and-coming businesses and workspaces prefer having employees who can manage many skills and are easily adaptable to new and sudden changes.

Someone who is constantly unlearning and developing themselves is seen as a risk taker and someone who isn’t afraid to make changes, no matter how sudden or random they seem, which is another great impression to keep of yourself.

Now, to some people, the concept of sudden changes of learning and re-learning and even constant changes in life might seem strange, difficult and even scary.

How to develop unlearning ?

1) When you make the decision to develop unlearning in your skill set, it would mean you have found previous knowledge/skills inadequate to help you hustle through some important tasks and projects or maybe you simply wish to make room in your head for things that align with your present day priorities.
Either way, seeking new knowledge should be the very first step of your unlearning journey.

Only when you gain all that new knowledge will you be able to replace the old information with it or add more to your skill sets. So make it a point to constantly read and surf the net on subjects that you find interesting and constantly update yourself on new changes happening in that field.

2) Another way to gather more information and learning more is by talking to more people .
Build the habit of going outside of your social circle and meet new people and try to start intelligent, insightful conversations.

Try to talk to people having the same interests as you to learn more about your present day interests and priorities, but if you’re trying to learn new skills or trying to find even more skills, talk to people having complete different interests and educate yourself about their field of work and interests.

3) It is very easy to be in our own bubble of comfort and enjoy the safety of everything that we know. But to develop unlearning, one must venture out of this comfort zone and experiment in life.

If you can, travel and experience different places, cultures and people. Or simply make bold choices in life, choices you may not make in the safety and security of your comfort zone.
Go beyond what feels normal and ‘okay’, go for what makes your heart race with excitement.

4) When you experience new people and places, you clear your head of useless clutter in your mind.
Then comes the best and difficult part – relearning.

It’s the best thing because relearning allows you to use those new experiences and process them in your mind to update your existing knowledge about something or learn new things and improve yourself.
At the same time, it’s difficult. You need to be open to new and different perspectives and opinions and learn to accept ideas and concepts that go against your general/old understanding.
It’s also difficult to create an environment, both physically and mentally, that allows easy relearning.

5) When you’re able to reach a place where you’ve discarded information not useful for you and updated it with new and advanced learnings – you reach the finishing point.

You reach a stage where you’re a little more knowledgeable and a little more advanced, but don’t think this to be the end. It is merely another phase of the unlearning journey, because unlearning is a forever cycle.

Even we know all this, but surely there must be something that might just make the process a little easier…

Things to keep in mind

  • Instead of completely flipping your life around and making drastic, dramatic changes, start off slow. Make small changes in your life to replace previous habits/tasks and work your way up to more difficult tasks.
  • To begin unlearning you need to learn that your past tactics won’t be useful forever. It’s about making that realisation that change is the need of the hour.
  • It’s necessary to have a constant look at your life, especially a view from outside, to be self aware. When you have that vision you’ll be able to predict which skills will and will not help you thrive in the future and that allows you to make changes to things that no longer serve a good purpose in your life.

Unlearning is something we all can benefit from, so whatever phase of life you’re in – consider giving unlearning a chance in your life and see how much it changes things.

FACING OUR FEARS

With the new year many of us are making new year resolutions- eating healthy, working out, developing new hobbies, practicing self-love are some of the many that I’ve heard from people around me.
But here’s one that I’ve not heard from anyone that I think everyone should persue (or atleast try to) and that is – facing our fears and growing from them.

A question that came to my mind was,

Why face our fears?


Isn’t it much more easier to just let things be as they are?

Well, yes. It would be, but think about it, the last few years (2020 & 2021) have been pretty tough, how much worse can it get?
Might as well take the risks and see how it goes. Because life is all about taking risks and overcoming fear. If you don’t take that leap today, you’ll never know what you’re capable of.

If we embrace our fears and work on them, we can break the biggest ceiling – our own mind. Once we do that, everything will be limitless! When we work on the things that we fear, or even simply acknowledge it and put some thought into it – we take away its power to control us.

If you don’t work on that one thing that is constantly at the back of your head, that one thing that makes you stay up at night and worries you throughout the day, it will consume your mind entirely and will not let you reach the success that you’re aiming for.

We all need to face our fears and challenge ourselves to acknowledge these fears in order to rid our mind of the emotional baggage that these fears bring into our lives.

But let’s be honest , it’s all easier said than done.
So the biggest question,

How do we face said fears and grow?


1) The first thing to do is to realise that being afraid of things is common human nature. We’re all humans and we’re all afraid of something. It’s not about not being afraid, it’s about how you handle those fears and how you grow from them. Know that fear is mostly an uneasiness our mind feels over things that we don’t know about, or we’re unsure about.

2) The second – and maybe the most important thing, is to know what you’re afraid of and to what extent. It may sound strange but many people (including myself) aren’t exactly sure of what they’re afraid of.
Take some time off and sit down and think about the things that bother you/worry you.
When you know exactly what to work on you can actually focus in that direction instead of feeling stuck . When you know exactly what to work on things become more manageable and less scary.

3) Try to identify exactly what triggers fear and worry into your head. Sit down with yourself and just think about those things and the emotions they bring up inside you without actually feeling those emotions or letting those emotions control your mind.
It might seem difficult at first, but slowly ease yourself into the process, eventually, you’ll be able to process those thoughts and emotions without really feeling much of them.

4) Like I said before, fear is (to some extent) an uneasiness in our mind about things that we don’t know about, or things that are ‘the unknown’. So gather as much information as you can, the more you know about it, the less scary it will be, and you might even find it interesting!
Also, telling someone about your fears can be a great way to elevate some of the stress and can help you think more clearly. Writing those fears down can also be a great way to acknowledge them, it will help your mind to come up with solutions much more easily.

5) Use your imagination to think of the worst case scenario that could happen if you go forward with chasing these fears – and maybe even conquering them.
Then, make a plan of what you could do if such a thing was to happen.
Once you acknowledge the worst case scenario and find out ways to come out of it, it becomes way more easier to deal with them. It will help you take your mind off the problem and you can actually put in your energy to working towards the goal.


With all this said, you need to know a few more things before going into this journey.

When you start off, there will be times when you would feel overwhelmed, you might feel like you’re not getting anywhere and all of this is just a waste of time. At times like this, reflect back to what things were like before and how far you’ve come.

Know that all the hard work and unhappiness you’re feeling now is for something far more greater.
Whenever you’re feeling emotionally burnt out and frustrated, take a break, listen to soothing music and process what’s happening around you, only then will you be able to move forward.

At the end, always remember that there is no greater feeling than overcoming fears and barriers, the feeling of coming out of it as a better person on the other side is simply irreplaceable.

TOP TIPS TO BE PRODUCTIVE

We’re all humans and we all have dreams and goals, some big and some small, but the only way to reach these goals is by working towards these goals. But if you’re a procrastinator like me being productive and getting things done might be difficult. So here are some tips that might just help you be a better version of yourself.

TOP TIPS

1) Know your daily goals

This is the first and most basic step to being productive. This is important because not knowing the goals for the day makes us random and it takes much more time to get things done.
The best way to do this is by a to-do list. Write it down, either on a paper, or an app on your phone or even on your calendar, just note it down somewhere so your brain doesn’t need to remember all these tasks, it can just focus on the work at hand.

Pro tip – Instead of deciding all the things and tasks in the morning and wasting precious time, write it all down the night before, that way you can wake up ready to hustle.

2) Map your day

Map out the things you have to do, don’t just write down random words or vague sentences. Write down the actual steps and plan of action that are clear. This way you will have the exact steps lined up for you and you can do your work with lesser things going wrong.

3) Prioritise

Know the most important and crucial tasks of your day and start working on those.
When making a to-do list try to break up the task into smaller mini-tasks and get to work on the first one in the sequence.
Finishing the first task will encourage and motivate you to work on the remaining mini-tasks and it will be easier to finish the task.

4) Goals and times

We only have 24 hours in a day, so we need to put every minute to work.
After organizing all the tasks, assign due dates and timers as much as possible and try to get things done within the alloted times.
Develop the habit of working fast while doing the best that you can. (It’s not easy but practice makes perfect… or atleast the thing closest to perfect)
Also, try to get onto a task and finish it as soon as possible instead of pushing it away for some other time.

5) Track yourself

Keep an eye on your to-do list and your timing. Review these often.
Keep track of your to-do list to make sure that you’re not overworking and doing work that is not necessarily important.
Keeping track of your timing ensures that you don’t spend too much time on a particular task and that you distribute and use your time effectively.

TOP MISTAKES

1) Time crunch

Not giving enough time to complete a task is a mistake all of us have done at some point. It’s important to not take too much time to do a task but at the same time it’s important to allow yourself enough time to complete the task successfully.

2) Assumptions

… specifically assumptions that everything will go right. Always assume that there will be hurdles along the way and allot sufficient time to deal with these problems.

3) Not enough vision

Not having the proper vision and goal will just increase the number of hurdles that come in your path. Make sure that before you begin anything ( a project, a task, an activity etc) you have a clear vision and you know the path to that vision.

4) Stress

Constantly stressing out can put your mental and physical health at risk. It will also effect your productivity. Identify the stress causing factors in your life, develop ways to de-stress and if possible, avoid these stress causing media.

5) Depending on yourself

Don’t get me wrong, being independent is a great thing and often times it seems like the best course of action. But in most cases, doing everything by yourself can lead to eventual burnout.
We’re all humans and we all have only a specific amount of energy in a day, it is impossible to expect ourselves to do everything on our own.
Get help, it may be in the form of an app or a device that helps you organize your day and other small things like that or maybe even hiring people to help you out in your work.

EXTRA TIPS (because why not)

• Remove distractions – delete apps, place your phone out of reach and turn off notifications.
• Focus on one thing at a time.
• Keep your home and workspace clean and organized to avoid chaos.
• Get the proper amount of sleep.
• Exercise regularly.
• Eat healthy.
• Take breaks in between work.

If you want anymore tips on how to work efficiently then check out my other blog post here:-

https://anublogsofficial.art.blog/2021/05/23/how-to-work-efficiently/


(Shameless plug 😉 )

HOW TO STOP OVERTHIKING

Are you an overthinker? Do you constantly worry about things that are a complete waste of your time? Are you constantly stressed and/or anxious?

I have always been the person that overthinks everything! But recently I’ve been able to control my thoughts, so I want to share some tips with you.

First of all you need to understand that overthinking and overanalyzing things is not good for you! You need to take the decision to control your thoughts.

  • Be aware of what’s happening

You need to be aware of all the different thoughts consuming your mind, then only will you be able to control these thoughts.

Recognize negative thoughts and acknowledge them, stop pretending like everything is okay, in doing so you’ll be able to calmly process them and work through them.

Writing down thoughts can help you declutter your mind.

Tip- whenever a stressful situation comes up and/or negative thoughts start crossing your mind, take a step back, think about your reaction to the situation, be aware of the thoughts crossing your mind.

  • Be focused

While doing something, be focused on that task, don’t let your mind wander. Stay focused, it will be difficult keeping your thoughts in one place, but with time and practice you will be able to control your mind.

Meditation can help you stay focused and clear your head of unnecessary thoughts.

  • Try new things/get a hobby

Free time can be an excuse for too many thoughts to wander into your head.

Sometimes our minds get so used to our daily routine that many thoughts end up in our head even while doing different tasks.

Trying new things will occupy your mind and free time and prevent you from overthinking about things.

Tip- while selecting a hobby, look for something that you enjoy and makes you happy.

  • Control your thoughts

A very important thing to remember is that you are in control of your thoughts. Do not let the voices in your head get in control of you. Remember that they are only voices and they get control only when you give them the control.

Redirect your thoughts, whenever a negative thought occupies your mind, turn it into something positive.

That’s all for this time. Tell me in the comments- what have you been overthinking about?