5 Things That Help Me Get Back On Track When I'm Feeling All Levels of Lazy

Sometimes working from home can be both a blessing and a challenge. I know for me I love having the luxury of spending time home. But at the same time, I often struggle with effectively balancing my professional work with the demands of my household. If you haven't noticed already, I'm a mom to five furry children. That role alone consumes a great deal of my time. It's both a dream come true and an unpredictable roller coaster! Yet, I wouldn't change anything. 

Besides being a pet mom, I'm eager to grow my personal blog and continue building my handbag business. I also have a lot of other unrelated but equally exciting ambitions circling in my head that I eventually would like to pursue. I wish I could tell you what some of those ambitions are, but they're still ideas at the moment. 

So as you can tell, working from home can be full of ups and downs and there is always (what feels like) a list of endless to-dos! I don't know about you but at times I become overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done (both personally and professionally) and as a result, I become anxious about which jobs to tackle first. Often times I'll sit back and ponder. Then suddenly I become sidetracked, and then ultimately lazy. Why???

What starts off as a day focused on accomplishing the tasks on my to-do list, flips into a day of binge-watching Criminal Minds because I can't decide what to do first - so obviously Netflix can be a terrible temptation and clearly not a solution to productivity. Can any of you relate? 

I hope I'm not the only one because I came up with a few simple solutions to help get back on track when feeling all levels of lazy. This has helped me, and if you're facing similar motivational blockages, I hope this helps you too.

1). Divide and conquer: Make separate lists for your personal and your professional agendas. It helps me to keep these two aspects of myself separated because they require different parts of my attention.

2). Slow but steady wins the race: Start with the most difficult task and work your way towards the easier ones. You'll feel good getting what you dread most done first, ultimately gaining more confidence in completing the easier things. 

3). Dedicate your days off: If you have a day or two off, designate your days completing either just personal to-dos or professional to-dos. You can even do this by hours. Half the day focus on your professional related to-dos and then the other half of the day can go towards personal. It's just a way to keep all your to-dos relevant so that you're not multitasking. Because let's be real, multitasking does more harm than good.

4). Declare a limit: Tell yourself (and then promise yourself) a limit which allows you to wrap up work at a certain time and treat yourself to a reward. I usually leave this for the end of my day. I'll wrap things up around 4 - 5pm and then enjoy the rest of my day doing absolutely nothing.

5). Work anywhere but on the bed: In other words, if you can find a place that is comfortable enough to stay productive but doesn't make you fall asleep then you're golden. I like to work in the kitchen or upstairs in my home office. It's away from the temptations of my Smart TV and comfy couch. Of course, everyone is different, so find a place that works for you.