Why you’re not where you want to be right now

I have a lot of dreams and aspirations, and I feel like I want to put them into work this coming year. I want to have goals, things that I can attain and say, “hell yeah I did that!” So why am I not where I want to be right now?! Why are YOU not where you want to be right now?! Cause we got all the damn excuses in the world, and here are my four main ones.

The difference between dreams and goals is that you work towards a goal.

“I’ll do it tomorrow”

Procrastination never got me anywhere good. It’s like looking at your laundry pile up and saying “yeah I’ll get that done” until you realize you only have one pair of clean underwear left and you only have socks that are missing their pairs. For me, it’s when I say “I’ll water the plants tomorrow” and 3 weeks later, I’m wondering why my Swiss cheese plant isn’t looking so good. Well, it’s because it’s a desert in it’s pot, and it’s my fault for putting it off.

I always have 2-3 major tasks I want to complete in a day, and applying for school is always one of them. It’s always a “I’ll look into it tomorrow” or “this is going to take too much of my time to do the application process, so I’ll do it when I have more time.” It’s awful how I always bump that to the bottom of my list. I’m lucky that the school I want to apply to does rolling enrollments, because if it didn’t, I’d have to wait even longer to apply. I swear I’ll apply before the end of the year. (We’ll see.)

“I’m not ready yet”

Will you ever be ready? In college, I would study for the NCLEX before I even got into nursing school. I was reading ahead of all of my classes, even before I was in the class. I was the student who always liked to be prepared ahead of time. I’d say nerdy shit like “if I read it beforehand, it’ll just end up being a review in lecture.” Yeah, that was me, overly prepared. So you can imagine what I feel like now when I want to set a goal and I don’t even know what my goal is. How do you even prepare for stuff like that? I was never ready to be a mom, and I’ve learned to wing it literally every day of Maverick’s life. And he’s still going strong! Just goes to show that you really don’t need to be ready to make life decisions, you just need to be flexible and adapt well. And if you fail one day, you remain resilient the next day!

“There’s so much stuff going on, I can’t handle it” or “I don’t have enough time”

If you’re able to binge watch HBO Max, then you have enough time to do anything. If you have enough time to check your 4runner forum on Reddit for 45 minutes, you have enough time to clean your actual 4runner (yep, that’s directed toward my husband, FIGHT ME FOOL.) Just kidding, my husband’s car is always clean, thank the Lawd. But seriously, if you have enough time to scroll through Instagram, you have enough time to write a blog or read a chapter in a book. If you have enough time to send tweets (do people still do this?) then you have enough time to try that new recipe you’ve been eyeing. There’s always time, and the important thing is managing our time. Because studies show that busy people get shit done, and those without a schedule usually don’t. I mean, it’s obvious why right?

I know for me that when I have nothing planned, I take the day less seriously. I feel like I have all the time in the world, so I fill my time with useless things like window shopping on Chrome, or watching Reels on Insta. But when I have days where it’s packed tight with events, then I actually am more productive, and that’s because I dedicate time to things. Which is why being on terminal leave was so hard for me because my days were literally filled with nothingness.

SO GET OUT THERE & MAKE GOALS.

So are you going to make goals now, or are you going to wait until next year? Because next year is in 21 days, partner! So even if you’re trying to procrastinate, guess what, you can’t! Let’s not wait another 365 days to make moves. LET’S GET IT DONE TOGETHER.

6 things I’ve incorporated into my mornings to be more productive

Let’s be real - New Years is always a good time for everyone to start implementing changes into their lifestyle to try and better their every day living. For the past few months, I’ve noticed myself becoming more and more frustrated with how much cleaning and organizing we have to do in the house. It’s my first time living with my husband under one roof, and there are some things we need to work on, such as not leaving all of our things dumped at the door when returning from work.

I’ve never been good at being productive in a cluttered or messy environment, so I started brainstorming ideas on how I can improve this. Most days I’d find myself saying, “I’m too tired, I’ll tackle it all tomorrow.” By the time tomorrow comes, there’s an even bigger mess to clean. So I decided that in the mornings that I have before work, I would take the time to start my day off with a straight hour of productivity.

Keep my phone on DND and limit use on social media

When I would wake up before, the first thing I’d check was all of my social media. I had an extreme case of FOMO when I first moved to El Paso. I think it’s because of the lack of things to do here while pregnant; I was vicariously living through everyone on my feed. I found this very draining after a while. So I started leaving my phone in the bedroom when I’d wake up. I don’t have any social media apps on my iPad except for YouTube, so the chances of me being lost in a “scroll-daze” on Instagram are highly unlikely when I use my iPad. Instead, I find blogs or videos about being a more productive person and incorporating new systems into my lifestyle and let them play in the background. Social media will always be at the ends of my fingertips when I seriously have the time, but I’m trying to no longer fall into that black hole of scrolling.

Make the bed

I make our bed. It’s probably the easiest task I can do in the morning. As soon as I get up, I let my dogs out to use the restroom and I go back to make my bed. By the time I’ve made the bed, they’re already begging to come back inside. It’s the perfect 2-minute routine to jumpstart my productivity. Walking into my room and not having to see a mound of blankets piled on top of all of our pillows gives me a little more ease as I get ready for the day.

Start the day with breakfast and a warm drink to sit and think of what needs to be done in the next hour

Every day that I work, I have the same breakfast. I always start off with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of tea or coffee, depending on how my baby is feeling that day. (Some days I have an inkling that coffee isn’t going to sit well with him, lol.) It takes me 90-seconds to make my breakfast, and takes me about 10 minutes to sit and enjoy it. During this time, I focus more on the audible or YouTube video I’ve chosen for the morning. They’re normally 10-15 minutes long, so it’s perfect for the first part of my day. I’ve got a good start on my daily nutrition, and I’ve already brainstormed what needs to be done in the next “tidy-up hour”.

Journaling or Planning

Depending on if I have an idea to write something or if I need to take the time to plan the week, this is when I’ll do it. I use the Goodnotes app and Google Calendar to plan my days and weeks, and to write down any thoughts I have. There are a lot of things I know need to be done before the arrival of baby, to include the personal goals I have for myself, so I try to find the best ways to tackle them. I know that if I write it down then I won’t forget it needs to be done. Being able to cross if off my to-do list helps me stay on track and keeps me accountable to the task. I make sure I write down all of the urgent things that I need to get to, and plan ahead of the tasks I can clump together to be more efficient. I highly suggest learning to plan, even if it’s just writing down your errands. When you set aside the time, you’re more likely to get it done than trying to keep it in your short-term memory and saying, “I’ll get to it after I do XYZ.”

Tidy up the house

I cannot stand coming into my home when there are things all over the place. When my husband comes in from work, he’s always dragging in 2-3 bags from work to include his backpack, gym bag, and lunch bag + giant water bottle. He dumps the mail on the table, he takes off his clothes and hangs it on the back of the chairs, and dumps his pockets next to our coffee machine. It. Drives. Me. Crazy. He’s gotten better at putting things away after I’ve clearly voiced how upset I get when I see it :). So now, all I do is tidy up the kitchen and the living room. I take the time to fold the blankets, fix the pillows, vacuum, feed the dogs, load/empty the dishwasher, prepare the coffee, and make rice for dinner. Doing all of these things in the beginning of the day make it easier to come home to the house at the end of the day. By the time I get off of work, the last thing I want to do is clean. That’s why it would usually get pushed off to the weekends or my days off. Tidying the house a little bit every day helps keep the messes from piling up too high, which in return, gives me more time to enjoy being at home hanging out.

Skin care

This is a routine that I have had to really get myself to follow, and I’m glad that I started being more serious with my skin care. There isn’t a time where I felt worse after cleansing my face. It’s a refreshing start to my day. I know that when I go out, I’m feeling my best because I feel like I’m looking my best. Taking the short 5-10 minutes to take care of myself goes a long way when starting the day off. (Related: Part I: Essentials of my skin care routine)