Each August, my productivity surges. When the kids are back in school, I get back to work, friends, and myself. I’m happy to report our pandemic life hasn’t affected my auto-response to the end of summer, even when our kids are schooling from home.

There is nothing like a productivity boost to elevate your mood and confidence.

Earlier this summer, after most of us finished painting all the walls and baking all the goods, we began to feel a little lost. Days and hours ticked by with no marker or trigger to signal us to move along to the next “thing.”This state of flux isn’t’ a great place to remain.

Not knowing what to do next or worse, not having something to do next, lowers our productivity and, you guessed it, our self-esteem.

You probably already knew it on some level, I mean when we’re successful at cooking a new recipe or writing an article, we feel a boost of confidence, right? Completing tasks is a gratifying accomplishment (anyone else love a good checkmark on your to-do list? 😍).

Even though Shelter In Place has thrown off our sense of time, you can regain control. If you’ve forgotten how it feels to have a truly productive day, I’m here to remind you; it’s exhilarating.

For the last seven years, contentment has been my goal. Every day I crawl into bed and check-in with myself to see how my day was. What went right? What went wrong? Then I optimize to increase the positive and decrease the negative.

Guess what? Low productivity is nearly always behind any low nighttime mood.

Three months ago, to better manage my time, I implemented the Pomodoro technique and have been blown away by its simplicity and effectiveness. I love this time management technique because it helps me focus my energy on a few tasks a day (generally in the morning), which frees me up to relax and hang out with my family. (pssst: check out this article on breezing through pandemic life.)

HERE’S THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE FOR BEGINNERS:

If you’re looking to give your self-esteem a shot in the arm, give these shorts bursts of concentrated focus a try. They’ll free you up by keeping you on task, so when your to-do list overwhelms you (or a Pandemic wipes out your ability to tell time), you have another skill to help you manage it all.

You can use them for work, play, or parenting. Pick the task, guess how long it will take, and break it up into 25-minute blocks. It’ll make the most tedious tasks doable.

Aside from writing or editing, here are a few more ways I use this technique:

🍅 Shopping
🍅 Cleaning
🍅 Cooking
🍅 1:1 time with kids
🍅 Screen time

here are SO many ways to feel productive and boost your happiness.

I love this process so much I created a Pomodoro-style to-do list notebook that I'll share with you on Instagram. And I got myself a fancy Pomodoro timer. 🤓  

At the end of the day (quite literally), this technique will simultaneously raise your confidence and give you a sense of ease. And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.

Here’ to quick and straightforward life balance skills!

🍅 P.S. This is the timer I use and recommend. It’s stylish and incredibly easy to use. Each side has a set time, and when you turn it, the time starts counting down from whatever number is facing up. Note: if you find the beeping to be too loud, a bit of tape on the speaker will do the trick.

🍅 P.P.S. The goal isn’t to do more. The goal is to be as efficient as possible, so you free up your mind and your day.