Goodbye To-Do-List

With our recent change in our daily life activities I have been struggling with my lack of productivity. As a person who is usually on the go working on tasks and chores that need tending to, not being productive is difficult for me.  I have been mentally beating myself up that I am not using my new found home time as productively as I could. In an effort to get back in the groove, last week I made a huge to-do-list of all of the projects around the house I need to do and want to do. I thought this would motivate me into action, on the contrary I feel even less productive now seeing my list sit with little to nothing crossed off.  As I thought about my lack of recent productivity, I started to think maybe this is just what I need. The last time I felt like this was after our house fire, I was just so overwhelmed, I did not know where to begin. What I found then is that I did need a reset and a bout of unproductive time was needed. It was around this time I received CERT training and one of my instructors who was a seasoned emergency responder gave me a great piece of advice, in summary, my normal was gone and life would not feel right until I developed a new normal.  I think this advice applies now as well, so instead of beating myself up over what I am not doing, I have set my to-do-list aside and created an accomplishments list. It is simply a list with the date and what I accomplished for the day. It is giving me the same sense of accomplishment that I get when I cross something off my to-do-list and I am recording the things I do for self care such as the run I went on yesterday or painting my nails the day before. While it is not much it is a small step in developing that new normal. What things have you done to motivate yourself out of a productivity slump? Please share your tips in the comments.