By Elsie Udoh
It can be very frustrating when you have to be somewhere important but then it starts to rain. If you are like me, you will probably beat yourself up for failing to leave home earlier and curse everything that slowed down your preparation process before retiring moodily to bed. After all the rains ruined your plans already, what else is there to do?
A lot actually, I’ll tell you. Rains can be pretty unpredictable sometimes (talking about a bright cloud suddenly becoming gloomy in the blink of an eye with a heavy downpour afterwards). However, being stuck at home because of the rain doesn’t mean your activities for the day should get ‘stuck’ too. If the rain scored a hat trick, is it not only logical for you to make a well-planned comeback?
Here are five ways you can successfully ‘defeat’ the rain and at the same time stay productive even during a gloomy rainy day.
– Have a short nice nap
This is always the go-to solution and I am highly in support of it. Nothing beats a good sleep when it rains. So, take off your shoes, get under the duvet and have the best nap of your life. But, do not sleep all through the day. No! That will ruin all your plans to be productive. Keep your nap short (15-30 minutes) and then, get to work.
– Create a To-Do list
Wake up already! You’ve been asleep for over 30 minutes. Now, let’s create a new plan for the day. Think of the rain as a blessing in disguise because you have the chance to do things which you’ve been postponing for a while. Weekly schedules can be so tight in Lagos and even weekends can get choked up with weddings and other functions so if care is not taken, you might neglect your health care, placing a call to your loved ones or even eating homemade meals.
Here is an opportunity to make that up. List out all the things you have been unable to do due to your busy schedule. As a suggestion, you can include doing your laundry, cleaning the house, finishing work or school assignments, cooking enough to serve you for the week (as long as you remember to refrigerate them), calling a friend or relative, reading a book on personal development, and the list goes on and on.
– Get started on your To-Do list
After making a list of the things you want to do, start implementing. Assign a specific amount of time to each task so you do not spend the entire day on just one activity and when you check one item off the list, reward yourself. You can choose to take a short nap, play a game or see a movie as your reward. The idea is to make yourself motivated to keep going.
– Take Mental Breaks
This is different from rewarding yourself. At some point during your activity, you might get bored or moody especially when you think back to where you should have been but for the rain. Now, if you dwell on that thought for too long, you might fall into a state of despair and ruin all your efforts to stay productive. Hence, give yourself a mental break. Engage in simple exercises (yoga does the trick), stand by the window or go out to a patio where you can watch the raindrop to the ground. Mesmerise your ears with the sound of the raindrops and think of something the rain made possible for you that you are grateful about–Completing a chore long overdue might just be one of them!
– Update your To-Do list
You’ve done a great job so far and I am greatly impressed! Now it’s time to make your report. Pick up a pen and your to-do list and let’s tick off the list, the tasks you were able to accomplish. If you completed all your tasks then kudos to you, you have successfully made a great comeback to the rain, the best so far. But if you were not able to complete them, that’s alright, you did a great job getting started.
It is very easy to let a rainy day slide, achieving little to nothing. But if you decide to intentionally stick to the five steps above (you can adjust them or add to them according to your preference), then you will scale up the productivity ladder and leave yourself feeling satisfied and happy.
