A Girl Boss’s Guide To A Productive Summer

It’s no secret that everyone’s productivity tends to fade a little (or a lot) in the summer. For students, no school means no structure. Unless you have a steady job or something else getting you up and moving everyday, it can become tough to have a productive summer.

If you are anything like me, you get a lot of satisfaction in accomplishing tasks and crossing things off a list. When summer comes around, I’ve needed to adapt my lifestyle so I still feel productive and get things done everyday. Here are the tips I use every single summer!

Wake up at the same time

I cannot stress this enough. This tip is first for a reason. I can almost guarantee that you cannot have a productive summer if you sleep until noon every single day. Try your best to go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time every day. It may be summer, but that doesn’t mean your sleep schedule needs to be thrown in the garbage.

Now I am not saying that you need to go to sleep early and wake up at 7 in the morning like you would if it was a school night. It is still summer, so let yourself wake up a little bit later. In my life, I like to wake up at 8 or 9 in the summer. It’s early enough that I am able to get stuff done and not sleep the whole day, but it’s also late enough that I am not exhausted.

I also give myself a break on the weekends like I would during the school year and sleep in. Just remember to have a good balance between sleeping in and waking up so you don’t end up wasting all summer sleeping!

Make a to-do list

Like I was saying before, I am the type of person that needs to make a list and cross something off for me to feel accomplished. So, I make lists, even in the summer.

Of course, my summer to do lists are very different from the ones during the year. Instead of a bunch of school assignments and things for extracurricular activities, the tasks on my summer lists are smaller and easier. But, I still write them down so I feel like I am doing something, even if it’s something little.

Stick to your routines

The worst thing you can do in the summer is abandon all of your routines. I know life is different and you don’t need some of your routines anymore, but don’t get rid of them completely. If you do, come August or September, it’s a million times harder to get back into “school mode.”

Instead of completely leaving your routines in the school year, try adapting them to your new summer lifestyle. Change up your morning and night routines to match the new times you wake up and go to sleep. Modify any other routines you follow to fit what you do in the summer.

You also don’t want to forget the productivity systems that helped you during the school year. For me, I continue with my weekly refresh system even in the summer. While I have less tasks to do every Saturday, I still keep up the system.

Accept that there is less to do

One of the hardest things for me is feeling unproductive and unaccomplished in the summer. Mentally, it is so important to accept that summer is the time to relax. And with that, there is less to do. The lists that you make and routines that you follow should be lighter than usual. That’s the whole point of summer in the first place!

Give yourself goals

One of my favorite ways to make myself feel productive in the summer, especially if I am not doing anything, is to give myself daily or weekly goals. These can literally be anything you want, just something that you can accomplish.

Here are some examples:

Those are just a few examples of daily and weekly goals you can make for yourself. You can either do one or the other, or make daily and weekly goals. For example, your weekly goal could be to meal plan for the week, but the daily goal would be to cook a healthy meal. Or your weekly goal could be to organize your bedroom, but your daily goal is just to organize your t-shirt drawer.

These goals don’t have to be huge and impressive. Just something small and easy that will make you feel like you did something during the day, even if all you did was cook a healthy meal or go for a walk.

Another thing to remember is that you want your goals to be something tangible that can be accomplished in a day or a week. For example, instead of having a daily goal of eating healthy, have a daily goal of cooking a healthy meal.

Remember to live and have fun

It’s summer. So whether you have a part time job or a full time job or don’t have any plans, remember to have fun and give yourself a break.

It is okay to not do as much over the summer.

It is okay to not be as productive over the summer.

It is okay to give yourself a break over the summer.

That is what summer is for, a chance to relax and regain your strength for the coming school year. Give yourself time off from being “on” and just “turn off” once in a while. This is only going to help you in the long run!

With all that said, I hope everyone has an amazing summer! If you wanna check out everything I’ll be doing this summer, follow along on instagram!