5 Easy Ways to Stay Productive & Positive in the Winter

The Christmas decor is down, it’s cold and grey outside, and all those #goals you made for 2018 may not be perfectly panning out the way you wanted them to. GOOD NEWS: You are not alone! Post Christmas winter can be a bit of a depressing and dreary time in my experience. I wanted to share with you all 5 ways that I’m trying to stay ‘Productive & Positive’  in this post-Christmas, pre-Spring, gloomy time of the year!

I don’t know about you, but my anxiety kicks into full gear when when I get out of routine and am not being as productive as I normally am. There’s nothing worse than being in that funk when you are sitting around thinking about all that you have to do and want to do but doing nothing about it because you’re so overwhelmed by it all. Following along, or have I lost you? For those of you that have been there… here’s some advice!

Get Into a Morning Routine: There’s no better time than the morning to start your day productively. Waking up in the morning is such a struggle for me, but when I actually (key word here)  do my morning routine, I feel SO much better about my day. Here’s a summary of my morning routine for some inspiration:

• Morning Devotional – Not too long ago I found myself scrolling through instagram and messing around on my phone as I first woke up in the mornings. I recently discovered the ‘First 5’ app that has daily devos with actual scripture. More on this later, but I think it’s important to be aware of devotionals that do not share scripture! The goal with the ‘First 5’ app is that you spend the ‘First 5’ minutes of your day in The Word. ‘She Reads Truth’ is another great app for scripture & devotionals.
• Make Your Bed – coming home from work to an unmade made makes me feel like my whole house is a mess! (it’s a mental thing, I know!)
• Pick Your Outfit the Night Before: This is a huge time saver! No more scrambling for what to wear when you’re tired in the morning! Pro Tip: Get everything for your outfit laid out the night before so that you do not have to go searching! 

Go OUT to a Movie/Performance/Show: I know, I know… Netflix & chill is so much easier, but you can do that whenever! Make that extra effort to actually go see a movie or find out what’s going on in your city to see a performance or show that is in town! My suggestion for movies right now is (obviously) ‘The Greatest Showman.’ Y’all, I could go on and on about this movie and it will TOTALLY boost your mood! Cody even enjoyed and trust me, he’s not a musical guy!

Reach Out to Someone You Haven’t Seen in a While: The holiday season causes us to be so busy preparing and allows us (hopefully) to be spending a lot of time with family and friends! I think one of the reasons why this time of year gets people down is that we’ve gotten use to having so many holiday events & gatherings that bring family and friends together and now it’s over! My advice? Reach out to a friend or family member that you haven’t seen in a while and actually set a date to do something otherwise it may never happen!

Pick Up a Good Read: Reading is an excellent opportunity to make some time for YOU, which is so important! This is one area I’d really like to make more of an effort in. Since I do not find THAT much time to read, I am very intentional about what I choose to read. Very rarely will you find me reading something that is not from a Christian author. Right now I’ve been reading through Lysa Terkeurst’s books and I HIGHLY suggest them. She covers so many important topics and is also HILARIOUS!

Try Something New: This one is my favorite! You must be intentional with this for it to work! This can be something as simple as trying a new restaurant for a night! Right now my ‘something new’ is blogging and it has been such a positive way for me to express myself and be creative. Do something that YOU enjoy! Another take on this is to talk to your spouse about something new you want to try together! Fun Fact: My ‘something new’ about 4 years ago was joining a bowling league with my best friend, Blair!

Keep scrolling to see some more pictures from this shoot! 

IMAGES BY: HANNAH SCHWEISS PHOTOGRAPHY