Kilauea Mount Etna Mount Yasur Mount Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira Piton de la Fournaise Erta Ale. You Need an Afternoon Routine. People are always telling you how to maximize your mornings, but your morning routinewhatever it may beis fine. What you really need is an afternoon routine. The idea of waking up early, sitting down to breakfast, and writing a few pages in a journal sounds Read more Dont get me wrong, its good to start your day off on the right foot. For me that means chugging a glass of water, walking the dog, making a quick protein rich breakfast, then having a cup of strong black coffee. After that, I sit down to scan for important emails, check Slack, put on some music that matches my mood that day, then get started writing. It hasnt changed much for me in the last few years. But come afternoon, my energy dips. Im still full from lunch food coma time, Im drained from my morning writing session, my focus starts to fade so I start to mindlessly browse the internet, and my video games and Netflix queue are whispering sweet nothings in my ear. You probably know the feeling. The afternoon is when distractions have the most poweryoure fatigued, irritable, and way more impulsive. So I had to come up with a routine that kept me productive in the afternoon yet still acknowledged my natural workflow. Heres what I recommend. Get Up and Move. First, get up from your desk and move your body. If you just sit there, your malaise will only get worse. I moved my daily workouts to the afternoon instead of the morning, and I now I feel more refreshed and energized. You dont have to run or lift weights to reap the benefits, though. A simple walk around 3 p. Even if you cant go outside, take a walk around the office anyway. Move your body at the same time every day so your brain knows youre still getting stuff done. Its important to get regular exercise, even if its a little activity here and there. Read more Work on the Easy Stuff. Enter the easy list. There are some aspects of every job that just arent that difficult. You know, housekeeping, organizing, repetitive tasks, and general correspondence. Save all of that stuff for the afternoon when you can switch on autopilot and power through all of it listening to your favorite tunes. For me, this means responding to emails, finding stories to pitch, doing research for other stories, editing photos, and organizing files as need be. Unless one of those things is urgent that day, I dont bother with it until after lunch. Its just me, my headphones, some upbeat music, a sparkling water, and a zoned out sprint through the tedious stuff Ive gotta do. Youd be surprised how much this change alone will do for your day. Everyone wants to check out early on Fridays, but weblog Asian Efficiency suggests completing yourRead more Spend Just Five Minutes on That Big ThingIf, and only if, you need to finish a larger project, tell yourself youll just work on it for five minutes. Actually set a timer on your phone or whatever and do whatever you can in that five minutes. You might get into a good workflow and defeat your afternoon slump in those five minutes. Download Dmpc Pro here. If you do, be sure to reward yourself and reinforce that behavior. If you dont stick with it, thats okay, dont punish yourself. Go back to the easy stuff for a while and try again later. For many of us, procrastination isnt necessarily a matter of laziness, but of being dauntedRead more Kill Your Darlings. Regardless of what type of work you do, we all have little darlings, or personal favorite elements we think are necessary for our work but actually arent. In writing it often refers to eye roll inducing words or phrases, but the concept can exist in any type of work. That extra fancy graphic in your Power. Point slide show, for example, or that flashy line of code that doesnt actually improve the user experience. Basically, the things you personally love but havent thought critically about. Well, at the end of the day youre pretty much over it, rightThats the time to strike. The classic saying is, write drunk, edit sober, but I prefer the write drunk, edit hungover approach no, I dont write drunk every day. When youre hungoveror in this case, burned out at the end of the dayyou do not care about all those little things you thought were so dreadfully clever earlier in the day. Use your irritability to your advantage and streamline what youve done. You may have heard the old quote write drunk, edit sober, but it might actually be better to edit Read more Plan Out Tomorrow. Last but not least, spend the last hour to half hour or so of your day making a plan for tomorrow. Decide what to prioritize and what you need to get done in the morning when youre awake and full of energy. Everything else can be moved to your afternoon easy list. I also usually spend this time writing memos to myself as well. That way, when I get in the next morning, I have sticky note reminders all over telling me what needs to get done and Im not wasting my mental energy trying to remember everything. Every time you go through the day and wind up behind, you tell yourself Tomorrow will be better.