All the creative souls out there are guilty of one sin: We tend to live in our head too much. All those Pinterest pins and the endless Facebook and Twitter notifications are summons to slip back into the magic land.

Don’t get me wrong! Your mind and imagination is your true asset as a member of the creative clan! It’s a great place. It has made it possible for you to be where you stand right now!

But, like it or not, it is also an escape. It’s the place you vanish into when the practicalities and the pressures of the day get to be too much!

In our headspace, we contemplate among ideas and in construct and deconstruct all the scenarios, the possible angles, and the outcomes. We wait for inspiration to strike. The result: the execution and progress get slower and slower, until it comes to a screeching halt.

Thursday arrives! By noon, you wake up from your dreamscape and realize that you are stuck and lost! The project or assignment is nowhere near completion. You would either fail to meet your deadlines all together or work away your entire weekend just to make it through!

Only then you wish that you would have been less dreamy and more efficient, more proactive and practical at the start of the week. But then Monday starts and you couldn’t be less dreamy! There is still time, you tell yourself! There are so many pins to check out, articles to read and share! So the whole dreadful cycle starts all over again!
I know all this too well and here is what I do to escape from my head:

5 Ways to Get Back on Track

Here are 5 things I do to regain the rhythm of the week back:

Picking Up Pace

I use Tuesdays and Wednesdays as my peak productivity days. This means that even if I have slackened on Monday, by Tuesday morning, I go into the full battle mode. I work with the frenzy of a hamster on the wheel. I keep running and running till the evening.

Reminding Myself of the Consequences

Even when I lose myself in my lala land, reminding myself of things like late night work and working weekends are enough to pull me back into the reality.

Delaying Gratification

This means: Shorter or next to no breaks, quick meals and snacks on my workstation, leftovers for dinner, and absolutely no Netflix in between.

Making Midway Assessment

By Wednesday afternoon or evening, I usually manage to accomplish at least half of the work. Sometimes, when I am on a roll, I even manage to get pull off a rough draft. If for some reason, this doesn’t happen, due to change of a plan, an emergency, and I am still lagging behind, I try to delegate the household responsibilities, work late at night, etc., or let the person expecting the work know ahead about my progress (or the lack of it).

Going Out

If my head is muddled up and I am feeling stressed, I quit the screen for a while and go out! There is nothing a brisk round the block won’t cure. There are two small parks in the vicinity, within walking distance. I use the walking track or sit on a bench and look at the sky, the clouds and the birds. This change of scenario helps me regain my mental energy and put things back in perspective.

The Conclusion

Imagination is truly a beautiful thing and our minds are like wonderland. But there are times when we have to put on our execution cap on and put away the thinking cap!

Let’s Get Talking

This WorthWorkin4 Wednesday, I decided to share some of the things that usually help me get out of my head. If you have similar tips, I would love to hear about them in the comments section underneath!

 Image credit: Karolina Grabowska@Pexels