With the days getting colder and shorter, it’s easy to become unmotivated and unproductive.
Especially in areas where it’s freezing cold and all anyone wants to do is sit inside, watch Netflix, and hibernate, the months can pass by with little to show for.
But if you’re like me, you have goals you want to accomplish and things you want to do.
Here’s 7 ideas for things you can do to remain productive even when all you want to do is stay warm and watch tv.
1) Review Your Budget
Everyone knows the winter months can be a spendy time of the year. You have gifts to buy, family travel to do, and maybe one to many coffee orders from wanting a warm beverage to start the day.
During the winter months, I like to go over my budget and find ways to increase my savings rate. This is helpful for a few reasons. The first is that it allows me to plan for any splurges I might do.
During this time of the year, I always find myself spending more. My budget, along with tracking my spending, allows me to properly plan out purchases so I don’t have to worry about overspending on things and blowing through my money.
2) Revisit Your Goals
With the days being shorter and me being inside most of the time, the winter months feel like they go by quickly. Rather than letting everything go by in a blur, I revisit my goals to make sure I remain consistent and committed.
A lot of us set goals and then don’t revisit them periodically to make sure we’re still on track. If you want to improve your life, finances, and career, you’re going to need some direction and accountability.
Get specific with your goals. Assess your priorities and see how to tackle each goal. Do you do have debt to pay off or a savings goal to reach? Write them down and make an action plan on how to achieve them.
For some reason, writing down your goals makes them feel more real. When you have the visual reminder, it keeps you motivated and less likely to forget. Write down your goals and put them in several places to remember.
Let’s say you have a goal to pay off $500 of debt per month. This can a hard goal to keep up during the winter months when you have a lot of unexpected expenses pop up.
Create a plan on how to keep it up. Find expenses to cut, things to sell, and ways to make extra money. Find a way to connect your goals to your current situation.
3) Update Your LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an underutilized resource when it comes to advancing your career, making connections and getting freelance work. Many companies and freelance clients looking to hire will go to LinkedIn for prospective candidates.
You don’t want to miss out on new opportunities and the ability to make new connections. Take some time to go through your LinkedIn profile and add any new skills you have acquired and projects you have done.
4) Create Savings Goals
There are so many things I save up for. I save up for conferences, travel, my emergency fund, and a move. With so many things competing for my attention (and money), I have to create savings goals so I have the best shot of reaching each of them.
I used to not treat savings as a big priority. I would get my paycheck every few weeks, pay my bills, and let the rest go into savings. There was no order to it. Eventually I started getting more organized in my approach.
The first thing to do when creating savings goals is to get organized. List out all the things you’re saving for. One of the best ways to stay on top of the goals is by automating your savings. With the money automatically going into savings, it becomes simpler to hit your savings goal.
A Capital One 360 account let’s you create sub-saving accounts, which can be helpful when you have multiple things to save for. Plus, you get a $25 bonus when you sign up.
5) Use Cash Back Sites to Earn Extra Money
Cash back sites are great because you get to earn money on purchases you already make. It’s a simple way to earn a little bit extra money, which I’m sure we could all use during the winter months.
Ebates rewards you with cash back when you shop through through the Ebates portal. They offer cash back at more than 1200 stores and when you sign up for Ebates, you’ll get $10 after making your first purchase.
Ibotta is a website where you can earn cash back on in-person purchases, rather than just online purchases. After downloading the app, complete a simple task, go and make a purchase, and save your receipt to upload to the Ibotta app.
Cashback sites can be a great way to earn a little extra money on purchases you normally make anyway. It can be a lot better than having to clip coupons.
6) Learn How to Manage Your Time
There is always room for improvement when it comes to managing your time. There are multiple aspects of life to manage and it’s good to have some sort of system in place to keep everything organized and moving.
There are loads of different time management apps you can try out. There are ones that help you manage your tasks, track your time, schedule, or focus. Test a few different ones out and see how they can benefit your life.
You can use our time management spreadsheet to track and evaluate how you use your time, or check out our 20 ideas for minimizing wasting time.
7) Find Ways to Make More Money
Budgets have a tendency to become really strained during the winter months with various expenses popping up. While there are things you can cut back on, it can be easier and better to seek out ways to make more money.
Making extra money doesn’t have to involve just getting a standard part-time job with set hours. There are a variety of ways to increase your income. Your income is not confined to what you make at your current job.
The hard part about making more money is figuring out what to do and finding time to do it. Luckily, there are flexible side hustles you can try out like ones that let you start earning money quickly or more long-tail ones like blogging or freelance writing.
Let’s say you have a goal to earn an extra $100 or $500 per month. You could try out pet sitting, working a seasonal retail job, or work holiday events. If you’re goal is for a long term side hustle, you could try out blogging and work whenever and wherever you want.
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Don’t let the winter blues get the best of you. If you’re feeling unmotivated and unproductive during the winter months, try out some of the thing listed to get back on track. Being productive and creating goals is something we should all strive to do.
The winter months aren’t just for sipping hot chocolate and buying gifts. Take advantage of any downtime to make improvements and better yourself.
How do you stay productive during the winter months?
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I think that this time of year is best for reflecting on the goals you had in 2017 and seeing what lead you to hit them or come up short. Then taking the time to make your goals for 2018 so you can jump in when the new year starts.
I’m totally agree with rthe entire post especially point 1
Winter tends to leave me in a slump… The cold weather coupled with the longer nights just seems to drag on my soul. I have to try harder to be productive than in the summer just for that reason. These are great tips – and I definitely need to update my LinkedIn!
I stay productive in the winter by reviewing my goals from the previous year in November/December and then working on my new goals in January. I work at a university, so I use my Winter Break to focus on blog related activities.