“Tomorrow I will do it”
“Another day wasted…”
Do you ever feel like you’re the only person who’s being unproductive? Where you convince yourself that “tomorrow” you’ll do your tasks, but then said tomorrow comes, and you don’t do anything? You spend the day scrolling through Tiktok,through Facebook, watching series or movies, but not doing anything unless you’re forced to? This is called bed rotting. What is it? This is basically to spend the entire day or more in bed, doing nothing aside from napping and doom-scrolling to watching TV and eating.
Here are some tips to prevent bed rotting for a whole week, and most importantly, when finals are on the way.
Set a schedule/routine
Having a routine can help you. Try to sleep at the same time everyday and wake up. Eating is an activity that can sometimes mess up our routines because of the time it takes to prepare those meals. “Oh, so I shouldn’t eat?” no, of course not, that’s gonna lead you to have no energy and be even more unproductive. Meal prepping can help sticking to that routine, but also feed your brain.
To stick with a routine, incorporating digital tools like Google Calendar and Outlook can help you manage your time effectively. In any of these calendar apps, recurring events for daily activities like work sessions, meals, and exercise can be added to maintain consistency.You could sync any of these with other devices and platforms for easy access and updates.
Using task management tools like Asana to break down your daily routine into manageable tasks is another alternative. All these tools are efficient to help you break down tasks based on urgency and importance to ensure you’re focusing on the most critical activities first.
Break that routine
This may be contradicting, but it is healthy to shake up your routine. Breaking your routine can be healthy, you just have to learn to prioritize your tasks so you don’t feel overwhelmed once you go back to your day to day routine.
Take a break
You can always defeat bed rotting, since it is produced by burnout, by doing something else instead. For example,if you’re too saturated to study for an exam, go for a walk, go to the gym, and when you feel your brain has freshened up, continue to do your tasks. Sometimes it is also good to just go to sleep, instead of forcing yourself to stay up so late being productive, because a lack of sleep can lead to the same endless cycle of rotting.
Forgive yourself and listen to your body
The more you criticize and self deprecate yourself because you wasted your day, will help you get out of this cycle and be better.
Did what I just said made sense? Absolutely not, so why do you keep doing it? If you wasted another day, maybe it’s time to listen to your body and be kinder to yourself. Look for the root of the problem, maybe your body is going through a deficiency or you’re not okay mentally, but criticizing your actions will not bring solutions. After listening to your needs, maybe check the list again and see what speaks more to your state and do it. This can be a great start to then set goals and not fall into the rot.
You’re not alone
If there’s a reason this article exists, it’s because you’re not alone. Some people may glorify this habit and see it as a cute trend, but if you recognize this is affecting your mental state, habits, hygiene, your day to day life in general, it might be the moment to do more than just follow a self help article, and look for professional help.