How to get back on track when you’ve been sidetracked by life

Jan 26, 2021. 26/365 days of Daily Writing Practice + life lessons journal of sorts. I’m committing to writing ~100-word article daily. Short or long-form. Ugly or brilliant. The objective is to write daily for 15 mins without fail, even when life happens.

My last daily writing practice article was day 16. The day when death came to visit the family. It left me emotionally and physically wrecked, and so was my daily routine. I had to let go of some of my plates to focus my limited energy on being present, being there for important people, for being whatever the circumstance would need from me to be of help.

For 10 days, I didn’t write. But I lived. Certainly did. A week or so full of conversations, feelings, life realizations, life appreciations, an instant life review.

I failed the daily writing challenge for a week, I missed a lot of boxes in my habits tracker, but such is life. It’s not meant to be robotic. It’s not how many times we failed, but how many times we get back up, so some wise men say.

So how do you get back on track after getting lost, stuck, distracted, or maybe derailed by a full-blown engine trouble?

1. Take a rest. Get optimal sleep. Nourish your body. Walk outside. Hydrate yourself. Prime your body. You can’t do your best work if you’re still feeling exhausted.
2. Once you feel like you’ve refilled your cells with enough oxygen, your mind’s clear, It’s time to plug in the earphones and play your best work lounge playlist.
3. Review your vision calendar. Then revisit your quarterly goal, then your monthly goal. Redo your weekly goals. Reassess which among your daily tasks are still relevant to your now fast-tracked weekly goal. See which tasks can be eliminated or put on hold.
4. Find time how you can catch up on missed tasks. Maybe cancel a leisure trip to give way for vital work.
5. Schedule tasks gradually. Piling up your to-do list on the first day back at work might set you up for discouraging failure. Give yourself time to get your groove back. Ease into work mode.
6. Prioritize. Get the most important and urgent tasks done first. If it means just that one critical task, then let it be your Pomodoro focus. Just feel good about yourself.
7. Gradually add up to your load each day until you’re back to your beast working self.

You may feel sluggish, out of focus, and still a tad bit tired so be kind to yourself. If you catch yourself berating you for being inefficient or lazy, remember you’re still getting used to the grind again.

Play your favorite music, wear your favorite work clothes, make your favorite coffee and slowly remind your body the daily routine it was already used to.

Slowly your wheels will clench with the tracks and you will be an efficient machine once again.

Welcome back.