How To Be Productive When You’re Dealing With Seasonal Anxiety and Depression

During the autumn, you might begin to feel some strain from the upcoming holiday season. This is also the time of year when we return to work, students return to school, and families become busier with regular activities. With so much to do, we want to be productive. But seasonal anxiety and depression have something else to say about that.

It’s back to business as usual, plus the added pressures of the upcoming festive part of the year. The nervousness from preparing for the holiday season, while maintaining overloaded schedules, and increased performance expectations can become overwhelming.

Unless you understand how to handle all of the activities in a timely manner. 

At this time, it’s critical to maintain equilibrium to avoid burnout. And that involves planning, prioritizing, and organization, as well as self-care.

The busier you get the more important planning becomes. Particularly if you want to enjoy, rather than endure, the holiday season.

If you find that you are falling behind, here are some tips to help you get back on track, manage stress, and really focus on what’s important.

Reduce the Stress of Seasonal Anxiety and Depression By Planning In Advance

When you have a busy lifestyle, it is important to make plans for the holidays. Use a calendar so that you can schedule everything. You can use an old-fashioned paper calendar, or you might prefer using a modern calendar on your smartphone.

Make a list of the tasks that you must complete before each holiday so that you won’t forget anything.

Don’t forget to talk to your family about different chores that are required to prepare for Christmas. Everyone in your family can participate in the holiday preparations. It shouldn’t be just on you!

More importantly, remember the power of positive self-talk. Give yourself some credit for everything you do manage to accomplish.

1. Manage Productivity With a Planner

To improve your productivity and keep track of your progress, consider using a planner. You can set your alarm for about 20-30 minutes earlier than normal in the morning. Or set aside some time in the evening when you’re done for the day so that you have enough time to write in your planner.

Using a Planner to Control Stress, Seasonal Anxiety and Depression

Now is a great time to look at your goals and tasks, and make a schedule that shows exactly what to do and when.

For starters, get a daily planner you love, that contains different layouts, like daily, weekly, and monthly calendar pages. This allows you to fill out your schedule, create to-do lists, and see what you have going on each day, week, and month.

It’ll be perfect for managing your time wisely since you have a detailed outline of the tasks and appointments. You can even pencil in days for fun activities and dates with friends.

A daily planner is an excellent tool for reducing stress levels. It improves focus and productivity and helps you to avoid overwhelm. Recording activities and tracking your progress will give you a sense of control that will keep you grounded.

Add this to your daily self-care routine as a way to stay on top of things. That way you don’t have all the added stress of missing an appointment or not completing an important task.

Keeping records of what you have already completed will take the pressure off. It’ll enable you to have a clear view of what you’ve already achieved. With that, you’ll be able to move on and focus on the next task. The sense of moving forward will keep your seasonal anxiety and depression at a distance.

What Makes a Planner Successful?

While there are no rules for using your daily planner, there are a few things that can help you benefit more from using it.

Here are some tips for using a daily planner:

Use one planner for everything. Try to use just one daily planner, for personal and business use. This helps keep everything contained and organized.

Write in it every day. Make a habit of using your planner every day, whether it is writing something down, or just reviewing your day or week.

Include all details in your planner. Try to write absolutely everything down, from small tasks to big goals and events. This not only helps you organize your time wisely but helps you see how much you have gotten done.

Make use of the daily, weekly, and monthly sections. Each section of a daily planner has its merits, so try to use them all if you can. The daily section will include to-do lists for each day. Meanwhile, the weekly and monthly sections will help you track the goals.

and appointments.

2. Using a Journal to Manage Seasonal Anxiety and Depression

With a journal, it’s more about writing down your thoughts and feelings. You can use it as a way to express gratitude, write about your day, and figure out anxiety triggers, Or you can just vent and express yourself without having to worry about the consequences.

Journaling is a wonderful tool for your personal growth and development, processing emotions, and finding clarity, especially during hectic times. All in all, it’s an effective tool for stress management.

How To Start Journaling

As with the planner, there are no rules in journaling. No structure or mandatory components. No need to worry if you’re stuck. Don’t overthink it, just start.

Here are a few tips to help you along:

Keep it private. Your journal is for your eyes only. Write for yourself. You are the author and the reader. Keep your journal somewhere secure where no one else can access it. This will give you total freedom of expression.

Write every day. Make journaling part of your daily routine, like brushing teeth. The best time is early morning after you wake up, or in the evening, before going to sleep. These are the times of the day when you can reflect undisturbed. Aim for at least 15 minutes.

Ditch restrictions. Write whatever comes to your mind. Don’t self-censor your thoughts and choice of words or worry about grammar, punctuation, or composition. Spill everything on the paper as it comes, without inhibition.

Revisit the journal. Write about what happened and then write about how you feel about what happened. Reread what you wrote several days later to see if anything has changed or how your feelings have evolved. Then write about that too.

3. Using Affirmations To Ground Yourself

The daily grind can be mighty exhausting. Even with the meticulous organization and clear mind that the planner and the journal facilitate, you still have to get that stuff you planned done.

To keep you motivated, there’s another tool you can use to your advantage – affirmations.

Some people will smirk at the affirmations as foolish, new-age nonsense! But performed mindfully and with conviction, this stuff really works.

You can easily incorporate the affirmations into either your planning or journaling practice. Alternatively, you can treat them as an individual component of your daily routine, with a dedicated notepad. Whichever suits you best.

Benefits of Daily Affirmations For Seasonal Stress, Anxiety and Depression

So why should you incorporate daily affirmations into your routine? Well, there are actually a few great reasons to use them, and several ways to add them to your routine.

Here is a rundown of the main benefits of positive affirmations:

It promotes a positive attitude and change in your mindset. This is definitely one of the best reasons to use daily affirmations. They are always positive statements meant to put you in the right mindset. It helps you throughout the day when you start your day with more positivity and kindness.

You start to appreciate more and get disappointed in less. Affirmations not only show you what you want or how to feel. They help you appreciate what you already have. Because the affirmations are written in the present tense, they reinforce the positive attitude and the growth mindset. It also places your mind in a positive presence and that helps you appreciate the small things.

You are more aware of the power of your own thoughts. Affirmations teach you that just your thoughts or how you talk to yourself can make a large impact on your entire life. It improves your quality of life, makes you feel more positive, and actually helps you reach your goals.

It helps provide motivation where you need it the most. Sometimes you need to manifest motivation into your life with positive affirmations. They work wonders for this.

How to Choose Your Affirmations For Seasonal Stress, Anxiety and Depression

What should your affirmations be? You can copy other people’s affirmations, but you might also want to create your own for specific situations in your life.

To write your own affirmations, here are a few tips:

Keep it positive. Affirmations should always be positive from beginning to end. If you have a negative thought or attitude, write an affirmation that switches it to something positive. For example, if you are dealing with stress related to a big change in your life, try “I am capable of adapting to any situation”.

Write in the present tense. You also want to write affirmations in the present tense, as if what you want has already happened. If you want to achieve a goal, you can go with “I am working hard towards my goals”.

Be grateful in your affirmations. Instead of stating what you want, your affirmations can express gratefulness for what you already have in your life. For example, “I am grateful to work on my goals today”.

Remember also to keep your affirmations brief so that they are easy to remember and repeat as often as needed.

4. Express Gratitude To Maintain Positivity

Being more grateful for things in your life is a wonderful way to practice self-care. This is so much more beneficial for your health and wellness than you might think.

It will help you exude positivity. And your positivity will help others feel good about themselves. It’s the best recipe for learning to appreciate and truly enjoy the amazing things in your life. Even those you couldn’t see before. Practicing gratitude and cultivating a positive mindset go hand in hand. These are very effective strategies in managing not only seasonal but general anxiety and depression.

Your Essential Gratitude Practice Tools

Use your journal. The first way you can express gratitude is by writing about it in your journal. This is a really simple method since you are likely using your journal every day already.

It can be as simple as a sentence or two in your daily journal entry stating what you’re grateful for. Alternatively, you can have a goal of finding 3-5 things each day you want to be thankful for.

Another option is to start a gratitude journal, where the entire journal is used exclusively for that purpose.

Use your planner. Not a fan of journaling? Why not use your daily planner. The daily planner helps keep track of your schedule, goals, and to-do lists. If you prefer a more structured approach, it’s fine to practice gratitude using the planner as you check your daily tasks.

If there are areas for extra notes, just write down at least one thing you feel grateful for each day. It will allow you to be more positive and thankful for the good in your life. As opposed to dwelling on the negative.

Try gratitude mantras. Another option is to write down some mantras for the use of gratitude and say them to yourself each day. This is a great way to feel more positive inside and out and really exude that positivity throughout the day.

You can write your mantras on sticky notes and put them on the mirror in your bathroom. You can write them in your journal, or keep a notebook with you. Don’t forget to read them out loud whenever you feel you need the reminder.

Tell someone in person. Do you feel gratitude toward someone who has been a good influence in your life, or who you look up to? Tell them!

There is no better way to express gratitude about a person than to tell them directly. It is a wonderful confidence boost for them, and really just helps to spread positivity around.

5. Make a Bucket List To Spark Inspiration

A bucket list may seem to you like a weird way to manage your anxiety and stress. Surely, something frivolous as this should wait for another time when we’re less busy.

But making a bucket list has shown to be another previously underestimated yet powerful tool for improving mental health.

Compiling a list of things you want to achieve will provide inspiration and motivation to keep you going.

Benefits of Making a Bucket List

To start with, let’s discuss some of the general benefits of having a bucket list. This includes just regular life bucket lists but also specific ones. An example of a specific bucket list is a time-sensitive bucket list or a seasonal bucket list.

There are a lot of ways you can benefit by having a bucket list. You can use it to envision reaching certain goals and having new experiences. What things have you always wanted to do but haven’t yet taken any action towards turning your ideas into reality? This is often the hardest part.

When you have a bucket list, you have a clear list of things to do, places to go, people to meet. You are able to look at the list, set tasks to achieve these goals, and get out of your comfort zone.

Why Use a Season-Specific List?

Similarly, there are quite a few reasons to do a season-specific bucket list, such as one for fall. When you have a bucket list just for fall, it is more time-sensitive.

So you should list things that are important for you to accomplish specifically in the season.

It gives you a better idea of what to plan for and what to add to your calendar or a daily planner.

Having a seasonal bucket list is also going to help you by getting out of your house and really enjoying all the season has to offer. Instead of constantly feeling like you passed up a good opportunity.

Ideas for What to include In Your Bucket List

When thinking about what to include on your fall bucket list, think of what you enjoy doing, or what you have always wanted to do, but never got around to.

Here are some ideas:

Personal development. Your seasonal bucket list can include anything from improving your diet, starting a new exercise, becoming a stronger swimmer, beginning meditating, or even changing your hairstyle.

Career objectives. Maybe you want to get a new job, write a book, gain qualifications, or finally start your own business.

Financial goals. Perhaps you finally want to pay off your debt, start saving, make a new investment, overhaul your budget, review your spending, or get a better financial education.

Learn new skills. You may want to learn a new language, master new yoga poses, or have a crack at creating your business website.

Quality time with family and friends. How about planning a family holiday, a trip with your friends or organizing a party?

Be Creative with Ways To Express Gratitude

Of course, you can add as many categories as you wish, and fill them with activities that excite you. The world is your oyster. It doesn’t matter much if some of those plans don’t work out. The point is that some of them will if you make it happen.

And you’ll make it happen by planning and organizing your activities with the planner, clearing your mind with journaling, staying positive with affirmations, and keeping inspired with your bucket list.

All of these activities should help you be productive while reducing seasonal stress, anxiety and depression.

Disclaimer:

This article was written by Zuzana Halliwell. I am not a doctor or health professional and cannot be held liable for the information written here. This article is meant to provide information about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The content is based on my own personal experience and on information provided by medical professionals that is available to the public. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a medical professional.