(• Reading Time: 3 minutes •)
Little activities don’t come close to the hype that people expect when they think productivity.
But you don’t always need faster, better.
In fact, it makes little sense to try to be productive when the world around you is chaotic. Sometimes you intentionally need to go slow.
Productivity in chaotic times
Your most productive self should focus on maintaining your status quo. Instead of striving to doing more.
The former achieves balance; the latter brings guilt.
Here are simple ways to maintain balance.
Protect your relaxation space
I stopped working on my bed.
And quit relaxing on my ‘work couch’. I’ve found that relaxing in the same spot and later trying to work doesn’t cut it anymore.
Plus it’s hard to work in the same chair and later trying to switch to relaxation.
It sounds trivial but it is important to intentionally create a physical boundary between work and relaxation if you work remotely. Not doing this kept me spinning in cycles for several weeks.
Shower every day
It’s simple.
Early showers are better but if you can’t do that have one at night before the day runs out.
You’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something already.
Cooking therapy
I am not a big fan of cooking.
But following instructions on a recipe and coming up with something new feels magical.
Pick any meal — doesn’t matter if it comes out good or not. It’s the process that counts.
I’m still not into cooking and have zero intentions on becoming a world-class chef. But cooking is now an avenue to unplug from the current state of the world especially when I pair it with nice jazz music on Spotify.
Get that sunshine
5 mins of sunshine is mystical!
In the last few months I’ve realized that my cabin fever completely disappeared after I began opening up windows early in the day.
I’ve never believed that the weather has an impact on one’s mood but it does. You don’t need huge windows. Just something that gives you a little bit of sunshine outside.
Start a streak
I started a streak for reading. Nothing elaborate.
Just 5 minutes of reading daily.
First got to 35 days and accidentally broke it off on a weekend. Restarted another and I’m now on day 22. Who knows when it’ll break off again.
Books tend to have high and low moments so I never read only one specific book at a time. Also I’m not in a rush to finish 100 books like many productivity blogs preach.
Quality over quantity
The most impactful books took me at least a month to read and that was because I intentionally paused to try some lessons in the book before coming back to it.
Having a streak feels like I’m making progress in some area of my life no matter how crazy the world is out there. And occasionally I get inspired. Inspiration is good.
The warm fuzziness wears off eventually but I tend to ride on the high of books for some days.
Anyways, just start a streak.
Thanks for reading
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Heads Up - I love research so I tend to back my advice and approach with concepts from Behavioral Psychology and Neuroscience.