The Key to Dealing With Productivity Anxiety
You’ve decided to be a more productive person, now what?
I’ve decided to become a hyper productive person, possibly brought on by a quarter-life crisis, I have decided that there are a set of things that I want to do, and to complete them in anything resembling the near-future, I will need to be hyper attentive to how I’m spending my time, no more binge watching seasons of television for me.
The anxiety kicked in immediately.
“Am I spending this moment in the most useful way possible?”
I immediately started panicking, I’d never be able to finish everything that I need to if I don’t spend every moment, the right way. It started a vicious cycle, as many anxieties do, I was paralyzed by the task ahead and what the most optimal use of my time was, that I ended up not doing anything, making the task more intimidating, and so on.
I am by no means an expert, but I’d like to propose a strategic pivots that I’m using to combat this, hopefully they work for you and I both:
Plan for Relaxation Time
I know personally I hadn’t accounted for relaxation time at first because I thought I wouldn’t need it, and I didn’t see how it would help me reach my goals. The secret is that accounting for it ahead of time lets you catch your breath a little bit, while not feeling like you are behind schedule. If you’re not sure how much time you’ll need, take a week and monitor how much time you spend doing ‘non-productive’ activities, without judgement. If it’s more than you would like it to be, decrease it incrementally over time.
Break your Projects into Tasks
The best part about creating a to-do list is checking things off of it. Use this to your advantage, and make the tasks as small as possible. If your goal is to create a morning routine, don’t make the whole routine a tasks, split them up as small as possible. Made your bed? Checkmark. Brushed your teeth? Checkmark. Seeing all those checkmarks will keep you motivated to continue, and if those daily tasks are just as small, then you can power through the day, making tons of small steps all towards your major goals.
Make Tasks as Concrete as Possible
This was a big one for me. I had a lot of tasks that were piling up, but I hadn’t defined what it meant for a task to be over, and so it would scare me away from starting it, because I never knew when it’d end. Just as important as making a task small, you need to make sure you know when it’s over, and having a concrete completion criteria is a good way to achieve that. It will make tasks easier to pick up, and inevitably easier to complete. Checkmark.
Hope you found these tips interesting or useful, obviously everyone has their own way of doing things, but I hope these tips helped you find your way.