Productivity
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come! After years of waiting, thousands of passionate prayers, and countless hours of wishful thinking, we have been granted the ability to show up to work and school in the comfort of our warm and cozy beds! Some of us do not even have work or school anymore, which is awesome! This is how my 9-year-old brother, or 9 and ¾ as he would prefer his age to be referred to, views this situation; It’s a dream come true! He recognizes that he now has all the free time in the world and he can spend it doing whatever his heart desires, or more correctly, and to his utter disappointment, whatever my parents' hearts desire him to do.
My little brother’s view is blissful but his “dream come true” is more of a nightmare for an abundant number of people who have lost their jobs (Reuters), or are struggling to make remote work or learning functional (CLASSROOM). We are also unable to interact face to face with friends and coworkers which is taking a toll on us (QUARTZ). Yet, his recognition of this new free time is, in fact, true and the great majority of us are now in a situation where we have so much time on our hands, we don’t know what to do with it all. This is a good problem to have because, through all this newfound time, we can make productive use of it.
So, we just need to be productive right? Well, like everything in life, it’s not that simple. You see, we sometimes treat ourselves like we are a machine, we give ourselves an order and expect to carry that order through. However, as we all know, it doesn’t quite work like that. We are much more complicated than a mere machine. I think a common example of this is a New Year's Resolution. When the days in December dwindle and January approaches, we review our problems and make a resolution to do better next year; whether that be working out, reading more books, or expanding our social network. However, after about two weeks or maybe a month or two, if you’re really perseverant, we fall back into our usual way and fail to meet the resolution we set out for ourselves to achieve.
Why do we do this? Why can’t we follow simple orders we give ourselves? Well, I think the best answer to that question comes from a clinical psychologist and author Jordan B. Peterson, who wrote in his book, 12 Rules For Life, to “treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping”. If we look at it from this perspective, we can see that we are not treating ourselves properly. Think back a couple of months to when gyms were still open and imagine that your friend was very discouraged about their weight and you offered to help them lose 20 pounds. You would talk to your friend about their worries and concerns, you would collaborate on a workout schedule with them, and you would encourage them the whole way as they work to achieve their goal. Now, let’s tamper with this situation a bit by removing your friend and giving his problem to you instead.
Unlike the situation where we were helping our friend, in our own situation, we typically fail to discuss and encourage ourselves. For example, say you have zero motivation to go to the gym. You don’t ask yourself why, instead you berate yourself for being lazy and unmotivated. Then, you begin to believe your beratement and the next time you want to work out, you are more likely to stay home. This becomes a snowball effect as the lies we tell ourselves become more and more convincing. Sooner or later, we give up altogether and our self-confidence takes a hit. If you instead have a discussion with yourself about why you don’t want to go to the gym, you may find that it is because you are afraid of being judged by other people or you are afraid that you might get injured.
If you truly take a deep look within yourself when you feel unmotivated, lazy, angry, remorseful, or any other range of negative emotions, you might find that the root of these lies is deep within your mind fueling these thoughts. Even as I began to write this blog, I felt very frustrated and unconfident when I was formulating the first paragraph. These feelings made me lose focus and caused my frustration to grow. I stopped writing and took a seat on my bed and began to ask myself why I felt the way that I did. At first, I was bombarded by frustration. Then, I looked past the frustration, knowing that those types of emotions were acting as a shield for a vulnerable fear I was trying to hide. So, after about 10 minutes I came to the realization that I was afraid I wasn’t smart enough and that this blog would just sound stupid. After I found the stem of the problem, I uprooted it and was able to write the rest of this blog with normative ease.
If you want to be consistently productive then you must be open to conversing with yourself. Learn to be encouraging rather than self-degrading. You must treat yourself like you are someone you are responsible for helping. So, don’t be a tyrant, be understanding and if you mess up, understand why, and do better next time. You need to give yourself grace, otherwise, you won’t be able to withstand your own wrath.
Written by Caleb Goodwin
