Productivity #2

4. Recharge

“If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race." - Oprah Winfrey

Remember those days when you feel fatigued and not just exhausted? When no amount of sleep or relaxation or leisure activities can make you feel better? When you feel overwhelmed, paralysed and can’t be bothered to do anything at all? Yup, I’m talking about emotional burnout.

Emotional burnout is a gradual process that takes place over an extended time which makes it difficult to identify when exactly that burnout starts. Hence, you have to be self-aware and recognise the signs of burnout that may be different for every person. Speaking for myself, I know I’m burned out when I can’t control my emotions. I become very irritable and get annoyed by small matters that don’t even affect me. I will throw tantrums at the slightest provocation, it’s dreadful.

Everyone will feel burnout from time to time bearing in mind that we live in a culture that values success, achievement and productivity. It’s easy to overwork ourselves and similarly easy to fall into the burn out trap. We should push ourselves to excel and be highly productive, but we should also know when to draw the line and take a break to recharge.

Burn out is a spiral process. It is important to create a defence and coping system that you can embed it into your life to help you manage burnout in the future. How do you embed a defence and coping system? Think about your past burnout experiences. Make a note of what were the triggers, what were the causes and what were your ways of addressing and resolving? When you have a good understanding of the above, you’ll be in a better position to manage it next time. Instead of allowing the burn out devil to consume and torture you, you can pick yourself from where you left off and get back on track quickly.

If you’ve been prioritizing productivity rather than sleep, this is the best time to get adequate rest that your body is yearning for. Don’t disregard the importance of sleep, it can help to improve memory, enhance your productivity as well as lower the risk of burnout. Keep in mind that, resting is great brain food to keep us thriving and be more productive.

Seize this social distancing period to recharge by being fully present with yourself and to reconnect with your thoughts. Whether it is through exercising, journaling, meditating or simply sitting down enjoying your favourite cup of coffee. Everyone has their preferred wind-down ritual so do what that resonates with you. Take the suggestions from a meta-view and tweak it according to your personal needs.

Ultimately, recharge can help to foster a deeper sense of understanding about everything that happens around us, to look at things from different perspectives, so we can all benefit greatly amidst these very disruptive and turbulent times.

5. Organise your thoughts and change your perspective

"Discard everything that does not spark joy" - Marie Kondo

When you enter a Muji store, everything is so simple yet aesthetically pleasing, from their products to their interior design. You get a sense of clarity and calmness. That’s the beauty of minimalism and decluttering. The organisation of thoughts is equitably important as the organisation of space when it comes to enhancing productivity.

Our minds are constantly whirring, generating more and more associations to help us understand and have better control of the things around us. Majority of the times when we say we are doing nothing, we are actually doing something or at least thinking about something. All these racing thoughts can lead to information overload where our brains get fried and we can’t function optimally. Our minds become disorganised.

It’s important to stay mindful and process our thoughts. Keep the positive and important ones; eliminate those that are negative and unnecessary. When we organise our thoughts, we will have a clearer mindset and we are less likely to feel overwhelmed. I like to write down whatever that pops up to my mind in my phone, be it something to do with the current work or some ridiculous plans for the future. Write down your ideas, thoughts, feelings and anything that cross your mind, so you can make the connection, categorise and prioritize them later. We have to organise our thoughts to have a clear vision of the future we desire, the values and identities we want to adopt.

I come across this quote: “Life is nothing but bobbing up and down and around our level-seven” a while back when I was reading Everything is Fucked by Mark Manson. I found this quote very homologous to our lives. It seems that humans regardless of our external circumstances, we will never be fully satisfied because we have a perpetual desire for something more. Full happiness is beyond our reach because our expectations shift. As soon as we achieve the goal that we thought could make us fully content, we become dissatisfied and set another new goal so we could become fully content. No matter how much progress is made or how much our lives have improved, we are always magnifying that small slips and faults. The blue dot effect will always fireback to a certain amount of pain.

Since pain is the universal constant of life, we shouldn’t avoid pain. We have to change our lens of viewing pain. It is the lens through which our brain views the world that shapes our reality. If we can change the lens, we can be happier and become more productive. Develop the habit of viewing pain and stress as a propeller instead of a threat. Look at problems from a brighter perspective so they become more attainable and manageable. When you ingrain that optimistic mindset into your life for 21 days, you will develop automaticity of viewing pain from a positive perspective. Your tolerance for setbacks expands. You have a higher degree of chance to learn from failures, pick yourself up and get back on track to achieve a positive outcome.

Thank you for your time. I hope you know that wherever you are on your journey, you are doing AMAZING. You're growing subtly in so many ways even if you don't notice it. Be proud of yourself for pushing through everyday and recovering from the storm. Sending virtual hugs to y'all! :)