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A couple of months ago I fell into the rabbit hole of productivity. I was listening to motivating podcasts and was actually getting more productive up to a certain point where I started getting burnt out and was experiencing a horrible surge of IBD symptoms.
Every time I gave myself some form of rest I'd feel guilty and be invaded by the voices of boss ladies telling me to get out of bed and do something. Though I'd end up getting up everytime, I was forcing myself to do work I didn't want to do and a result, I became a more irritated and tired person. Unbeknownst to me, I was becoming bed-ridden due to my autoimmune disease and was forcing myself to work through it.
Outcome: My body crashed on me as soon as I finished the term and I didn't get the result I wanted (I got a good GPA overall, but my CGPA is still at a C+ with no chance of raising it again)
This term started and I only have 1 subject and my thesis left and I decided to give my body the chance to rest and detach myself from outcomes since nothing I can do will raise my CGPA to a B.
Outcome: I ended up highly fatigued and can barely get up and do anything. Don't get me wrong, I am doing well in that class I'm in and I got a good chunk of my thesis done, but nonetheless I was exhausted.
I was bedrotting for weeks under the guise of letting go of control and letting the world take me where it wants me to take. At the end I became empty with no energy to do things I actually want to do.
This got me wondering: To what extent should we be productive and when do we give ourselves rest? How do we become productive without burning our bodies out? How do we give ourselves rest without slipping into bed-rotting? How do we get up and become productive after weeks of slump without forcing our bodies to do things it doesn't want? How do we convince a productivity junkie that they need rest and actually enjoy the rest?
How does one get out of this cycle?
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i think you must be very disciplined in listening to your body. as soon as you rest when you feel like it, even if it feels too much resting for you, you will begin to listen exactly what your body is telling you. just follow blindly what your body comands. maybe youll spend a week in bed because you needed to. we are animals programmed to survive
@GIGII Thank you so much! I've had a hard time allowing my body to exist without imposing control on it for a while now and I was met with this intense lethargy when I finally gave it total control. I think when you've been programmed to constantly work for a long period of time your body will crash on you when you give it a safe space to do so, which i think is what's happening with me...
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i encourage you to examine that feeling, where you heard that message, and if you apply that standard to others. when my mental illness got to a point where i was less productive at work, it forced me to unpack my internalized ableism and belief that productivity = worth. i still struggle in my relationship with rest and work, but quitting my job at the time was the single best decision i have ever made for my mental health.
i would have given anything to quit while having the financial support you have. it will probably be hard to not have a schedule and to learn how to rest again and to process the feeling of being a burden in a relationship… but it’ll give your body a chance to heal and your mind to reset and your heart to receive support from others. it’s difficult to extract ourselves from hustle culture.
recommended reading: Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Jun 26, 2024
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I put my phone in another room. I agree with aidanaguirre about using the Pomodoro technique; that was instrumental to me in developing my sense of work ethic and discipline. A major part of productivity is just removing temptations and distractions so that it's not even an option to do anything but work.
I use kanban style project management software to plan out projects. You could obviously just use calendars or a planner but for longer term projects i find this to be really helpful. in the past i would break these projects up into small chunks of progress and reward myself throughout the day with a little treat every time I completed a chunk... so I would say the carrot stick method of conditioning yourself to associate progress with a reward helps.
If your work is more task based I would recommend making to-do lists; sometimes I’ve also created schedules for the completion of to-do lists and rigidly adhered to them. Setting goals helps too!
At my most productive times I would diffuse a scent that I would only use while working and play ASMR ambience or field recordings associated with that scent (forest essential oil blend and forest sounds for example) to create kind of a relaxing sensory experience where the connection to productivity would grow stronger every time I was successful with it… advanced productivity hack.
Controversial but intermittent fasting helps my mind stay clear and focused in my sedentary work…
Going into nature on a regular basis helps me, spending time with my pets, eating good food, and also making sure to fully decompress at the end of the day with yin yoga and a hot bath.
May 23, 2024
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the work-eat-scroll-sleep-repeat pattern had me in a chokehold for ~3 years after I graduated from college, realized that a large part of the reason I struggled to break the cycle was because I’d want to “rest” after work but eventually do something enriching in the evenings, but didn’t actually have an idea of what I wanted to do so the lift to get off [app] was less willpower and more decision paralysis; the friction of figuring out what to do was what was keeping me in the cycle ~90% of the time.
what has worked for me:
1. going outside immediately after work (especially if working from home) to run an errand or go to a book or record or coffee shop
2. keeping a list of projects i want to / am currently working on or skills i want to develop and making progress on those
3. reading a book
4. (most effective) taking a class (writing, pottery, filmmaking for me) and either going to the sessions or doing the assignments
but also sometimes you literally just wanna rot and that’s cool too!
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i tried a couple different ways to structure my time:
1. daily timeblocking (3*/10): setting 5-6 to wind down; 6-7 for dinner; 7-9 for enrichment; etc… didn’t work at all for me. too structured.
2. theming days: (5*/10): mondays are for reading; tuesdays writing; etc… worked slightly better but sometimes you wanna do a different thing than the theme, introduces decision paralysis of whether to power through to build routine or to follow your instincts and have max fun
3. big list: (7*/10): here are all my projects (and subtasks) or hobbies or chores or errands i want to do; i give them a number score of how urgently i want to do them, then do the one i want to do most thats higher priority. bonus points if at the start of the week or month, you put some activities on a calendar for specific days even randomly to just have a schedule when you don’t have something you’re particularly called to do so that’s your default activity and not scrolling. works the best*!
(*for me)
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