Learning To Attract and Embrace Productivity Habits

The last two years have deeply affected everyone. The deconstruction of a routine, as well as the impact on mental health that has accompanied living through turmoil, has led to many people reaching burnout status. Living in this condition can be debilitating and completely take over your life, making it hard to accomplish what used to be easy everyday tasks. It becomes a challenge to not lose focus on your priorities or stay on task when your mind isn’t ready to readjust to what was once a regular day. Unfortunately, this cannot be fixed with excessive amounts of caffeine or limiting yourself from comforting distractions; it’s a process to relearn how your mind works and to, quite literally, nurture it back to health.

My personal favorite quick-fix when I don’t know how to solve something is to Google it. In this instance, I’ve found advice to set an alarm! Make a list! Multitask! And while I’m sure that works for someone, somewhere, it’s not realistic for the average person to expect small adjustments like that are going to change their life. And when those tasks aren’t giving you any fulfillment in return, they begin to feel like chores, not an accomplishment.

We live in a society that is constantly demanding us, not encouraging us, to hustle, work all day long, until we meet our wit’s end. Everything becomes a competition; anywhere on campus, you can find a student saying, bragging almost, that they pulled an all-nighter to finish a project. That’s not cool, it’s just sad. But it’s been commonplace for much longer than these last two years. Recently, however, the motivation to keep up with that lifestyle has seemingly disappeared.

The difference now though, is that so many of us have recognized how monotonous and exhausting this expectation is, and it seems overwhelming to have to jump back into it. The thing is, this expectation? This lifestyle? It’s not going anywhere. But it is up to us to find a way to make it worth our attention. People have argued for decades about how to create the perfect work-life balance, but I don’t think it exists. I’m writing this article at midnight for God’s sake!

It’s never been about the balance, but the perspective and purpose behind each action. I’ve heard so many times that “no matter what you’re doing, take pride in it,” and it’s true. Whether you’re writing an article for a campus magazine, laying concrete, doing CPR or creating a report, if you’re not proud of yourself, you’re just going to end up hating yourself for not ‘doing enough.’ Maybe that advice from Google could be worth a shot.

But don’t set an alarm because your boss demands you spend more time working, set an alarm because watching the sunrise makes you feel refreshed. Don’t make a list as a staggering reminder of everything you have to do, make a list of things that inspire you. Don’t multitask because you’re stressed about not having enough time to finish everything, multitask because you found a creative way to blend two separate things and it brings you a sense of accomplishment. It’s never been about how to work harder; it’s been about how you define motivation. But if your wording is off, so are you.

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• happiness
• hcfsu
• mental health
• productivity
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