The counter intuitive way to be productive

Who wouldn't want to be productive? We want to every day especially now when we have so much time. We have tried everything but we couldn't stick to it. I am also one of them. And today in this article I will tell you one counter intuitive way that has helped me to be productive for a long time.

It was the weekend. My computer had broken down that day and unfortunately I had forgotten to put my phone on charge the night before. So I had all the time in the world. I was getting fidgety. It wasn’t a great feeling at first. I wanted to do something but I don’t know what to. Then I thought it would be great just to stay away from digital media as it was straining my eyes. I just sat vacantly,walked around the room. I told myself I am giving myself this break. Then the fidgetiness also stopped. I ate breakfast by myself without watching the phone. It felt peaceful like a much needed break. I spent more than half a day like that out of digital distraction and work. Later in the evening, my computer was restored and I finished one whole article with adding pictures and editing. I finished the same article which I couldn’t seem to finish at all in spite of working for weeks. That day felt great both ways.

Since starting blog, I have been writing articles after articles without break, editing them and editing my blog. Meanwhile, I was attending my university lectures as well and going through study materials. I had also joined other courses simultaneously. I had also been reading other books through them,I gained so much wisdom that I shared with you here. But I didn't rely on books entirely. I wrote it from scratch from what I have learnt doing myself, through researching, through brain storming myself with adding suitable pictures and editing. I had been able to write articles almost twice weekly regularly. Everything seems great isn’t it? But it wasn’t so. I couldn’t seem to focus on my classes at all. I had trouble sleeping at night. There was constant work in my mind. The computer had broken down because I had been continuously working on it for 2 to 3 days. Through this I understood productivity doesn’t mean working all the time. There might be something else deeper than this.

While preparing for university examination, I learned about this technique called Pomodoro technique as I have mentioned in my previous article. By that technique I could achieve much more in a short period of time. The reason was that after every 25 minute of study, I’d take a 5 minute break. Later I’d take a half an hour break between sessions. My long break was pre planned as well. I could achieve much more without exhausting myself and that very reason is break. I did try Pomodoro technique too in this quarantine time. But this time, even if I had set the timer for a certain time, I would again restart the timer just without taking a break. It eventually led me to burn out. So, I knew I have to incorporate breaks whether I thought I could go fine without it or not.

Break is a very essential component of productivity. But break means not working so we might think how can we expect productivity out of it? Break is a counter intuitive way. And it is a counter intuitive way to be productive. Productivity doesn’t mean working all the time. It is finding balance in our life for us and for other things. Break feels like a waste of time to us, isn’t it? But I would argue it isn’t so. We all need breaks to rejuvenate. When we take breaks, it would give us a new perspective to look at the same tasks. It would make tasks enjoyable too when we reward ourselves in between the tasks. It is easier to complete exercise regimen when we take a break in between than running for an hour without break because the next day we wouldn’t want to exercise. Success is like a marathon instead of sprint. If we keep on sprinting, we would eventually fall back into burn out and it would be harder to get back from being burned out. In reality we have all done this. We pile tasks after tasks, work for some time and never return to tasks again.

I don’t have to look far. I can just speak from my own experience. When I pile up work after work, I would eventually procrastinate. But when I break that task and give myself a break in between, the task is completed may be a little longer than when I do it in one sitting but now I would have less burn out and I would procrastinate less.

“Do something nice for yourself today. Find some quiet, sit in stillness, breathe. Put your problems on pause. You deserve a break.”― Akiroq Brost

It is now understood break is important, but how can we effectively utilize break. In this era of digital distraction, break time means again scrolling through our devices. And we all know how a 5 minute phone could go to 5 hours too if unchecked. In my experience, I know if I take a break there are times it would extend. So, what we can do is decide what we will do during breaks. It could be going for a walk, sitting on a balcony, listening to favorite music, cleaning the room, doing chores, reading books, doing art and even sitting still and doing meditation. We can even time our favorite shows during break but I would advise it to be done during a longer break so that it wouldn’t be hard for us to stop watching our shows and in the meantime, we could watch it freely just after completing tasks. Planning comes handy while taking a break because it will remind us what we are to do in a particular time so we wouldn’t mindlessly go through our phone and prolong the break. We can take short breaks between tasks which can be managed through a timer. Not only short breaks but we should also be mindful to take longer breaks too during the day. And sometimes that means to take a break for a whole day because All work no play makes jack a dull boy.

So, taking break works while we are being productive. But how can we implement it when we are not productive at all? When we seem to take a break almost every time without doing any tasks. Don’t worry I have also been there. And I know it works the other way around when we are in a slump too. It is not like I don’t fall into a slump either. One thing that helps me is doing little tasks by breaking it into smaller and taking breaks in between. For instance if we are not able to do some tasks, we can just break the task for 15 minute or 10 or even 5. Just try reading for 5 minutes. One small topic. Then take a 5 min break. Or switch another subject for 5 minute. Do this until you reach half an hour and take a break. This way I get out of slump myself. I do little every day, sometimes extend it and that way I will still be doing something every day instead of nothing at all.

While taking a break, it doesn’t mean worrying about the task again. Then we wouldn’t be taking a break in true sense. Just take your time off the task and relax. Earlier, I used to wake up and think about what I’ll do today. Now I wake up and start slowly and pick up my momentum slowly. Planning is a very essential component to productivity and effective breaks incorporated in planning makes the plan successful. You might have guessed now, I’m writing this article in paper and later typing it as a break from digital media. And it didn’t take much time for me to write this article as I had given myself a break before this and I’ll make sure to give myself after this.

It is hard to stay still and it is even harder to move from staying still. The key is to implement break effectively, starting slow, giving up on unrealistic expectations and focus on our tasks. We avoid tasks because avoiding gives us a short term of dopamine. We are result orientated. We are worried we have to commit for a long time. We have to but we can break into small tasks with breaks between them with break acting as our dopamine boost. We can work every day a little instead of cramming up a single day pulling all nighter that could hamper our health in the long run. So keep going. Take rest. You need it. And it isn’t a competition that in a given day, how much xyz you can accomplish. Especially during quarantine days, everyone seems to be productive and have it all. So, take slow and give enough time in between and keep learning.

I can’t seem to stay still either by not doing anything. And some days I want to stay still without doing anything. It was when I incorporated both, my productivity peaked. Let’s remind ourselves

“Taking a break can lead to breakthroughs.”― Russell Eric Dobda

I hope this article helps you. I would love to hear what helps you to be productive in comments. Thank you so much. If you like the article, sharing would mean a lot to me. Thank you. I wish you all the best