The other day, I set an alarm for 20 minutes. I promised myself I would wake up after those minutes were up and start on my homework right away. I convinced myself I would be productive. But in a shocking turn of events, I immediately turned the alarm off and proceeded to sleep for another hour and a half. This is not an uncommon occurrence. Often, procrastination — partnered with the the powerful temptation of a nap — beats out productivity. In a fight to the death, productivity never stood a chance.
Within seconds of waking up from such a nap, or immediately after that fifth episode ends, you are forced to come to terms with the fact that you threw your very carefully created homework plan right out the window. You did not get work done. You wasted time. You were not productive, and now you feel terrible.
Frankly, on some days, it’s hard to be productive. But I think that’s because we give productivity such an unfair chance to beat procrastination. When given the choice between taking a nap or working on that essay due in a few days, it’s going to take a lot more strength to choose the essay. And some days, we are not gifted with such strength.
When we think about being productive, we think immediately about finishing work and getting on top of deadlines. And that makes sense. Work is absolutely a huge part of being productive. There is such a powerful feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing that essay, being done with that test, completing a presentation. But by restricting the meaning of productivity in this way, we are setting ourselves up to procrastinate. When we are tired, we’re not going to feel super motivated. We are going to procrastinate because it is easy, and sometimes we are lazy. Sometimes we don’t feel up to working on that essay. So instead of trying to check something else off the to-do list, we get discouraged and end up getting nothing done at all. We get swallowed by the powerful vacuum of procrastination and don’t feel the slightest bit of accomplishment at the end of the day.
If we open up our understanding of productivity, we can feel better about what we complete and feel able to complete things in general. We can feel less overwhelmed by the things we need to do and actually end up feeling energized and happy. Productivity is more than just deadlines and work. Being productive is also getting your workout routine in, going for a walk, getting your chores done, reading the newspaper and even practicing self-care. In fact, productivity should include any effort to move forward or improve our lives and well-being.
For example, after waking up from a full eight hours of sleep, maybe you make yourself breakfast, go for a walk and finally do laundry. These are all simple acts, but whether or not you recognize them as being productive, you are being productive. You will probably feel better afterward. You can check something off your list. You can feel good about waking up and walking, getting in some exercise for the day, finishing laundry. Now, if we open up our understanding of productivity, we can make these days more frequent.
Rather than experiencing dramatic contrasts in productivity — one Tuesday spent watching eight hours of television, another writing two essays and finishing a lab — we can start to feel less overwhelmed. We can channel the same energy we use for assignments into improving our own well-being. That can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It could mean completing a workout, meditating, doing the dishes, painting, taking a yoga class or keeping a journal. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to be the same for every person. But if you did something today that made you feel accomplished, made you feel relaxed or simply made you feel happy, then you were productive.
Only then can productivity stand a chance against the ever-powerful force of procrastination. No, it won’t always win. But at least we opened up the meaning of productivity, equipped it with weapons of success and gave it an actual fighting chance.
