For almost half of my life, I was obsessed with productivity and all the know-how on “getting things done in the best possible way ever”. I did so much research that I felt like I knew everything—well, almost everything. It’s these three:
1. Stop trying and just… do it.
I used to drown myself in countless research to try to figure out this phenomenon which I had thought to be the pinnacle of human existence. Productivity, success, accomplishments—I wanted to understand them to the core so I could work up a Perfect Plan: the most flawless strategy for living as efficiently and as effectively as possible. After countless researching hours, sleepless nights, and months of burnout, one day I finally made it. I was able to write down the Perfect Plan. That night I went to bed hopeful for the next day. It was going to be perfect.
It was supposed to be, in theory. I woke up and went through a day that was less than perfect. I thought that maybe I just didn’t try hard enough, maybe I wasn’t disciplined enough to follow through everything.
I went back to the drawing board, did more research and revised it all. But the same thing happened the day after and the day after that. And the day after. It went on for a couple of years. Eventually I realized that the only thing wrong with the Perfect Plan was its name.
It wasn’t a “perfect plan” but it was good enough. That was fine because I realized, too, that each time I tried, I would get a little closer to half of the ideal day with my Good Enough Plan. I probably could have done more if I did not spend half the day “researching” and revising said plan. Or, really, trying to perfect it. It was good enough to do something, and every time I do that, it gets a little better than before.
So I stopped trying and started to just do the thing, whatever that was, whether I felt prepared enough or not. It’s a lot more difficult to execute than it sounds, but doing something is oftentimes easier than thinking about it.
2. Do less.
When I started just doing things, I realized that I liked doing some things more than others and that some are more significant for myself at the moment. When I was focusing on getting things done, I missed out on enjoying the process of what I did. I just wanted to get all the checkboxes ticked because they were, honestly, overwhelming. Once they were all complete was when I could finally enjoy. That is unless the exhaustion gets to me first, which is what used to happen more often so I didn’t really get to do what I enjoyed the most.
And that is the perfect recipe for burnout. I’ve had quite a lot of that and I don’t recommend it.
The solution was to stop doing things I didn’t enjoy so much and wasn’t obligated to do. I also lessened doing things that I only kind of liked doing but wouldn’t focus on enough because of other more important things. Maybe one day, I’ll browse through my project catalogue and try those out again. In the meantime, I don’t quite feel their absence. These days, I have been busy doing the last step.
3. Do nothing.
This one does wonders for the first two steps. It’s a luxury, really, to have space—time, energy, resources—to do this, but I highly recommend it. I’ve been working hard (sometimes, it’s way more difficult than the first step) on this one and no regrets so far!