Fruit of Thought : The Problem of Productivity
Welcome to the first chapter of my mini writing, Fruit of Thought. This will be a personal meditation journal and my fruit of thought, hope you enjoy the writings.
Since the beginning of COVID era and lockdown was being applied to all states back in 2020, the Gen-Z found a way. The ‘productivity’ culture and ‘hustle’ culture sparks everywhere. I can see my friends and others around me becoming more and more productive also each have their own hustles : either opening a new business, learning something new, got themselves a new hobby, or as simple as being a better human being through small habits.
I can say that 2020 is the starting era of metamorphosis. Everyone has evolved through this metamorphosis era, not just merely adapted to a new situation. For convenience sake, let us say that 2020 is the starting era. Back in starting era, everyone was pushing themselves. Due to lockdown, they couldn’t do what they normally did, so each of us seek something for productivity sake and it served us really good (hence the metamorphosis era right? How many of us got better in terms of mentally, physically, or mindset prior COVID and now?)
In times like this, human can and always survive. It is in our nature that human adapts. But the dissatisfaction rises, instead of just survive and adapt why don’t we thrive and evolve ? Hence the metamorphosis era was born in 2020 with a lot of people (at least around me) becoming more in terms of value.
But I started to see a problem arise from this era.
The problem of comparing ourselves. We started to compare ourselves with others in terms of our lifestyle and outputs.
“How dare for me to slacking off on the bed while the others are working on something?!”
The problem of benchmarking our productivity and outputs.
The needs of becoming more than others in terms of outputs you create has become more and more severe.
The problem of peer pressure.
The pressure we created by ourselves, the necessity of ‘doing’ , ‘hustle’ everyday, and comparing it with others.
know thyself — Socrates
Know thyself, it seems like a simple words but it has a very deep meaning.
In the era of productivity and hustle culture, in the time of people popping around creating new things and ideas, becoming better, learning new things, of course we will hop on the boat.
We will find a way to push ourselves to learn or doing something we never done before, or merely just being more productive and not slacking around.
The one trait we tend to inhabit within is the trait of comparing. If one becoming more productive, one will always benchmark it with how others are doing.
The idea of benchmarking with other peers (also creating a sort of illusional pressure to yourself) will kill you slowly. It will get you to the point of burned out.
first, know thyself.
Know your own pace.
Know your own habits and how you work on certain situation.
I am the type of person that can’t be given one ‘pamper myself fully’ day because that usually ends up with me slacking off the whole day and not getting an output at all. But I am also the type of person that can’t do the ‘hustle culture’ type, pushing my productivity everyday will get me in a point of burn out pretty quickly.
So, what I would do for myself is I will set a target each day for my output of the day and set the priorities. I will get it done the most valuable and impactful one first, but I won’t see the time, as long as it is cleared by the end of the day it will be fine. I set my to do list but I won’t be setting a specific timeframe.
At the middle of the day, I always slip in my entertainment and pampering time of an hour or two. This will makes me feel recharged, and then I am ready to work again. I give myself a lot of pamper time in the middle of the day but not too much that will cause my working momentum to break.
See the pattern?
This is not an advice for you to follow. You can copy my routine but it will ends up being a make or break routine for you. You can see that I know myself that much that I create my own routine that really suits me and my pace.
I know my pace, I know my momentum, I know when to push and when to stop and give myself a break.
So must you.
know your own pace, know your own momentum, know your own traits, know your own habits and make strategies around that.
In the end, consistency beats intensity. You can be intense on creating outputs everyday but at one point you get burned out and you can’t create the same outputs (as a matter of fact, you need a week or two to recover and regain your motivation).
People can say you need to take a break, give yourself that earned rest, or people can also say you need to push yourself and be better each day. To me, it doesn’t even matter.
What matters is your own approach.
If you are the type of person that needs to push yourself everyday and no rest day, then go for it. If you are the type of person that needs plenty of day off, slow pace and momentum, then what’s wrong with that?
Everyone has their own pace and momentum so stay with yours, not others.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality” — George Lucas
Now you know your own strategies, you are learning more about yourself, the next step is focusing on your own grass. Focus solely on your own progress and output.
If you are focusing on someone else’s grass, others progress, others output, your reality will be the others achievements while you have none because you are too focused on others that you don’t even put one to yourself.
Be so focus on your own grass that you don’t even bother looking at other’s.
Do that mantra, repeat it everyday, say it loudly. I can promise you that you will achieve beyond what you think you can. Focus on yourself, re-arrange strategies on yourself, and success is just a step away from you.
Mindset is king. You get what your mind thinks.
Why bother at others if you know that you are getting better each and everyday at your own pace and terms ?
The benchmarking of your output is not others, but your yesterday’s self.
