I have to admit, recently I have not been the pillar of productivity that I like to think I am. My routines and “systems” for doing things have gone out the window. I recently had a knee injury that threw everything onto one leg, and it has been a journey in and of itself to limp through my days, and get back to doing.
See, I constantly feel like I’m racing against time. However, the anxiety of having to do everything in such a small time frame often leaves me doing nothing. It seems like everyone else can do so much., and I have to do it all just to keep up. This is why routines and plans are so critical for me.
As my routines have all been erased, I’ve been sporadically trying to find time for the side hustles that I want to explore. Just writing this thousand-word post has taken me two weeks—that’s about 70 words a day, more than twice what you’ve read so far.
I’m reading three different books right now with varying levels of attention. I’ve released two podcast episodes which I’m proud of and excited about, but I don’t have a set timeline for future episodes. I’m building up the confidence to sell sports-related hoodies on Shopify. Plus, I’m all over Discord buying NFTs and researching web3. It’s hectic inside my head.
Fleeting inspiration throws me off course, and when I get pulled every which way, I am not intentional with my time and attention. I end up spending a lot of my days moving left and right, without any idea if I’m moving forward.
There are a lot of things I’m curious about. But in chasing them all, I feel like I’m swimming upstream. This has led me to the idea of taking stock: identifying what you do consistently and asking yourself if it aligns with what you say you want to do, and who you say you are.
Taking Stock
I don’t think we sit down and analyze how we spend our time enough. Why do we have the routines and habits that we do? What things actually make up our lives?
This is as much a note to myself as it is a thought I’d like to share. It is critical to be aware of why we do what we do, and to be intentional about keeping these things in our routines. If they no longer match with our goals or our identity, well, toss them out for something better.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about how, over time, we often lose sight of the original goal that our new habits are intended to achieve and focus on the act itself instead. An example of this is the goal of many to simply “be healthy.” The conduit to achieving this could be implementing a habit such as calorie counting or “getting your steps in.” However, too often we get caught up in the process. Calorie reduction or extra-stepping becomes the thing we do. We don’t stop and address how much healthier we feel; how much happier we are. We become too focused on completing the act without addressing if it is helping us reach the end goal. We don’t ask ourselves, is it working?
For a direct example, I’ve been attempting to read a book a month for four years now. I look at books as the best way to learn about something, or to get better in some way. Once I download that new information, I can then attach it to past experiences and gain new perspectives.
But recently, I feel as if I’ve attached myself to the goal of reading a book a month, and not “learning things.” My attention and the amount of deep thought I’m spending on the content within these books has dwindled.
I started the year trying out a new note-taking strategy in an effort to retain and think more thoroughly about the contents of the book. I even started a book club to talk through ‘em. Both of these had a system and a specific time during the week which I would address them. As March turned to April, and April rolled into November, these systems have been replaced by other time-consuming activities.
I still “get my pages in” when I wake up, and fit some in on the weekend, but I stopped taking notes. I stopped writing updates to the ol’ book club.
I’m reading pages in an effort to finish books, not to learn.
What have I noticed?
Over the past month, I’ve been forced to slow down in some aspects, and take stock of how I’m spending my time. A few things I’ve noticed:
Social Media is a productivity killer.
I’m serious, I think I might be addicted. I went through a period without any of the apps on my phone, and while I was much more attentive to everyday life, I don’t think it was healthy to not have any presence whatsoever. There is a lot of good out there.
That said, it is a great distractor for deep work, thought, or anything that requires energy and focus. Often I find myself with some good momentum, only to disrupt it with a nice five-minute scroll and a few double-taps.
Without clear goals, most of what we do will just take us in circles.
As I’ve mentioned above, I like to do things. But since my routines, systems, processes—whatever you want to call them—have changed, so has my ability to grow these side hobbies. The reason being is I’m not tracking any progress. Without clear and actionable goals, I have no idea what I’m building towards or how far I’ve come. It becomes too easy to lose steam and burn out.
Awareness and Intention
“What is not measured cannot be improved.” - Peter Drucker
If you aren’t aware of it, good luck changing it. Awareness and intention are two things that fall victim to routine, so it is important to revisit them over time. But if you don’t implement a routine, one will be implemented for you. If that happens, you are at the mercy of whatever life decides for you, instead of being the proactive one in this relationship.
So the goal for myself, and maybe for all of you, is to continue to take stock of what we do and why we do it. What can we change about our personal, professional, and emotional life? What might be new that we can introduce to make life better?
We could all benefit from a little more introspection—and then, of course, action.