The unnecessary productivity loop

You have to get out of it!

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Do you know how you have this certain urge to be productive constantly? And how annoying it is when you can't achieve that? It gets irritating because you seem to plan everything on the calendar, unrealistically thinking you could be productive every single minute. Let me tell you something about this approach –– it's stupid. Point blank stupid. Why? Because it's impossible. Yeah, now don't quote "There's 'I'm possible' in impossible," because let's just assume even if it was possible, it's still not sustainable. It's not going to help you in the long run. The reason why I chose to write about this is because I am going through this and I realised we are wired to be goal-driven and not process-driven. Let me explain. You set an X goal which you wish to achieve in Y amount of time which is great but all of you do is work your a** off for reaching there without enjoying the fact that you are doing something amazing, something out of your comfort zone, something challenging and then when you reach the mountain top, you don't really care much about the view down there because you never bothered and bleh, now you are bored.

Listen, I am not saying don't be goal-driven but instead be a little more process-oriented. When you set a goal, and you set up a process behind it, there is a high possibility you may achieve it rather than carelessly following every path just to reach the goal. Let me give you a quick and simple example. A few days back, on my way to the office, I had this specific thought - "Hey, I waste so much time traveling like it's just so tiresome" but that is not true. In order to reach my office, I will have to go through the hardship of traveling because that's just how it is; and while I do travel, I do get to enjoy sunny mornings, unexplainable comfort in the city's chaos, and everyday life in general and so on. And somehow the journey isn't that bad. Yes, on some days it'll be not as you want but maybe it is trying to teach you something.

Maybe the best thing about enjoying the process more than the goal is that when you do achieve the goal after going through a longitudinal process that you might have enjoyed, you know what you did and why you did it to reach there. It's an indescribable bliss. But when you don't enjoy the process, there will always be anxiety or fear because you are so fixated on getting into a certain place that you have turned a blind eye toward your existing reality. This will only make you delay your goals because you never chose to give yourself a breather. And let me be absolutely clear, I am not saying that one shouldn't have goals. Have as many as you want to, but while you work towards them learn to enjoy it. Learn to have fun. Having fun is not as bad as it seems. Don't map out every single thing in your life because the more you plan your life, the less there is to enjoy in life. A few months back I had my 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year plan ready until I chose to delete the entire thing. Why? Because as sorted as it may seem to be, it's simply not. I could've achieved all of it in the given timeline if I chose to take relevant actions but it's still a bit illogical because how do I know what my future self wants!?

We believe if keep working hard diligently we can achieve our goals. That's the biggest lie I've ever come across. I truly believe, that if you choose to give yourself some space and work smart instead of hard, your goals are achievable. Everything you want wants you back - you just need to blindly believe it too. Also, relax. Life works out, it has so far.

By Vanshika Patil