Weathering a New Season For Productivity
As many are looking at 2020 and saying they cannot wait for this year to end, I am embracing a different viewpoint and challenge you to join me.
Maybe 2020 is really about personal growth, building new skills, healing ourselves as well as our environment, strengthening connections with our dearest loved ones and healing humanity through love along with anti-racism.
The anxiety remains high as the future is unclear. Similarly, although “stay at home" initially sounded fairly simple, it turns out that social distancing can be majorly challenging. As we bolster elements of our economy that have been slowed by fighting this disease while still trying to minimize the negative effects this dreadful disease for which there is no vaccine, I realize the emotional rollercoaster will continue, including fear, anxiety, excitement, stress, hopefulness, hopelessness and more, but what good can we find amidst this?
This period of uncertainty and fluidity has highlighted my core values for boosting productivity:
🌻 Offer yourself grace. You are doing the best you can in the most extenuating of circumstances. If you’re working remotely, you are not a “work from home” employee; instead, you are at home trying to work amidst serious stress.
🧘🏻♀️ Strengthen your ability to be flexible. The more we roll with all the ups and downs of schedule changes, the better. Although being proactive is usually preferred, the ability to react in a manner that keeps your priorities in mind can be equally powerful in fueling success.
👩🏻💻 Aim for realistic expectations. There is plenty of grief to go around, whether that's grief for a loved one, grief for a job lost, grief for plans changed or something else, and the emotional rollercoaster is distracting, taking energy from desired results. Things now are exhausting. It’s okay to expect less productivity than would be considered normal.
🤔 Consider how creativity can help. If the way you’ve always done something is not going to work amidst the current situation, brainstorm alternatives that will achieve the desired results in a different way. There are so many ways to pivot for continued thriving.
Now is the time to TAKE ACTION in response to what’s happen for a better outcome.
While implementing the aforementioned, these are a few tactics to adopt that can be super helpful:
Visualize what matters most to you, committing time to those priorities. We must know our goals to craft a plan for getting there.
Internalize the belief that we all deserve joy, putting things on the calendar to bring happiness amidst all that’s happening. Maybe that's scheduling virtual hangouts with friends, achieving milestones with work goals, enjoying a tasty meal via takeout from a locally-owned small business, finding an organizational break-through for a troubling area of your home, self-care or something specific to your unique interests. Creatively go after what you need.
Create structure. Protect your designated workspace, whether that's a corner of the living room that you've partitioned off with painter's tape or an actual office. Have a morning routine that sets you up for success, including an effort to get dressed in such a way that you feel better about yourself. Set breaks throughout the day for movement, eating and staying hydrated. Find tools for capturing tasks, time commitments and information, culling the details together to move actions from to-do to done Establish an evening routine that is calming and creates a foundation for the next day, expressing gratitude and celebrating what went right that day.
Hold yourself accountable. Do you need a carrot to work toward or a negative to avoid?
This season is not normal, but there are still ways to thrive. Even if it’s only 5 minutes of deep breathing, take a tiny bit of time to invest in your own well-being.
What action can you take today for which your future self will be grateful? How can you start moving toward your goals?
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