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7 Productivity Strategies During Challenging Times
It can be difficult to be productive right now, so we wanted to suggest seven strategies if you’re struggling.
10 Strategies to Keep Productive & Positive During a Crisis
Almost exactly 6 months ago — March 26 — we shared these 10 Strategies to Keep Productive & Positive During a Crisis. We’ve since heard from many readers how helpful they’ve been, so we’re sharing them again today in case you missed it the first time or could use a reminder.
7 Productivity Strategies During Challenging Times
It can be difficult to be productive right now, so we wanted to suggest seven strategies if you’re struggling.
10 Strategies to Keep Productive & Positive During a Crisis
I was recently on a panel asked to share strategies for keeping productive and positive during a crisis. (For the entire discussion on “Motivation and Resilience – Key Thoughts in a Complex World,” click here to listen.) Some of the ideas my fellow panelists and I shared might be helpful to you.
To be clear, we certainly don’t want to minimize the current – or any – crisis. If you are in the middle of a life and death crisis, these strategies will be of very limited use, and reaching out to a therapist or other support will be more helpful. But for others, I hope these ten strategies can help you keep productive and positive.
Stop Giving 110%
Stop Giving 110%.
Picture it: 1993. Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” is the song that proms are made of, and I’m interviewing for a college scholarship in my best dress from the pages of Seventeenmagazine with my hair freshly permed at Great Clips. My high school guidance counselor is one of the interviewers.
He asks, “What is your best quality?”
I proudly respond, “I give everything 110%.”
Imagine Your Future Self
Have you ever wondered why it can be so difficult to stop procrastinating? We’ve offered tips before on how to stop procrastinating, and you could procrastinate all day by reading the science behind it. (Ask me how I know – from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience to a fascinating working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research on college students’ procrastination and present bias, I may have read it all.)
Taming the Procrastination Monster
As a kid, did you ever hear a creaking floorboard in the night, and become convinced that there was a fully grown boogieman waiting to pounce out of your closet?
Procrastinated tasks can become the adult equivalent of monsters in the closet. You don’t want to admit it, but you see the signs every time you look at your to do list, whether it’s in an app, a spreadsheet, a paper planner, or on a post-it. Maybe it’s scheduling your annual physical, sending a thank you email, texting your niece, or finding a contractor to finally fix the bathtub. Or maybe it’s writing an article for a professional publication, filing an amended tax return, getting your job application materials together, reviewing resumes for a position you’re supposed to be filling, or finally cleaning up your office.
