Productivity MUST Be Imperfect

I wonder if you're familiar with this story:

You were overwhelmed and procrastinating your assignments all week. By Friday afternoon you told yourself that you'd spend four hours catching up on the papers you needed to turn in by Monday.

You kept telling yourself that you'd start in a few minutes. You wanted to watch one more episode of your show before starting but then it was too late because dinner was in two hours and then after dinner you were too tired to do four hours of work on a Friday night.

So you ended up watching six hours of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and got zero work done.

You left it until Sunday night when you got a huge burst of adrenaline and cranked out all your assignments in some huge, anxious, working sprint. You felt drained the next day, told yourself it would be different next time, and still lost trust in yourself because you showed yourself that you didn't do what you said you'd do.

Guess what? You could do 15 minutes instead of four hours. It doesn’t have to be “worth it”, it doesn’t have to be life changing action. It matters because you prove to yourself that you will do what you intend to do even if it isn’t perfect.

Quite literally anything is better than nothing. 15 minutes is progress, it's a place to start next time, it's non-zero action. It matters.

• Write one sentence.
• Meditate for 30 seconds.
• Stop scrolling a minute sooner.
• Read one page.
• Respond to one email.

If something feels overwhelming and you find yourself avoiding it, identify the smallest little bit that you are able to do and just do that.

It adds up and it pays off.

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox."
- Lao Tzu

 
You're capable of making change ✨