Fighting the fear of not feeling productive

If you've been like me and can't go a single minute without "being productive" or you end up feeling anxious about "not working enough," let me tell you something.

In the last few weeks I felt very frustrated because I thought many of the things I did at work, school or in my personal life had very little impact.

To make up for this internal dissatisfaction what I did was work much more—I could spend 14 to 18 hours at a desk on work or studying. That gave me the feeling that "I was doing something." And although many people see hard work culture as a good thing, I don't think it's the right approach to feel fulfilled, and it's not sustainable in the long run either.

So let me share some tips that have helped me deal with these kinds of thoughts.

Learn to rest

And even though it sounds logical, it's something that's very hard to do if you're used to working all the time—but scheduling time to rest is necessary too. You can't be working all the time to become a better professional, doing activities that require a lot of mental or physical effort.

That's simply not possible, and no matter how much we believe that sacrificing everything to become the best version of ourselves is right, if it becomes a habit it will only lead us to burnout, where we feel physically and mentally tired all the time.

So learning to rest is necessary. Take a vacation, schedule time for yourself. Whether you want to watch a movie or talk with friends. It's very important to know we need to recharge—even if you see yourself as a machine, you'll need maintenance from time to time.

What helped me was gradually reducing work hours and taking a vacation. After a few weeks I came back feeling better, much more productive and with clearer goals.

However, another big fear that appears when we do this is: "What if I start doing less than I did before?" For that, keep reading and we'll find the answer together.

Work smarter, not harder

It's very common to hear that the harder you work the better results you'll get, and although effort is important, it's useless if it's misdirected. So it's much better to work smart than to work hard.

And how can you do that? Although it sounds odd, you need to think lazy. I don't mean not doing your work and setting responsibilities aside—rather it's about starting to think about how you can do many more things with less.

Be clear about which tasks have the most impact on your work and put most of your effort there—it's like a lever.

Ask yourself what processes you can automate, how you can save time on your tasks and even prioritize each one. Is it really necessary to answer all those emails today? Maybe the answer is no.

Escape immediate gratification

I know—completing small tasks right away always feels good. Whether it's answering a quick email, scheduling a call for a few days from now or replying to a coworker's DM, these things make us feel like we've solved something important. Welcome to the world of immediate gratification!

These unfocused mini wins tend to take a lot, and I mean a lot, of time when they happen back to back. Not everything that comes your way instantly has to be dealt with in that same moment. My strategy for these situations is:

Read and understand the context of what you need to do.
Is this task vitally important?
If yes, handle it right away; if not, create a reminder to resolve it.

This is as simple as putting that task on your calendar. In my case I use Slack or Google's task manager to always keep in sight those pending items I need to resolve but aren't urgent.

Prioritize your tasks to achieve your goals without falling into perfectionism.

With this I just want to tell you to thank your past self and help your future self. It's very easy to feel anxious when we're working to be better and it's easy to forget that this is a process.

Rome wasn't built in a day and you won't achieve all your dreams in a short time either. You don't need to work 24 hours a day to do it. Believe me, you'll make it—just be patient, rest, work smarter than hard and you'll surely succeed. 😉