Activity vs. Accomplishment
We tend to pride ourselves on our busy lives. We have work, the kids need to make it to soccer, dance, and baseball practice, and that’s just Wednesday. We have deadlines and obligations and we try to cram as many things into one day as heavenly possible. At the end of said day, exhausted and wiped, we flop on the couch and wonder where it all went. We have a sense of pride and accomplishment, yet it is somehow hollow. I do not preach upon high. This article is the result of years of me destroying myself with overwork and constant stress. I felt the day was wasted if I did not accomplish as much as humanly possible. Take that attitude, the idea that you need to take care of people, and add having six “bosses” at one time, and you have the recipe for burnout.
When we believe being busy is the same as being productive, we tend to pull the wool over our own eyes. Take stock of your day. How many mindless tasks got done while projects that actually mattered got put on the back burner? What did you do today that took care of someone’s needs or changed their life for the good? For me this is the ultimate form of production, to provide for the wellbeing or betterment of others and society. The Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Let every action aim solely at the common good.” If anyone needs to juggle tasks and become an expert on time management, it is the man in charge of the largest empire in the history of man.
Priorities and Passion
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” What matters most for you? What are your priorities? Or, perhaps more importantly, who matters most and who are your priorities? Are we sacrificing home life for work? One of the dreads of my life is for my children to grow up and say that their father was always at work, and never had time for them. What are we chasing? If we can be honest about what it is we are attempting to accomplish, then we can gain perspective about scheduling our day. To be productive is to work towards a goal. To be active is simply filling the day.
Working toward a specific goal gives us purpose. It can be whatever it needs to be for you. Are you paying off debt, building something with your hands, trying to invest in the future, doing good for your fellow man, providing for your family, or working toward your own personal fulfillment? The last example is not meant to be a bad thing. We all have passions that give us enjoyment and inspire us. These things must be harnessed and honed as well. We cannot do our best if we are not at our best. We have to advocate time for ourselves. Jesus of Nazareth, when teaching of the two main commandments that still mattered after the end of the Mosaic Law, said that we must love our neighbors as ourselves. If you think about it, this is really two commands: loving our fellow man and, loving ourselves. If you are supposed to love others and have compassion for them, then you cannot really accomplish that if you don’t take care of yourself as well. So be productive in your own mental, physical, and spiritual health.
Your Prophesy Fulfilled
You may be thinking that it is easy for a freelance writer to sit at his laptop at a Starbucks and preach to you about time management and goals. But I learned this lesson the hard way. I offer some solutions that worked for me, but we are all different. Take what you need and you leave the rest, to quote Robbie Robertson. I learned that I was putting the wrong things first in my life. Nothing teaches you this lesson as well as full burn out. My previous job owned me. I was on call 24/7, was given endless tasks with no consideration as to my workload, and was chastised when I didn’t guess with of these tasks the bosses wanted as priorities. My day was filled with different bosses on different levels saying, “Hey, I know you’re busy, but when you have time…” All the while, the main priorities, my family and my mental health, eroded away. My brain function suffered. My memory, gone. My ability to keep things straight, completely askew. I was irritable, exhausted, sick, and depressed. My efforts and dedication were not so much valued as convenient. Many of you out there can speak of similar situations in your own lives, no doubt. When I hit the wall, it was more like ramming through it, painfully, than coming to a dead stop. I came out on the other side realizing I had been barreling toward that wall for a long time. I just never bothered to look up at the road.
I took stock of my life. I developed a new set of goals, oriented around taking care of my family and my self and the betterment of others. The last thing is a mindset, a perspective. There are a million ways to take care of the others around you, if you choose to see it that way. If you work in fast food, you are helping to feed people. If you work as a custodian, you are keeping your section of the world beautiful and safe. If you work at an auto body shop, you are mending the life line for people to get to and from the tasks required for survival.
My advice, should you decide it would work for you, is to slow down. I gave myself a limit. I decided that I needed to accomplish two things a day. I don’t count my day job in this. That has it’s own set of needs that I must meet to continue employment. But aside from that, two productive things. This can be anything that brings joy to your family, a couple of items off the “honey-do list,” helps others, or is meaningful to you. The Japanese have a concept. It is called karoshi: Death by overwork. It sounds far fetched but it is not. People do it all the time. Mental stress manifests itself physically. Heart Disease runs rampant in our society. So does anxiety and depression. Don’t become one of those statistics. Being productive can help us lead a happy, fulfilling life. Cramming our lives with activity results in the exact opposite.
Another trick I use is to ease into my day. If you can manage the loathsome task of getting up early; it was ignorantly hard for me in the beginning. My secret, an app called Alarmy. It is the the obnoxious, persistent neighbor of the app world. You cannot shut it off without completing a task. For me, I have to go into the kitchen and take a picture of the coffee pot. It close enough to where I don’t stumble or fall into things, but far enough away where walking back to the bed also takes effort. And while I’m there, I make coffee. It is a brilliant concept. There is a premium version, but I find the initial free version works just fine. Then, I get my daily reading and journaling done. After that, I fire up the computer and write some content. During this morning ritual, I don’t put any undo pressure on myself. If I don’t publish that day, so be it. If I decide to do something else like watch a little TV, shoot a game of pool, or simply sit and exist, I don’t shame myself for that. I take my time getting ready for work, and go from there. It works for me, but trust me, I’m not a morning person, so this one can be a challenge.
And yet one more little thing that seems to make a difference is not working during your lunch break. I force myself to do this. The little voice screaming at me that I’m not being efficient is loud, but I ignore it. Can you be efficient without proper calorie intake? Let’s not kid ourselves, if the engine isn’t taken care of, the truck can properly pull its load. I unplug. If I must stare at my screen during lunch, I watch a couple Youtube videos unrelated to work. Or, I go to the break room. I do not work through my lunch.
Don’t let the devil of endless activity trick you into thinking you are doing good by running from dusk till dawn in and endless cat and mouse game with “to dos.” It is an illusion. You are not working toward your goals so much as burning yourself out. Slow down, take stock in what really matters in your schedule, and be a better you.
