The Focal Newsletter #9 🧐 The Productive Mindset Loophole.

Being productive may not always be good.

A quick re-cap of our previous sent newsletter (July 31st, 2023).

The Productivity & Positivity Newsletter.

Morning! — Happy Monday y’all. Tomorrow is August 1st and it will be the last month of summer. Let’s do a quick recap of what you’ve done over your summer season. Did you start that project you’ve always wanted to start? Did you start going towards that path of your dreams yet? If not, don’t stress, you are still not too late. With that said, let’s focus in.

Trivia of the Day: In what state is it legal to hunt unicorns?

👍 Positivity: The beauty of having a desire.

🤔 Productivity: It’s time for that break.

🧐 Prosperity: Productivity does not equal happiness.

— David H.

Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.

— Christopher Markus

Positivity

The beauty of having a desire.

Photo by David Marcu on Unsplash.

We all need a sense of desire and meaning in our lives. If we don’t, well we’ll get the feeling of “what is life even supposed to be?” type of feeling. And let me tell you, it’s not a good feeling. If not kept well, that feeling will eventually continuously, a neverending downward spiral till the point of no escape. And it’s just a good way to bring motivation during the harshest of harsh times.

Whenever you feel doubtful, remember the reasons why you chose to do this journey. Remember the core reasoning and drive of why you’ve gained the strength and confidence to start that journey. All great journeys have a difficult beginning. That is all due to our high expectations and empathy towards that thing. We want to protect it like it’s our only child. We want it to succeed like how we’ve imagined it to be. And when times get rough, that reasoning of starting will always be the main motivator to get back onto your feet.

Desire is a great thing to have. Not only for motivation but for hope. Motivation can carry you far, but if you don’t believe in it (aka., hope) then it will never last long.

Here are some actionable examples to get your desire:

1. Understand your beliefs. Everyone has different beliefs and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. (Just don’t hurt anyone in the process) Your specific belief, either to help others, support a cause dear to your heart, or a hobby of interest, are great starting places to look for your desire. Now, all desires are somewhat self-ish and that’s fine. It’s your desire either way, but make sure to not throw anyone else under the bus when doing so. Your belief should be far grander and last a lifetime or even generations to come. And finally, your belief should connect with your mind and soul altogether. The process of choosing should feel smooth and not stuck with questions and obstacles.
2. Understand your pros and cons. Self-understanding is a critical skill component to have when addressing serious problems at hand. Knowing what you are good at and what you are bad at will make problem-solving more hassle-free than you can ever imagine. These pros and cons will align with your desire. You won’t be creating a desire that is a con skillset would you now? Maybe if that desire is to learn something you are lacking, which is absolutely a-ok, but let’s go deeper and grander. Something we can’t imagine having but we want to have. Setting that as our desire will put us on that trajectory and no matter what the outcome is, it’s still better than nothing and is still on track.

Productivity

It’s time for that break.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash.

Sounds great doesn’t it? But in all seriousness, we definitely need to take a break once in a while. Not necessarily a full-on vacation to the Bahamas for 2 weeks with the fam or friends type of break, but a mental (and sometimes physical) break from the overload of work we have either for our job or for our business. And here’s why.

😴 Proper productivity required proper recharging. Ever realized that some work you just could not do? Although necessarily, not all work you don’t want to do is due to an overload of work but may be due to ADHD and other factors. But in this case, let’s keep it in the tired realm. And that word explains it all. No matter how stressed out you are in needing to finish this work ASAP, overworking and reaching your max capacity of stimulation and productivity, will never result in proper execution. Heck, it may even bring in results that need extra work in the future! So recharge your noggin, take a proper mental break for 5–10 minutes if you are feeling unmotivated, and try to get back to work. It won’t work all the time and that’s perfectly fine. We are trying to find what is the best-fit model for our brains to comprehend that we are indeed taking a short recharge break and not something else.

😇 Inspirations come from groundedness. Great things come from within. Either from the amount of knowledge and wisdom you’ve cumulated, or the emotions and thoughts you’ve gathered, it all comes from a sense of groundedness. And in order to achieve this groundedness, outliers such as stress, low energy level, chaotic emotional rollercoaster, subdued emotions, and so on, cannot be present at that moment. The majority of those problems stem from not having a more relaxed and safe area to let those thoughts flow through. The best way to combat that is to first, create a mental boundary space meant for relaxation and nothing else. Relaxing as in letting thoughts flow in and out, meditating, taking a short nap, and not anything stimulating such as YouTube shorts, TikToks, movies, and so on. Or you can go out and explore. Who knows, you may find your next gem spot for relaxation. Don’t overestimate the simple actions such as taking a walk, petting an animal, or even just seeing nature can cause a chain reaction of letting your worries go. After you’ve achieved that portion of this relaxation journey, start thinking back to the problem and see where the solutions can take you. That is the time of pure groundedness and not mixing in with any outliers at all.

Prosperity

Productivity does not equal happiness.

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash.

🫡Excelling at a task does not mean excelling at a desire. Not all productivity means achieving a sense of happiness. Although yes, it does bring some level of joy but not on a deeper level. Just a skim on top of the surface. Constant search on how to be more productive is not a bad thing, but it can become a nightmare if the reason is to not be efficient solely for efficiency, but for an internal problem such as self-validation of worth. If that’s the case, please stop at once and address the main core problem. Because if it’s kept unloose, no matter how high the achievement is, you will never be satisfied with yourself or prove your worth. That sense of validation is never ending due to the fact that the desire is always wanting to be better than before, not better than what you started off as. Don’t get me wrong, you should pursue the journey of bettering yourself but don’t lie to yourself that this journey will fix all problems and bring happiness.

I’ve written more on this topic in the article listed below:

Being more productive won’t make you happier.

Trivia Answer

Michigan.

The Newsletter for Productivity & Positivity.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article! 🫡

If you’re interested, I’ve created a Free Weekly Newsletter about staying Productive and Positive curated from professional studies at Harvard Medical School, MIT, Johns Hopkins University, and much more. Oh, and also personal experience :)

We gather the knowledge, you get actionable examples. 📩

The Focal

Stay Humble Peeps. Time is Precious. ⏰