Being Chronically Productive
The day I woke up at 4 in the afternoon I realised I needed to change my productivity habits.
This happened about two years ago now and no, I am not merely lazy but I do know I had to rethink my productivity.
Why?
Because I am chronically ill which means my body is always fighting me literally — I have incurable Autoimmune conditions where my body is convinced it’s constantly in war with itself (I would say slightly schizophrenic as well).
So how do you get productive let alone stay productive while living with a chronic illness?
The first thing is to stop telling yourself you have a chronic illness. Whether we consciously recognised it or not, illness implies a sense of scarcity, an inability to do something so boxing yourself in this category only holds you back even before you take the first step.
I am a big proponent of calling it a condition, I have an incurable condition which means it’s something I have to navigate in life much like other people have to with unpleasant coworkers, poverty or even ridiculous first world problem (hey, who’s to say they’re ridiculous anyway?!).
I’ve come to recognise that it’s not so much about getting productive as in acquiring skills as much as it is about letting go of not just habits but perceptions and self-inhibiting attitudes that surround conversations around productivity.
The Glorification of Hustle Culture
It’s cool to hustle, everybody wants to be a hustler and everyone wants to ‘like’ everything around this idea of hustling. So how can someone like me who cannot by virtue of medical diagnosis ‘hustle’ in fact, hustle?
Ideas around hustle often exemplify those who ‘never sleep’ or the ones who wake up at 5am to go for a run.
Hustle to me is doing the things against all odds, whatever that might be for you.
Some days it’s about having the energy to cook for myself and on other days it’s about going through 10 hour meetings, whatever it is the definition of hustle needs to come from within and is constantly in flux rather than a rigid longing to live upto an expectation that’s designed to put you down.
So how do you get shit done?
That’s all nice and rosy if you’re a motivational speaker or for an awesome Instagram quote but the bottom line is we are inundated with shit to do more than ever before as much as we have access to technology that enables us to do more than ever before. Ironic eh?!
Getting shit done has always been about letting go of stuff for me, almost like you’re peeling away the things that are holding you back and rebooting your brain to perceive the possibilities as opposed to your limitations.
Case in point, I cannot jump out of bed in the mornings let alone go for a run at 5am (with one lung, I can barely manage to walk) so my idea of not losing 2 hours twiddling my thumb or playing with my phone every morning is to have a book right next to the bed or on occasions my notepad or my Mac or whatever it may be that needs to get done and can be done without getting out of bed.
Sure, I have those days where I cannot move due to chronic pain and I used to dread those moments cursing every second of it. Now I just try to relax (not very well, I must add) and let go of this nagging voice in my head that’s telling me I am being so unproductive and tell myself, ‘wow I have a few hours time where I can’t do anything, how about I just sleep in the middle of the day? How many others get to do that these days?’
How is this remotely helpful? I am going to have to not do anything regardless of how I choose to spend that time so instead of flooding my mind with negativity I’d rather just sleep or think about something completely irrelevant. This way, when I am actually capable of getting back to doing stuff, I don’t have the mental baggage of negative self-talk holding me back with it’s residue.
Did you know we talk about 50,000 words a day in average? Ask yourself, how much of that is negative self-talk? That’s like a mini-book! You’re reading shit to yourself every single day!
If you have a chronic condition you’re mostly likely either overprotected by your loved ones or ‘empowered to fight’ your condition on social media. Neither of those are the most effective if you’re like me and getting shit done is integral to you as a person, chronic or not.
Let go of the things that you surround yourself with which are holding you back, let go of the archaic mindset around productivity that tell you to constantly keep feeding the hustle culture and consider what you’re capable of doing now and here because it’s the little steps that take you far and beyond, only if you let them.
Bhavani Esapathi is a Huffington Post Blogger and Founder of The Invisible Labs; a social tech venture helping those with incurable diseases live better. If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy her weekly letters on living chronically well. Say hello on Twitter @bhaesa.
