Do productivity hacks really help?
On any given day, there are hundreds of articles about productivity in medium if not more. It ranges from starting the work day in the ungodly hours to doing only four hours of deep work. Being an average Joe at work, I am perpetually curious about how other people handle the working hours especially when the work-life boundaries are blurred like this. I have lost count of the ideas that I tried to follow to help me with productivity and guess what, I am still stuck at the same place.
First of all there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to productivity hacks. Some days can be extremely stressful, beginning the work at 7'0 Clock to stretching beyond the midnight hours. Then there are days when there is nothing happening. The only thing I have to concentrate on such days is on the learning part of my job. The switch between these two phases are rather spontaneous. So what I really need to do is to get adapted to the changing circumstances as quickly as possible. It is not an easy task for me. I am a slave of my routine. I work better when there is a clear view of what lays ahead in the day and that help me to plan my day. This lack of clarity is the most important challenge for me and unfortunately this is not in my control. I used to beat myself up for not finishing off things before the end of the day. This made me extremely stressed out and I started dreading the work week.
The only productivity hack that works for me is taking a break whenever I feel like I am living on the edge. Days when the fear eats me away and the panic attacks seem to be closer, I try to forgive myself for not finishing off things and run away from work. But the imposter in me is unforgiving and there is a constant battle goes on in the mind. Some days, like today, I am at peace and able to get a clearer perspective. Other days are outright cruel to me. So if you feel like you are not able to progress much at work, instead of trying to read up on productivity hacks, try to take a day off. REST is more important than we think.
