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Start from a position of adequacy
I think a lot of us, especially today, kind of wake up each morning with a feeling of what I describe as productivity debt. I’m talking about this existential sense that you don’t quite deserve to be here unless you’ve done a certain amount of stuff. And that is hugely self sabotaging, apart from anything else, because the standard for what how much stuff would be enough just drifts upwards. So it gets harder and harder to meet because the amount of things we could do is infinite.
It’s critical to attempt, instead, to start from the idea that you don’t need to do anything with your day to kind of justify your existence on the planet. You may need to do it in order to earn your wage or your salary, absolutely, but you don’t need to do it for these existential reasons. There’s no reason to believe that you’re sort of inadequate if you don’t do anything with a day. Starting from that basis, it’s possible then to see all the things you do do as kind of payments into the credit of this account. What if you started at zero balance and everything you did during the day was something extra that you could have not done, but you did do? That you started from a position of adequacy and just also did a whole load of great stuff.
Set modest outcomes
I don’t want to deny that there are all sorts of social and economic pressures on that, that it’s much worse for some people than for others. Right? It really is the case that many people feel that they have to struggle to do an seemingly impossible amount with the day just to keep their heads above water. But it’s also the case that because we’re finite creatures, you’re always going to be able to come up with a list, a much longer list, of things that feel like they need doing than you’re ever going to have a chance to do in any given time period because it’s just the contrast between being finite and being able to conceive of, this infinite list.
The way to begin to deal with this is, firstly, to see that. Firstly, to understand that it is not a very difficult task that you’re doing badly at because you’re a loser. That means you haven’t got to the end of that list, but because it’s structurally, mathematically, not on the cards for any of us to do an infinite amount with our days. And then, secondly, come up with a list of what would clearly telegraph to you that you had done some useful things with your day. Maybe it’s only three hours worth of things, and you expect to work for seven or eight. But to set some kind of very, very modest quantity of specific outcomes. You’re not just treading water in this kind of infinite ocean of potential tasks.