As I see it, there are two different ways of dealing with productivity blocks. Either, you accept that there’s a block and you leave the task for a while. Or you power through. The first step to dealing with a productivity block is to decide which way you want to go.
A hack for deciding that is setting a default, intentionally. I’ve written about making decisions work for you a number of times, and that rule applies here as well. It all comes back to this quote:
Don’t make 100 decisions, when 1 will do.
This goes for all kinds of decisions that we make every day. And I’d argue that a productivity block is a lot like writer’s block or creative’s block, and my stance on those is heavily influenced by Seth Godin, who’ve written (among many other posts), this:
“Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.
Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.”
My analysis of what Seth says is that writer’s block is a choice, and we can choose both to cure it, or not to see it at all. That decision is one that might be very valuable in this case as well, to say that a “productivity block” simply doesn’t exist.
Now, when you’ve actually made the decision of accepting the concept of productivity block, you can move on. If you’ve chosen to see it, we have the two scenarios of either giving in or powering through. There are a number of ways to doing that.
Giving in.
One way of giving in that I use is to simply say that the task that I have at hand isn’t important enough to me right now. That leaves me with a liberty to either do something productive, but completely different, or simply lay down and watch Netflix.
Another way is to cut out the “this isn’t important enough”-part, and cut straight to Netflix. Or another leisure or unproductive task that you feel like doing.
What I want to urge you to look out for in doing this is the excuses. If you’re giving in, I think the best thing to do is to acknowledge that’s what you’re doing and just do it. Not because you’re worth it, not because there are bigger problems in the world to solve, and not because you’re a bad person.
You gave in, and that’s simply what happened that day.
When you start making excuses, you build a habit. Building the habit of giving in isn’t going to be sustainable, because you’re quite probable to set expectations and keep giving in. It’ll have na impact on what people around you trust you with in the future and it’ll degrade your feeling of self worth. None of us like being the one who gives in as soon as things get hard.
Powering through.
Powering through might sound like a simple solution to a complex problem, but it really isn’t. It’s about showing up, acknowledging that the output might not be the best you have to give that day, just as well as acknowledging that it’s okay. It’s exactly what Seth talks about, showing up and shipping.
There are ways of doing this too. One way is to get your reward system going. I use chocolate or ice cream, because I fucking love those and I know that my brain does too. With mini-celebrations throughout the task, I reward myself for powering through and doing whatever I need to do.
Another way is to explain to yourself why the task at hand is so important to you that it’s worth doing. It might be to make up a reason. It might be because you’ve told your best friend you’re going to do it. Or it might be because it’s simply worth doing.
Important to remember with the powering through is that you only have a certain amount of will power at any given day, and that varies. Powering through a task might release a bunch of good feelings, and then you’re good to continue. But oftentimes, at least for me, the block comes out of being tired or stressed, in which case it might be hard to continue doing it forever. Set a time frame or a small number of tasks to start with. Micro-power-through to start with, and feel yourself out.
End Notes.
I think it’s important to remember in all of this that your worth isn’t determined by what you produce. It might be important to you to be productive at some given point in time, that’s when I find these kinds of thought models useful. But being productive all of the time might not be important in the bigger scheme of things.
You’re a human being, not a human doing.