I avoided writing this post for over eight weeks, and trust me, I was very tempted to draft one early on during the pandemic. Remembering back now, those first few panicked and disrupted weeks – when professors and students alike were trying to work out how to transition their learning, research, and projects online – all of us were managing the very best way we knew how. In terms of productivity, for many this largely meant moving from moment to moment and figuring out what low-hanging fruit task to do first, and then categorizing and deciding what truly mattered and what could wait. For others, there was a tendency to carry on “as normal” and expect others to do the same, leading to lots of frustration and burn-out.
As the weeks passed, there was also the insidious message creeping into social media and amongst friends about not “wasting time” while in quarantine and self-isolation. Here came what I like to call the “pandemic productivity propagandists”—the hobbyists, the “I’m going to learn Spanish” crowd, the annoying bread bakers, people overscheduling their kids with new learning activities, and those in my circle who thought this would be the perfect time to be creative and manifest an impromptu sabbatical. I’m not entirely innocent here as I have admonished those who couldn’t find ways to keep up with their fitness routine while in quarantine—I ceremoniously bought weights and a rebounder the day after we were sent into self-isolation. The temptation to prove one’s productivity never felt higher.
Bubbling beneath the surface of all this “pandemic productivity” has been the reality that many of us are having a hard time facing a whole host of feelings— myself included. Psychologists have already talked about our collective grief over the dramatic changes taking place in our lives, but there is also the reality that many of us are not used to being bored and undistracted; not used to being out of control and losing the luxury of planning out the upcoming days and months; and no longer finding solace in the same distracting behaviours that were part of our pre-pandemic life. I mean who hasn’t become immediately irritated while watching some random TV show or film where people are cavorting out in public and enjoying life in a way that you are not able to right now.
Our entire relationship with time and productivity is being challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic. How will you adjust? That item on my desk is a TimeCube and helps push me through bouts of procrastination. See Tip #6 below.
So, what to do? We have now reached a turning point where none of this is temporary anymore and things still need to get done. Is pandemic productivity truly possible? Maybe. This is where I have arrived in my thinking as I start to ponder how to advise my students later this summer and into the fall. How to find a way of working and getting things done that honours the unique and unprecedented situation we find ourselves, and allows for a gentler and more mindful approach. Here are some preliminary ideas:
1) Manage energy, not time
This is an idea that has been critical to my health and sanity in recent years, and one I have tried to embrace even more so in recent weeks. It comes down to this: figure out what times of the day you are most energized and enthusiastic, and schedule the tasks that are most important to you — the ones you enjoy and that are at the top of your priority list— to complete with full energy. Many of us now have the luxury of unstructured days to test this out. For example, I am a morning person, and my mind is most agile and alert before noon. This is when I choose to do my writing, research, and other personal projects. It is also when I lift weights and do higher intensity cardio. Later in the afternoon, when my energy is a bit flatter, I tend to do my grading or admin work or more regimented tasks that don’t require the same attention. This is also when I schedule time to read, make calls, or take a nap. And by evening, when I would normally struggle to make a creative argument or analysis, this is when I would maybe answer work emails or clean the house. It is also the time I choose to do yoga, meditation, or go for a night walk or jog. As the day progresses, I work with my natural rhythms and energy flow to schedule tasks. It also helps prevent procrastination and eliminate feelings of guilt around what you should be doing at any given hour.
2) Reduce or eliminate decision fatigue
You’ve probably heard that Apple founder Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day, or that some athletes have the same meals when training. These are tactics to create more targeted use of your productivity each day by eliminating the fatigue that comes with making decisions. Some of the ways to reduce this drain on your energy include things like: meal planning, scheduling your day first thing each morning and sticking to it, picking out your wardrobe the night before, getting rid of “options” in your home/closet/fridge/pantry/bathroom etc… that you don’t love or use regularly, giving the decision control to someone else and sticking with it, and the overall decluttering of your life of objects (and sometimes people too) that don’t serve you. Reclaim that energy!
3) Stack your habits
This simple but powerful idea, connected to reducing decision fatigue, comes straight out of James Clear’s excellent book Atomic Habits. Clear explains that one way to establish a new habit is to tie it to an existing well-entrenched habit that you do without any real effort or motivation. For example, if you wanted to establish a habit of journaling for 15 minutes a day, or working for half hour on your class assignments, you could tie that habit to your morning coffee, or an activity you do right after brushing your teeth at night. When I first established my home workout routine after the pandemic hit, I knew I had to do it early in the day, and I tied it to making my bed in the morning. Once I complete that task, I put on my workout clothes and get started. Now, it is ritualized, and part of a habit chain that I will carry forward. Give it a try with a habit you are working on—it is a powerful tool.
4) Discover the benefits of boredom
As a child of the 1980s, this one I have on lock, but even I have to admit that it is difficult to convince others of the benefits of boredom. This pandemic, however, is giving us all a crash course. Being able to embrace being unoccupied is a gift, and one that leads, as many studies have proven, to higher states of creativity and insight. Many have experienced gaining some spark of inspiration or a new idea while showering or figuring out a problem on a long walk or during a commute. As Sandii Mann writes in her book The Science of Boredom: Why Boredom is Good, the mind is freed and able to create unique and experimental connections when spared distraction. “Harness your boredom by getting bored," Mann suggests "That means real boredom, which is where you have to let your mind wander. This is the real key. Daydreaming and mind wandering. Don't turn to the internet or try to scroll your boredom away." I recommend finding 15-20 minutes a day to give your mind a complete rest. Call it being bored or a waking meditation— just be bored and see what happens.
5) Create boundaries around your time, and stick to them
Another way to maintain productivity is to put strict controls around when you will begin and end a task, and also how you will choose to spend your time. I learned this important approach during my first year-long sabbatical and wrote about it then. And now that many of us are living much less structured lives, it is critical to set up routines that serve your needs. This means creating boundaries around your time and finding ways to uphold them. If you are asked to attend a Zoom meeting with friends, but it falls at a time you have already scheduled for a workout or homework/job task, respect your boundaries and politely decline. On the other hand, if you schedule an hour for work and it is time to take a break, respect that decision and enjoy the downtime. Boundaries breed great life balance, build your self-confidence and efficacy, and teach people how to treat you.
6) Feel the feeling and do it anyways…. for 10-15 minutes
This is an old productivity hack that comes from the Pomodoro method that I have blogged about many times over the years, but it is essentially a form of interval training. If you are feeling like procrastinating on a task (like writing, responding to emails, or working out), set a timer for 10-15 minutes and do the task anyways, promising yourself that you can stop after that set time. More often than not, you will end up finding something of a flow in the task and want to continue. You can then move to working in intervals of 45-60 minutes with 10-15 minute recovery breaks worked in. On most days, this is precisely what I do. I schedule 2-3 working sessions with breaks built in, and promise myself that I can stop after any particular timed interval if I want to. I rarely do, and that is the beauty of the Pomodoro method. You get stuff done!
7) Do what you actually like
This is a simple directive, but one that I hope more people take to heart. Choose to do things that you enjoy and actually like. It could be as simple as choosing a research topic on something that sparks your desire, and not just one you think will be easy to write up, or one you think your professor is expecting. It can also be as profound as removing/muting people from your social media feeds who bring you down, are unsupportive, or are not really your friends. It is not very often in our lives that we have the space and time to really consider what matters, and what and who brings us happiness. So try using the pandemic as a time to inventory how you are spending your hours, and with whom you share them, and continue to find ways to up the joy factor to help increase your energy and productivity.