I have been in a rut for a while in life. It had been almost two months since I had done any important work when I determined to tackle this problem. I quit my job about two months ago. After that, I fell into a rut directly from a packed schedule and my brain just gave up. Keep reading if you wanna know how I took control of the situation.
The start of it all
What led me to procrastinate this much? Simply put, my brain got overwhelmed by the amount of things to do. As far as I can remember I’m the kind of person who loves a challenge. I love to start new projects, and I love to plan and organize things. But this time motivation didn’t seem to show up.
Before I quit my job, I used to work as a data scientist in a small software consultancy. I started working from the office in the second quarter of 2022. I would wake up at around 7:30, get ready, make breakfast and lunch, get in a cab, and travel for almost an hour in unbearable traffic and heat to reach the office. After work, I would reach home around seven, make dinner, take a shower, watch something on YouTube or Netflix and my day was pretty much over. I was exhausted. When I quit my job, I had this insane amount of time with no structure and a million things to do.
Context
You might be wondering where a million things came from. I quit my job because we are in the final stages of achieving a goal that I set for myself five years ago in a moment of existential crisis(exactly in 2018). I said “we” because I met my now husband after that and it became one of our goals.
The event is that we are moving to a new country and starting a new chapter in our lives. I have been living in India my whole life and I’m 28 now. You may ask why I didn’t do it earlier. I could have done my master’s abroad like most people do. But you see, this idea came to my mind when I was doing my Master’s in computer science at Cochin University of Science and Technology.
Until joining my master’s my major goal in life was to be financially independent from my parents and build a career that I enjoy and is challenging enough. But once I started getting my stipend, I started thinking about the next step. After a lot of research and self-reflection, I decided to move to a new country.
A lot of my friends had started to move abroad on student visas after taking education loans. But I didn’t want to get into debt. So I started researching other options like going onsite from companies and getting a residency as a skilled professional. I came across a few programs like that. I was not eligible for most exchange programs because I’m Indian. But there were a few programs from countries like Canada and Australia.
Eventually, I made a long-term plan. The first step was to get at least three years of valid work experience in a field that is in demand. So I got a job in data science. Unexpected things have happened since then. A pandemic has come and gone. Borders got closed. Economies collapsed. Still, I kept that thought in the back of my mind. Five years later our passports got visa stamps and I can’t seem to get up from the couch and do the important things before starting a new chapter in life. If that’s not PROCRASTINATION, what is? I explained all this to convey the intensity of the situation.
I wondered. “What is happening to me?”.
🧘🏾Self-reflection and quiet time
I was born in 1995 and I grew up in the mountains. I got my first phone when I was 17 and I got my first smartphone when I was 19. So I have spent a lot of time in my life in nature, bored out of my mind, creating stories in my head, and just quietly thinking. I would wake up and get out to see the beautiful morning because I didn’t have a phone to scroll through. And those are my core childhood memories now.
When Jio launched in 2016 in India, the internet became so much cheaper and faster. Netflix launched in the same year. Now you can watch any movie at any time. The instant gratification loops in an average person’s life increased. Then came Swiggy (a food and grocery delivery service in India)and many other services to satisfy our dopamine jumps as soon as possible. I don’t think many of us get bored anymore.
Technology is amazing. One reason I decided to work in tech is because it has the potential to do amazing things, connect you with people around the globe, and improve our lives. Technology is the one thing that has the most impact on the trajectory of my life. I cracked GATE(Entrance to get admission to a Master’s in technology in India)and IELTS with just lectures from YouTube. You are reading this because I wrote this on my blog on a Tuesday morning sitting in my pajamas at my home. So I’m not blaming technology at all. We just have to be a little bit strategic in designing our lives to keep our mental and physical health intact.
Self-reflection is an important habit, but the most difficult habit to build nowadays. The world is moving so fast. And there is so much information around to consume. Our ancient brains are struggling to catch up. For example, I Would listen to something on my commute to work, when I’m cooking, cleaning, or eating. So every waking minute was filled with something. By doing this we are depriving our brain of creating new ideas and thinking about our own lives.
So what do we do? BALANCE is the key.
- Schedule a specific time in the day to meditate and self-reflect on your life.
- Get outside and go for a walk in nature without your phone.
- Close your eyes and listen to your own thoughts for at least 5 minutes every day.
Think about why you are procrastinating. It could be anything like fear of failure or rejection, not having confidence in yourself, past trauma, etc. Find out the root cause and work on it. Seek a professional’s help if required.
If are interested in learning how our brain works, especially how dopamine controls our habits, listen to Huberman Lab an amazing podcast by Stanford Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman. Believe me, it will change your life.
🛋️Get out of your comfort zone
Our ancient brains always look for ways to avoid threats. As an introvert, I have a tendency to get into these comfortable ruts. If you add a bit of social anxiety to the mix, you are going to avoid every chance to meet other human beings.
I had this core childhood memory. My mom is a pre-primary teacher. So when I was four she signed me up for a cultural program for their students. I was watching kids sing and dance from the audience. Suddenly my name was called and I couldn’t go to the stage and I started crying. That’s when I realized for the first time, that I am not like the other kids who were unbothered on stage. Gradually my parents started deliberately putting me in new environments with other kids and eventually, my social anxiety came down. I would push myself to do uncomfortable things and get over that fear.
I’m still an introvert and I enjoy my alone time and my crazy projects a lot. But I have learned to manage my social anxiety.
So just do it without overthinking much.
Visualization is another way to get out. Just think about where your life could be if you do the important things on a consistent basis. You get a dopamine hike from doing that and that will motivate you to do the work. Dopamine is the motivation hormone.
I was a daydreamer kid. I used visualizations way before I learned about any of this stuff. My childhood was not that colorful. My parents had a turbulent marriage and visualizing a good life for myself was my way of tuning out. But that has helped me a lot in identifying the kind of life I want to build making long-term plans and sticking to it.
“The cost of procrastination is the life you could have lived.”
Nobody is actually concerned or judging you as you might think, everybody is busy with their own lives. Just get out of your cave and build a beautiful life. Have an accountability partner if you want. This could be one of your friends or family members.
🏡Environment
A change of environment and a break in your lazy routine can definitely help. Go visit your parents. Go on a small trip. Go on meetups, meet more people, and get excited. Do whatever is required to break you out of your cycle.
Another thing that works for me is decluttering my space, especially the workspace. Don’t consider it as a way to procrastinate though. Designate a space for work. For example, when I’m in my husband’s family home, as soon as I wake up I come down to the living area with my laptop and start working on something with a cup of coffee or hot water. As soon as I’m in that space, my brain knows that it’s time to work. Similarly, I struggled to find a space like that in our small apartment since the couch is where I used to watch Netflix and wind down after work.
I used the same strategy my whole life for my studies too. When I used to prepare for GATE, I had a designated place for studying and all I did in that place was study.
Have a designated place for your creative work, workout, meditation, etc. It works.
👟Reducing the friction
This also relates to the previous point. You can create ways to reduce the friction to do good habits and increase the friction to do bad habits. For example, leave your gym clothes and shoes somewhere you can see them right after you wake up, and leave your phone and tablet in the living room, keep your social media accounts signed out. If you wanna go extreme you can buy these lock boxes from Amazon where you can lock your phone for a specific amount of time.
If you wanna eat healthy, don’t buy the snacks or at least keep them out of your sight. Follow the people who you wanna be like on social media.
Don’t try to blame everything on your willpower. Create a healthy environment where you can thrive.
🍳Productive procrastination
This is a big deal. Happens to me all the time. You feel like you did a lot of things throughout the day, but at the end of the day, you didn’t do the important things. Identify your productive procrastination pattern. Mine is cooking healthy food and organizing stuff. Whenever procrastination sweeps in I go and cook something even though I have enough food in the fridge. Also, I would start reorganizing things that were already organized.
Figure out your productive procrastination pattern and ask yourself whether it is really important.
📝The takeaway
Now I’m back in my groove, writing, creating content, and learning again. I have to look for jobs in the new country, make travel plans, and do last-minute shopping, say goodbye to friends and family. I share a lot of my experiences on my YouTube channel. I have recently uploaded a video version of this blog post there. Check it out if you are interested.
So these are the few things that have helped me so far to get out of productivity ruts. Don’t believe everything you think. Keep learning new things every day and build a beautiful life.
If you want to learn more about productivity, read my blog post on building a productive work-from-home routine.
If you are interested in video content, check out my YouTube channel.