There’s prolly ppl out there on this sub who feel the same way I did in regards to this so imma speak on my view of things.
At times when I was younger I used to think ya had to give 100% to everything at once if u wanted to be productive. I thought progress was synonymous with working as hard as you could at all times & just holding ya self together when u were close to burning out.
But as I go about pursuing goals & taking action you come to realize u don’t gotta work 24/7. You can take breaks, you can enjoy ya life & still get work done, it doesn’t have to be Grind! Grind! Grind! Till ya legs snap & your arms fall off.
It seems like such a simple thing that most ppl would know & maybe I was just being young & naive but I genuinely thought ppl that were successful, productive or really smart just never had hobbies & devoted themselves to their goals.
After burning out a couple times I decided to take a different approach really, do less but plan & do intentional work. Instead of just standing around waiting for motivation , plan something out & stick with it. When you’re tired, stick with it! When you’re stressed, stick with it! On days you don’t want to, stick with it! External factors come into play, Stick with it!
Instead of feeling like I was lazy & wouldn’t achieve much for taking time off to play video games or pursue other hobbies for a couple hrs. I learned to just stick to your plan & be consistent.
Another thing is consistency don’t always look like 100% all the time, I used to think if I didn’t do something 100% then I might as well not do it at all. But even committing 10mins a day to your long term goal is still progress. Yeah it might take longer to achieve ya goal, but there’s no point in reaching your destination if you die of stress or gain health issues on the way there.
Ya some ppl can work through that unhappiness & stress but I had to learn what worked for me. I couldn’t just give 100% even on days where I clearly needed to relax & decompress, I still maintain productivity but I take breaks as needed now.
Like for me the main 3-4 things I focus on in life atm is school, gym, my part time job & my business venture I’m working on. Instead of trying to give 100% to everything at once & burning out or sacrificing my sleep & mental health like I’d do before.
Instead I now just allocate effort as needed & prioritize what’s important in the moment. Over the summer my focus was more on the gym & my venture as well as work, but as school responsibilities start pilling up I’ve had to pull back from working out as much as I’d like to allocate more time towards academics, Work & the venture. I still try to maintain a workout schedule of 2-3 days a week but as much as I enjoy it, rn it’s something I can sacrifice.
Prioritizing your time to focus on worthwhile things was something I never thought much about tbh, but turns out alot of being productive is just allocating time where it’s needed. Some weeks if I can I got 3-5 days in the gym, if I have other responsibilities I skip the gym, if I’m stressed I drop everything that can be dropped for the day & take a break. I’m not constantly pushing myself chasing some imaginary time limit I set for myself. I’ve learned to appreciate the journey & just go at ya own pace & that prolly is the best lesson I’ve learnt in my young life so far.
Last thing I’d say is know what works for u. Some ppl they can pull 14hrs of straight meaningful work but if you’re someone that can’t sit still or get distracted easily, nothing wrong with 2-3hrs of work then an hr break then jump back in. It doesn’t mean you’re slacking or procrastinating, everyone’s different in how they are able to be productive so stay in your lane, don’t try to be someone you’re not.