Productivity is something
we crave, we treasure, and something that doesn’t necessarily occur nearly as
often as we wish. A productive day can make us feel ten times better about
life, and an unproductive day can make us feel ten times worse. The positive
that comes from this, is one really productive day can make up for five awfully
unproductive days, but one unproductive day doesn’t change the wonderfully
productive five days I just had.
My experience is that
productivity doesn’t really come day to day. It comes week-to-week,
month-to-month and, very surprisingly, (I didn’t realise it was a thing)
year-to-year. I’ve had weeks, months, and yes, thanks to 2018, whole years
where it felt like I’d done nothing. What happened in 2018 is a lack of
everything I was doing right in 2017.
The last two years have
taught me that productivity doesn’t come and go. It starts with us and what we
do. We can nurture it or we can hinder it.
2017 was a very
productive year for me, but there was a six month stretch (2 months very
intensely) where I was the most productive I had ever been. I was fulfilling
all of my writing and reading goals, even while working a full-time job. To be
fair, my schedule was a little insane, but it worked for me, and I think that’s
all anyone has to do, find out what works for them and try to follow through.
I want to think it began
with a post by Amie Kauffman on her Instagram. She was documenting her process
on what she’d been working on at the time and mentioned she’d started her work
first thing that morning, and found she was much more productive. I knew this
was true about myself as well but, working full time, I didn’t have mornings
available for writing. I had two days on the weekend and that was it. It didn’t
feel like enough.
If you too have tried to
write while working full time, or while taking care of tiny humans, or working
part time, or studying, or basically doing anything that might be required of
you, you’ll know how hard it is to come home after a full day and be
productive. For some people, writing after work or at night works for them.
It’s always been hard for me. As a classic procrastinator, my attitude when I
get home is ‘I’ll try tomorrow, I’m tired now’ which naturally becomes an
infinite cycle.
There have even been times
I’ve come home excited to write, and still found myself in front of the
computer for hours making zero progress, feeling brain-dead and wanting to fall
asleep.
I asked myself if I could
write before work and there were a few reasons I refused this: (I) I won’t
enjoy writing knowing I’ll have to leave for work soon and (II) I’d have to get
up too early.
I didn’t only use this as
an excuse, my brain did not even consider it a possibility. I did not want to
write before work. I worried I’d just be anxious about getting to work and
starting my day. Every time I considered it, I responded with an immediate no. I can’t remember what got me passed
that attitude, maybe I wore myself down every time I asked myself the question:
could I write before work? Because, eventually, I gave in.
I decided to try it once,
just to see what it would be like, and if it was as terrible as I expected it
to be, I’d only have wasted one day. I gave myself two hours of writing in the
morning, which meant a very early
start, especially while trying to fit some kind of exercise in.
It only took one test
run, and I was sold. It sounded insane to say out loud, and seems insane now to
put it on paper, but it was working for me, and I loved it.
My schedule never ran perfectly,
but I always got up at three AM.
3:00
am Wake
up
Exercise
Shower
3:45-4:00am Coffee
Start Writing
Coffee
Continue Writing
6:00am-ish Stop
Writing
Breakfast
Get Ready
6:45am-ish
Leave
for work
7:00am-ish Work
4:00pm Get
home
Sort out food
Start reading by 4:30-5:00
Do everyday maintenance stuff
7:00pm Get
to bed
8:00pm
Actually
go to bed because you’re in denial about your sleep schedule, but actually reading
manga on your phone
9:00pm Really
hope I’m asleep by now
Every person I told about
this schedule thought it was insane. I ate dinner at four, was in bed by seven,
and got up at three. It was madness for me at first and I thought it wouldn’t
work. I thought I would just spend the morning worrying over all the things I
had to do that day. I am also the worst possible person for getting up early. I
set 10+ alarms because I sleep through all of them (that is not an
exaggeration, it may even be an understatement).
First, I had to counter
my alarm problem and I came up with a very simple solution, however irritating
it was. I stuck my phone on charge on the other side of the room, so I had to
get out of bed to turn it off. It is a truly awful feeling to hear that first
alarm go off in the morning, and it is ten times more painful knowing you need
to get up to turn it off, but it got me out of bed, and once I was out of bed,
I didn’t get back in. One alarm, and I was awake!
I tried to exercise in
the morning, which didn’t always work because trying to exercise at 3AM when
you don’t belong to a 24-hour gym is a little tricky. That’s an excuse, I’m really
just very lazy. However, the early morning shower did wonders for me to feel
awake and ready to focus.
As hard as this schedule
was to begin with, and as ridiculous as it seemed, it worked and I loved it. I
wasn’t always flawlessly productive (online window shopping calls to me) but it
was the most productive I’ve been ever.
I wrote approximately
230,000+ words (two separate projects, one over NaNoWriMo), in only a matter of
months. In another post, I’ll highlight how I used my schedule, as well as
daily word counts to accomplish my NaNoWriMo goals. Note, my word count was
based on writing alone and zero editing/rereading.
I also developed a
profound love for early mornings, something I hadn’t expected to come from the
experience. I found my bliss, a little bit. In my comfy recliner, a hot coffee
next to me, my laptop on, well, my lap, with the sky still dark, and the house
all quiet and still. It felt like I was alone in the universe.
I loved it so much, I got
up at three on weekends, too, when I could. Those were the best, because I didn’t
have to stop, but I felt the productivity wear on those days. I knew I had all
day so I didn’t rush or push myself.
One of my biggest
concerns, as a somewhat anxious individual, was that I would stress about the
day that lay ahead and wouldn’t be able to enjoy my writing time. Another
unexpected positive to come from this experience, was how totally wrong I was. My
schedule had the opposite effect to my stresses about work. It was my
designated writing time and I looked forward to going to sleep so I could then
get up and write (which was not the case when I knew I had to get up and just
go straight to work). If I did, however, find myself stressing about work
(which didn’t happen like I thought it would, but was still bound to happen at
one point or the next), I simply finished writing early (or I did this first
thing so I could relax and write), and then did a little early morning prep to
get myself more organised for work and, thus, feel a little less stressed about
it.
For me, the pros greatly
outweighed the cons. It may not be for everyone but it’s definitely worth
trying at least once. As well as getting a lot of work done, I also carved out
a private, quiet place for myself which is often terribly hard to do. And best
of all, I fell a little bit in love with early mornings.
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