How to be more “productive” when you are unproductive
By: Zach Chen
Tags: Mindfulness, Lifestyle, Learning, Self Improvement

It is well known in the fitness community that you can train everyday but you probably can’t train yourself to death everyday. You need to pace yourself and allocate enough time to recover so you can come back much stronger. A lot of elite athletes attribute their longevity in sports to active recovery. Instead of idling or pushing to another hard training sessions, they all developed alternative ways and routines to get better even when they are not training. I was inspired by this interview with Lebron James and his trainer Mike Mancias on the Tim Ferriss Show.

Granted we are no Lebron James. However, we all sort of compete in our professional jobs, day in and day out. We go hard everyday and expect to excel in our own games. But we all have those days or moments during the day we feel just like a sloth. Sometimes, it is our physical body that calls for a break. Other times it could be just that our “Thinking Brain” is giving in to our “Feeling Brain”, according to “Everything is F*cked” by Mark Manson , and we need to negotiate with our “Feeling Brain” by trying out different things.

We are not machines so it is perfectly normal to have downtimes. However how you spend your downtime is going to play a big role in your up time. As a self-experimenter, I have been trying all sorts of things to leverage my downtime to mentally and physically prepare myself so I can go hard when I’m at 100%. We can’t forget the fact that our brain is just like any organs in our body, what we feed into it can make huge difference. The same way you can’t expect a great body with only eating junk food. Here is the list of my personal favorite activities to invigorate my mind when having my downtime:

Watch a show that are entertaining but educating

Passive learning is a great way to acquire new knowledge without even realizing it. We’re all familiar with the active learning the ways we were trained at school. It requires the logical mind to stay focus to memorize and compute. But another good way to learn is the immersive learning. By throwing yourself out there without specific learning objectives, your subconscious will figure out new things for you to learn.

In terms of the choices of shows, my rule of thumb is that any shows that doesn’t require binging watching is probably good. My personal favorite are food and culture shows such as Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and David Chang’s Ugly Delicious. What I love about these show is that it is light, entertaining and informational. Food is such a centerpieces of every culture and is so fascinating to learn different cultures and places through the lens of their food. Also it serves as a reminder for me there is a big world to see.

Listen to podcast

I’m a big fan of podcasts because I felt we were so busy with our eyes these days on social media, news, video etc. Often times we forget about another great ability of ours– listening , and it is so under utilized in our daily lives.

What love about podcast is that it is such a great format for background learning while you hands are busy or you a in a transition moment of your day. When I’m feeling tiered and unfocused at work, I like to put on a podcast and take walk in a park near my office. When I’m at home, cooking whiling listening to podcast on my smart speaker just feels so relaxed and therapeutic for my mind. I also learned a little bit of Japanese during my daily commute prior to my trip to Japan and it turned out to be super helpful in a several survival situations.

Small time chunks adds up big and that is power of the compound effect. No matter you are just chilling or learning, sure your brain will feel invigorated after feeding it some what I called “informational nutrition”. Check out this post I write about how listening to podcast has transformed my life entirely. Leave a comment if you’d like to have some podcast recommendations.

Workout

If you felt mentally exhausted, some physical exercise will help tremendously. Going out for a run, going to the gym, play some sports, or even just stretch your legs or do some air squads. Motion creates emotion. You’ll feel much energized after some physical exercise than just sitting around scrolling through your social media feed. Get off your ass and start moving around.

Meditation

I like to think meditation is a recovery session for your mind and emotions, just like how we recover our body after a hard workout. Our mind is constantly busy with thinking, deciding and judging and it drains our “cognitive energy” over time. Mindfulness is about being aware of this constant stimulating state of our minds and make an intentional effort to take a pause. I have been using Headspace guided meditation for about two years and it was very helpful for me. But you don’t have to follow the guided meditation at all to practice mindfulness. Whenever you feel tired throughout the day, just pause, take a few deep breaths to restore yourself.

Journaling

When was the last time you actually write down your thoughts on a piece of paper? Probably been a while since we all have so much to fill in our daily schedule. I didn’t believe it until I tried a few times and I was always amazed by that mental state I was in after writing stuff down. Most of my journal is about things to appreciate in life, reflections on myself and motivational self talk. It gives me a unique perspective about the ups and downs in my life and how I can better relate to these emotions. This restored emotional energy and mental state always help me to stay sharp and focused when I switch back to work.

Connect with friends and family

Get offline and make real conversations with real people. Much of the exhaustion we are experiencing daily is a byproduct of the digital toxics. Meet a friend or family for coffee or dinner. Have a real conversation face to face with the people we love and care about. It will remind us so many of the good things we took for granted and this increased apprication will restore the emotional energy needed in our daily lives.