Why You’re Failing at Being Productive
By: Fae Sapsford
Tags: University, Lifestyle, Covid 19, Routine, Mental Health

Why You’re Failing at Being Productive

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Increases Stress by Stripping Away Routine

What marks the distinction between being a teenager and being an adult? Teenagers can’t wait for the weekend to break their school-attendance-mandated routine; Friday night is for staying up until 3 am and getting up at noon the next day — while adults find themselves healthier, happier and more productive keeping the same sleep schedule all week.

How boring — but how responsible. Maybe we can think about the teen/adult divide this way: when you stop having a routine placed upon you, and start, out of love, placing a routine upon yourself.

Routines have great benefits for mental health. From the time we are children we crave routines; they make us feel we have a role safely carved out for us, and give us a sense of belonging — we know how the day will go, and what is expected of us next; an environment that encourages prosperity, in contrast to the nothingness and nihilism of a lack of plans.

Routines reduce stress, and make us feel good by proving that we are capable of self-regulation — you did have breakfast on time and start the day with a short walk outside — even if during your allotted work time you felt ineffective. You gain a great sense of accomplishment by accomplishing the routine itself.

A steady routine has been identified by Britto et al (2002) as one of three critical things parents must provide for a child’s healthy development, the other two being cognitive stimulation, and love. Implementing a routine is also commonly suggested to help manage symptoms of ADHD, anxiety and depression, as well as to manage ASD, for children and adults alike. Routines increase one’s feeling of self-control, which is essential for emotional well-being.

To be suddenly thrown from your normal routine is a disorienting experience. When we are adults, routines make us feel like worthwhile members of society. While it’s easy to disparage the hollow bureaucracy of capitalism, and the images it creates — the sweaty commute teetering in your work heels inside a packed train — there’s no doubt that the routine and environment of working can also have the power to make one feel fulfilled and purposeful.

In the absence of routine, we feel purposeless. Our anxiety levels increase, we’re not sure what to do or where to direct ourselves, and our productivity suffers.

At a time when up to 88% of people are working from home due to the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, millions are finding their normal routines thrown in to disarray.

The Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t just affect us by making us fear for our lives and the lives of our loved ones in the present, and unnerve us with an uncertain future; social isolation has robbed us of the sense of normalcy found in our daily routines. The comforting procedures of everyday life are gone, and without this structure one of our strategies to cope with heightened stress levels is gone too.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created an environment where the things we can usually control are stripped away, and as a result, it is vitally important to focus on the things we continue to have control over.

I speak from the perspective of someone who is less acquainted with working life, and more acquainted with the life of a student. Though I have held various work experience and holiday-job positions, I have never pursued a career year-round. The routine of a student is very different than the routine of an employee — no structure is imposed upon us, and this is even more true when studying a master’s or a PhD — things just get more and more independent.

My friend and I were talking recently about the fact that university falls short in preparing people for real working life because the working environment created by the two is vastly different — at university, you must be self-sustaining, create your own routine, and manage your own time. At work, you are presided over by a manager, goals are set for you, and routines are mandated. As a result, those that thrive at university may not thrive as employees, and vice versa.

Though the Covid-19 pandemic is undoubtedly a powerful stressor, we must not lose ourselves to it and give up. We must take responsibility within ourselves to increase our sense of self-control, and a routine is a good step in the right direction. It may be helpful to use strategies from studying at university to create a beneficial routine for oneself. Besides a work-from-home routine, implementing an evening and a weekend routine can increase your productivity on your own projects, and your sense of self-worth, during those times too.

The role of mindfulness

Advice on creating a routine is often bound up inherently with mindfulness. Mindfulness is a psychological technique designed to make oneself more aware of the present moment, and to feel more grounded. It’s easy to practice mindfulness techniques every day, and to feel the benefits of using them.

In a world where smartphones provide a constant distraction from work, mindfulness can be a tool to break unhealthy habits and stay focused.

Practicing mindfulness can be as easy as doing some deep breathing and noticing each thing that you see, smell, hear, and feel for one minute. Your own thoughts and emotions may overwhelm you when you attempt to clear your mind of all distraction — and when being mindful the aim is to simply notice these thoughts appearing, not to try to engage with them, solve them or stifle them.

If it feels impossible to start a new routine and follow the guidelines you have set for yourself, mindfulness may be helpful. If you have scheduled 9am as your starting time, but feel yourself procrastinating, it can be helpful to pause for a moment, practice a mindful activity, and clear your headspace in order to begin.

Figure out what works for you

Not everyone has to get up early in order to be productive and have an effective routine. It’s much better to be aware of what sleep schedule your body feels best on, and stick to that, rather than to implement something that is harsh and unattainable — however, you should aim to have a sleep schedule that’s consistent every day.

I’m someone who works much better with long unbroken periods of working, rather than with short periods punctuated by breaks. It’s important to find the method that works for you, and it might take time to find the perfect method.

Sleep hygiene and work hygiene

Sleep hygiene is the practice of keeping your bedroom, or at least your bed, an area for sleeping only — or for a few other acceptable activities, like sex or reading. It aims to break the practice of watching TV in bed, being on a smartphone in bed, or working from your bed. By only doing acceptable activities in your bed, your mind will come to associate the area with sleeping, making it easier to fall asleep and get high quality rest.

Work hygiene is a term I just came up with, which isn’t about keeping your workspace clean (which is important too!) — it’s to talk about the necessity for a designated work station. Just like sleep hygiene, having a space only for working will cause you to associate that space with working, increasing productivity and decreasing procrastination.

I have noticed overwhelmingly that as I continue my university career, it is impossible for me to work in my bedroom. My bedroom is where skiving off happens — watching Netflix, scrolling through social media apps — and recreational activities, like reading fiction and poetry. I take myself to the library when I want to work — it becomes my working space, and it’s as if the force to check my phone, or to go off-task, are completely removed.

Compartmentalising my work and my recreation, and having a designated space for both, is the single most powerful factor that has increased my productivity.

Having said that, these designated spaces may be difficult to achieve at home — you may be working with a small space, or sharing it with others in a way that makes this infeasible. In this case, I would recommend separating work and relaxation areas as much as possible — perhaps the desk in the bedroom is only for working, but the coffee table is only for relaxing, or vice versa. Maybe the bar at the kitchen will have to become your office for the time being. However, the office-in-the-bed should be avoided at all costs.

Trick yourself with image

In the same way that sleep and workspace hygiene make you associate certain spaces with certain activities, the act of grooming yourself sets you up psychologically to work and achieve great things. It might be tempting to spend the day in your PJs, and it works for some people — but I find that it’s essential to change your clothes, even if it’s into a casual outfit, in order to get in the mindset to work.

Doing a skin-care routine, or having a shower are also helpful activities that provide the partition between the gentle activity of rising and the demands of the working day. While self-isolation is a great time to let your skin rest from makeup, it might even be helpful to do your makeup routine as normal, as if it were a normal working day, to get you in to a productive headspace.

The snowball effect

I strongly believe that healthy choices in one area breed healthy choices in another. If you start by implementing just one tenet of a powerful routine, maybe just starting small with eating a good breakfast each morning — no exceptions — you will find that other areas of your life are drawn by an invisible force towards structure and well-being.

The act of agreeing to a routine within yourself and following through is so satisfying that it gives you the power to continue, though it does take a tremendous amount of energy, the trend of positive growth.

At university, I produced my best work and experienced my best mental health state when I rose at 7am, made breakfast, and began work at 9 or 10am in the library. I would break for lunch from 1–2pm, and then work until 5 or 6pm. Afterwards, I would go to the gym for an hour, and have the evening off, for dinner and relaxation. I also committed to writing in a journal each night before bed, which I can’t recommend enough.

The revelation of keeping a journal

After the separation of my work space and my living space, the act of writing in a journal caused the most dramatic improvements for my productivity and well being. The writing enabled me to have a plan for the next day — an invaluable ingredient for a good routine. If you allow yourself a designated time for working, but don’t know what to work on, it’s easier to procrastinate or abandon the routine completely.

The journal also helped me sleep better; it decreased my anxiety because the act of writing down what I was worried about was very powerful. Finally, it increased my creativity, since I had a ‘blank slate’ to work from — instead of thinking about immediate needs, writing allowed me to collect my thoughts, reflect, and be fresh for the next day, ready to write things that really mattered.

As I write, I am conscious that I succumb to many of the follies I describe. I am in no way a perfect example of productivity, or a model individual when it comes to keeping a routine. I have failures when I try to set one up, and I have many moments where I wish I had gotten more work done.

Especially now, as I was just beginning to make my university habits into a repeated routine that I was more likely to follow than break, the upheaval of self-isolation is deeply demoralising. However, it is a comfort to know that I am able to set-up a routine anywhere — and, with some commitment, I will soon demonstrate to myself again the magnetism and self-worth that comes with taking one step in the right direction.

There is no reason to impose harsh standards on yourself when setting up a routine. The structure does not have to arrive in completeness — in fact, if you hope for it to do so, it’s likely you will be demoralised. To live one’s life without the structure of a routine is detrimental, but to place too much pressure on oneself to follow it perfectly, and to have no moments of downtime, or allowances for procrastination, is detrimental too!

In my experience, the most power comes from starting small with the goals that you set, and seeing small positive actions attract other positive actions. Be content simply eating breakfast every day, before building up your routine to an all-encompassing ritual. Before you know it, you will have a complete structure guiding your life, and without the self-punishment that can come with holding yourself to too-high standards.

Committing to a routine can be a powerful tool to stave off hopelessness during the Covid-19 pandemic, andthese strategies extend far beyond the current health crisis. They can increasing feelings of self-worth and satisfaction, and increase your productivity, when applied to your every day life.