How to be Productive When Struggling with Low Energy & Mental Health
Oftentimes, in the name of “productivity” we get into these patterns of crash and burn, even more so when struggling with mental health.
In the world of efficiency, we fight to be “useful” and prioritize that over our own mental and physical health. By further neglecting our own mental health and self care, we risk eventually neglecting not only ourselves, but also the people we care about (family, friends, clients, coworkers) — contradicting our very reason for fighting to stay “productive” in the first place.
We then get stuck in these cycles of guilt trips for not being productive enough, work (or overwork) our butts off for a day or two, and then spend the next day having an entire mental breakdown, unable to leave bed for 6 hours.
If this sounds familiar to you, this cycle will continue until we can learn to work with our mental health instead of against it.
These are the things that I do everyday to be more productive with less struggle.
Create a schedule that works with your mental health, not against it
Pay attention to patterns in your mental health and energy levels. Some questions you can ask yourself:
Do you get depressed or anxious at the same time everyday?
Are you naturally more energized and “quick on your feet” in the mornings, midday, or later at night?
Which work or chore-based activities come more naturally to you and feel less draining to do (and vice versa)?
Keep a journal to track the patterns of your productivity, anxiety, and depression and use that to create the most optimal schedule for you.
Break goals down from yearly, monthly, and weekly tasks
Having goals that are broken down from the big picture allows for flexibility in your schedule.
This means if you have an unpredictable bad day and all you do is lay in bed, you won’t be thrown off track and can easily still accomplish your weekly and monthly goals and allow yourself to be in the moment without the pressure of daily tasks.
Focus on accomplishing 3-5 tasks / day
If you’re like me, you may aim to accomplish 100 important tasks in a single day.
It’s important to recognize that this is not realistic (and yes, we know it’s not, but we still do it anyways). It’s important to not set these unrealistic daily to-do lists in the first place, as it leads to us feeling like we’re not really accomplishing much (even though we very well may be), which can then spiral into actually accomplishing less from this feeling of overwhelm.
Instead, aim to accomplish 3-5 tasks per day and taking your time to achieve quality work in doing so.
Doing 3-5 tasks well will build stronger confidence and purposeful work vs. half-assing, rushing through the tasks, and still not accomplishing them, which will unintentionally make you feel less valuable and confident in your abilities.
Cluster smaller chores & tasks together
If there are habits, chores, or tasks that you just absolutely hate doing, you can cluster these things together to knock them out at the same time or you can even pair them with something you like to help motivate you to get them done.
For example, I hate cooking and I also hate doing the dishes. When I go to make a meal, I oftentimes do the dishes at the same time to knock both out and make it less daunting.
Another trick that I do is pair something I love with something I really hate. Going back to cooking, if I happen to be making something that takes longer than 10 minutes, I blast some of my favorite jams and dance around the kitchen while also cooking. Suddenly, I’m having fun!
Allow yourself to rest & nap to recover
If you’re feeling overworked or overwhelmed and need to rest your brain, allowing yourself to actually rest (instead of fighting it) helps you to refresh and ultimately, you’ll be more productive after the fact.
We oftentimes underestimate the importance of recovery; it’s the balance between hard work and rest that leads us to success with anything in life. For example, you won’t be able to lift heavy in the gym if you don’t rest between your lifts.
This is also a great time to remind you that not staying up too late and actually prioritizing sleep has substantial benefits. If you’re feeling constantly fatigued and tired; make sure you’re prioritizing your REM sleep.
Prioritize all aspects of self care throughout the week
Being in the fitness industry, it’s easier to assume that just because I am active that means I must take great care of myself. When in all honesty, I used fitness as an obsession to hide and cover other aspects of my life that I wasn’t prioritizing in relation to self care.
Take a look at all of the aspects of self care and see where you may be lacking. While you may be great at a few pillars of self, you may be missing a big piece and this could be draining on your overall well-being even if you feel like you’re doing “all of the right things.”
Create work & personal boundaries and be firm with them
Productivity is expected of us. In our jobs, we leave work to spend time with family and somehow end up on our phone responding back to late night work e-mails. We may work 9-5, but some of us never leave work mentally.
We’re in a competitive environment (or that’s how the corporations want us to think), where we feel we need to sell our souls to a company as a way to maintain financial security. While this is a major part of the problem; we can start making the shift by speaking up and advocating on mental health in the workplace. We can also do this by supporting people who are leaving big companies for their mental health to start their own small business instead.
Fighting to constantly be the “most productive” at your job only drains us out more quickly, which ironically makes you less productive.
Many highly successful people only actually work productively for 4 hours each day and many say that, past this point, it’s hard to stay quick on your toes.
By practicing work boundaries, you allow for more time to yourself (and balance between other aspects of your life) — which will then allow you to be in a better headspace, more productive, and even more “competitive” in your work.
