I've been trying to get back on track when it comes to making progress for quite a while now. It's been quite difficult, mainly because of the type of job that I have and the time I spend there. The job itself is seasonal, meaning I only work for around 7 months a year. While this is good, during that period I have very little free time at my disposal. I spend most of my days at work.
This creates an unpleasant situation for me: while there, all I want is to have the necessary time to do the things I enjoy and to work on the projects I care about, but once I get home, all I want is to relax and forget about working for as long as possible, because soon I'll have to go back to that place again.
When I'm working I want to relax, and when I relax, I want to be working. For anyone who experienced this, you know just how stressful it can be. Nothing satisfies you and everything frustrates you.
Tonight I experienced one of those frustrating moments. Somehow I managed to make myself write and post something on Medium in the morning, and even read a chapter from the book I'm busy with now. But I didn't do much for the rest of the day, even though I told myself that I should write another article for Hive as well. I've been trying to, for the past half an hour or so, but I couldn't come up with anything good enough to create.
After stressing myself about this for a while ,I decided to give up and do something else. I wanted to go back to my games, but I also wanted to be productive a little, so I stopped doing anything, picked my book, and started reading.
Not even 5 minutes into it and I realized just how relaxed I suddenly felt. Sure, I wasn't creating anything, but I was still doing something productive that I cared about that doesn't require too much effort. That eventually gave me the idea for this article.
Once again I was reminded of how easy it is to make things more difficult for yourself if you're stubborn and you just try to force yourself to do something that you clearly don't want to. I like to write, and I've been doing it for a very long time. But I also love playing video games, and they are much more fun most of the time. It's only natural that my brain chooses to focus on the most rewarding activity.
However, if I can just see the bigger picture, and if I can find something else productive that I can focus on for at least a little bit, until I can get myself in the mood to do more and more, then I might have a chance to actually do the productive thing that I really want to.
For me this was reading, at least in this case. I wanted to write, but I couldn't think of anything. I could've sat there for another hour and maybe not get any good idea. Sure, I could've quit, but that would've frustrated me even more. So, instead, I chose to still be productive, but with something different - reading.
I only chose reading because I had the book nearby and it's easy to start. But I could've done anything else, be it 3D modelling, drawing or just watching a course. Any of those activities would've been good.
The lesson here is this: sometimes it's worth switching from one productive activity to another when you're having difficulties focusing or just beginning to work. It's not always a good idea, but at times it's the best thing to do to get the right motivation and inspiration.