How to regain lost activity and stop being a zombie

I am not a doctor, a GTD specialist, or someone who is knowledgeable about productivity. But I went through a complete loss of productivity, and then managed to return it, and I want to share my experience with you.

Introduction

Although I have not been accustomed to hard work since childhood, but by nature I can’t imagine myself without a task, without a job and without a project. When I wake up, the first thing I do before I get out of bed is scrolling through my task list for today. Interesting projects captivate me so much that I completely forget about rest, and only working thoughts pulsate in my head. But with all this, a couple of years ago, my productivity suddenly just magically began to fall and fell to such a critical point, that I became not only lazy, but a real Great Procrastinator . And I want to tell you this story.

Drop in productivity

The more I worked and the tighter my working rhythm became, the more I felt the pressure of growing procrastination. Despite the fact that I still came to work on time and left late at night, my work was idle. As soon as I sat down at my work computer, the monster immediately took over, and instead of the task manager, I opened a browser that was tightly stuffed with bookmarks of “interesting sites,” although it all started with a single innocuous entertainment portal. Check and see all this took two to three hours. After that, in theory, I certainly had to start working, but how I wanted tea at this moment! How could you start working without tea? And after drinking a mug, of course, it was impossible not to smoke. But during the time I was away, the sites from the bookmarks had already been updated, and besides, a couple of new flash-toys appeared on one of them, and even colleagues raised an interesting topic for discussion! My nature was brazenly deceived, because all the same there were tasks and projects awaiting my participation. I just was a little unprepared. I courageously gathered the will into a fist, opened the document that had to be written and sat in front of a blank sheet. I wrote a couple of lines, then erased, wrote again, and again erased. I could not write what was needed, in any way, at least break it. Something was missing for me to fill it up. I had to smoke just one more cigarette, look at another site, drink another cup of tea ...

Then the phenomenon began to acquire a spontaneous character, it took down the last frontiers of my productivity. I was too lazy to answer calls. I just looked at the phone screen and did not want to spend a single drop of energy. I didn’t even make tea myself, I waited for someone to go after him, and usually asked me to make a mug. The task manager was replenished with new tasks, but I carried out only a few of them - those that were extremely impossible to postpone or reassign. I did not have the strength to go for a walk in the evening or go to friends. I finished work and sat at home in front of the computer until sleep turned me off. Autumn from beautiful pores became “wet there, I don’t want to go there”, winter “cold there”, and summer “hot there”. I wanted nowhere and nothing. The days became monotonous, boring and sleepy. I reminded myself of a zombie.
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Searching of decisions

Naturally, I was aware of my problem! I tried the GTD techniques one by one. But, of course, most of them help only to improve the already existing efficiency, optimize work. And my job did not go. It became clear that the workflow has nothing to do with it. No motivation could help. Yes, life is short, but money is paid for the project, but there is no strength and that's it. I repeatedly opened the editor and did not go beyond the blank sheet. I was like a dead battery. Of course, my next step was a health check. Which, fortunately, did not reveal anything. Proper nutrition and vitamins did not help.

Who is guilty

But I managed to completely get out of this state and restore my previous productivity, and even increase it. Moreover, unlike most recommendations for such cases, I did not need any effort to do this.

Our activity, our productivity, our work is life that has been passed through us . We are not the source of what we invent, what we do and what we create. As soon as there is nothing to miss, you lose your activity. And not only working, but, as was the case with me, you will not have the strength to make tea for yourself. And this is a vicious circle! You do not show activity - your battery is discharged.

And the easiest way to close this circle in your life is to work a lot . Leaving life “for later”, “on weekends”, “when I will finish the project” and so on. Soon, your battery will sit down completely and you will lose the opportunity to walk to the charger. You just get used to being inactive.

What to do

When I said that no effort would be required from you, I lied. You need to make a few starting shocks, namely, to open for life, every time there is such an opportunity. If “it's bad weather outside for a walk,” then just get out of the house, you'll like it. If “you’re going far to the corks' to the friends of the cinema \ bowling club \ theater, then just go, you will like it. If you are invited to the forest \ mountains \ to go fishing, do not refuse because of mosquitoes, weather or anything else. Do not postpone for later what life offers you today. It's time to learn what you wanted for a long time, be it playing the guitar or Spanish. To start, just try not to deny life. If you want to make tea, go ahead and do it :) Yes, it will seem to you that you have no strength and you will find a thousand excuses for not being active. But believe me, as soon as you begin to exercise it, it will become much easier. As inaction gives rise to inaction, closing the circle, so activity generates activity. Soon, activity will become a habit.

Recharge your energy of activity, energy of impressions, energy of sports, energy of life! Relax, have fun, watch, chat, travel. And you will be filled with life, you will be from what to take strength and inspiration to work.

Believe me, enjoying plenty of life, you yourself want to do and create something, it is impossible to keep it in yourself)
And the next time you have an empty sheet of editor in front of you, you will be full of strength and ideas to realize what you need without violence against yourself!

This is the personal experience of the author, which cannot be considered as a universal solution. Moreover, it can not replace a visit to the doctor, because The problem of extremely low activity can be a symptom of various diseases. But it is definitely worth a try.