As you may have noticed, social media seems to suddenly be filled with people living (frustratingly) healthy lifestyles. The ‘A day in the life’ Instagram challenge has revealed that apparently people wake up at 7am, even when they don’t have to, to do exercise before engaging in non-stop productivity until they go to bed.
Before I carry on, I’m not writing this for the purpose of slating those who are able to continue in their usual routine as well as maintaining, or embarking on, fitness, healthy eating and typical productivity-related activities. Instead, I’ve realised that there seems to be little discourse around at the moment encouraging people to not feel disheartened if they AREN’T being particularly active or productive and this is equally important to promote.
Over the past few weeks, my friends and I have had multiple conversations about feeling unfulfilled, insecure and low due to our current, more sedentary lifestyle. Of course, we always remind one another that just because we aren’t exercising as regularly or eating as healthily as we usually would, there is no need to feel any sort of guilt. Naturally though, we still do, and I’m sure this feeling applies to many people across the world right now.
Everywhere, people will be struggling with various issues that have either emerged or become heightened since isolation became the norm. I have noticed that the main approach that online articles, influencers and other predominant forces on the internet have use to address these issues is by encouraging people to EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE.
We’re all aware it’s good for our health, mental and physical, but sometimes it’s hard to motivate, particularly when you’re miserable. So, this post will not encourage you to work out. It’s time to promote other ways to that you can avoid the feeling of unfulfillment and insecurity that is being experienced by many during this weird time.
Remember, PRODUCTIVITY IS SUBJECTIVE. The feeling of being productive manifests in different forms for everyone. It’s common to associate productivity with working hard and often feeling stressed as a result. But you don’t have to do either of these things to feel accomplished.
HERE ARE 5 NON-STRENUOUS THINGS I HAVE DONE SINCE ISOLATION BEGAN THAT MAKE ME FEEL FULFILLED AND PRODUCTIVE WITHOUT ANY STRESS:
1. A U D I O B O O K S– In any blog post I write, I’m going to include something about reading. If you don’t have the energy or attention span to read a book, listen to one! I’ve recently gotten into listening to books when I’m too tired to read and don’t want to watch TV. I was finding that when I was in this mood, I felt like I wasn’t getting anything done and started to feel down and unproductive. Now, I’ve realised, I can sit on the sofa and do nothing except put my earphones in for a few hours and get through several chapters of a book without even picking anything up. It’s completely fine to just sit for a while and do absolutely nothing, of course. But if, like me, you feel like you should be doing something more, then just put on an audiobook and do nothing at the same time. If you’re feeling REALLY in need of some productivity, you could even listen to a boring classic so that you can boast about reading afterwards. (See: War and Peace).
2. COLOURING! Everyone knows that feeling of looking down at your completed page in a colouring book. Absolute accomplishment. Then you just sit there and look at it for a while and feel how silky and smooth it all feels and think about how talented you are at colouring in the lines. It takes up quite a lot of your time, is really relaxing and relatively un-stressful.
3. HAVE A SHOWER. I’m putting this one in for a reason. It’s the most simple one on here, but if you have minimal responsibilities outside of your household and you’re still taking the effort to shower, then that’s solid productivity. Feel good about it! (And if you don't enjoy showering and are taking this time to embrace being a bit grubby, that's okay too).
4. GROW SOMETHING! I planted sunflowers last week and every day I check to see how much they’ve grown. All I do is water them I still feel more accomplished than I do after I do most other things. If you don’t have a garden, buy a Mr Grass Head. All you do is water his head and grass grows as his hair. Growing your own garden from the comfort of your gardenless-home.
5. TAKE AN ONLINE COURSE:I’m not sure if I’m pushing it a bit with this one. (Maybe it’s verging on a bit too conventionally productive). But the other day I found out about Harvard online courses that are FREE! There are 59 of them available on all sorts of different things and there’s no pressure to complete them if you don’t want to. You’re probably thinking that if you do this instead of working on other things like academic assessments or work projects but remember, combining comfort and productivity will increase your mood and therefore make you more inclined to complete your usual standard or work later!
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