How to know you did a good job and finally get some rest

It can be difficult for people who are involved in mental work to assess their productivity. There is always the next message to respond to, the next idea to work through, the next meeting to attend. No wonder we find it so difficult to stop working on the evenings and weekends. We no longer understand at what point we have done enough in a day. The feeling that we are constantly unproductive translates into stress, overload, and ultimately burnout. Here are some tips to help you deal with this feeling.

1. Change your attitude towards productivity

For the owner of a farm or plant, increasing productivity means increasing production without wasting time and resources. But this approach is pointless to apply to personal effectiveness in the information age.

We focus on the amount of work done in a day: read all messages, attend all meetings, cross 50 items from the to-do list. We switch between apps almost every 20 seconds and rarely spend more than 20 minutes doing one thing. Such shifts negatively affect the ability to concentrate and get things done. But this is how most of us work, because we are used to extolling constant employment. After all, if you are busy all the time (no matter what), it seems that you are needed and valuable.

Therefore, to get rid of the feeling of shame, first of all, you need to understand that being productive is not just doing business all day. It means doing the right thing.

Useless employment	Productivity
Parse mail regularly to keep your inbox empty	Check mail at certain times of the day and not reply to everything instantly
Participate in all meetings	Set aside time slots for in-depth work
Remove low priority tasks from the to-do list	Complete one difficult and important task
Try to do as much as possible in a day	Perform important tasks regularly and disconnect from work at the end of the work day

Remind yourself that being productive means completing important tasks on a regular basis. Plan and spend your time consciously. As soon as you feel that you are being sucked in by the stream of constant employment, ask yourself if this is a matter that now needs to be taken up.

2. Learn to see your progress

When we have a huge goal in front of us, we do not notice progress. Day after day it seems to us that we are not getting close to the finish line. Naturally, this gives up and a feeling of shame arises.

This does not mean that you need to completely abandon ambitious goals. Just break them down into small steps. This will eliminate the feeling that you are not moving forward. And doing small tasks will charge you with enthusiasm.

Of all the factors that drive mood, motivation, and insight throughout the work day, observing your progress in important work is the most important, writes Theresa Amabile of Harvard Business School. We feel content and motivated when we look back over the past day and see that we are making progress in a cause that is meaningful to us.

3. Build a support system

Another source of shame is a difficult goal with no system to support you on your way. We set such goals, and then we think we have failed because we lacked the willpower. We expected motivation to appear and help us get down to business. But the paradox is that it is born in the process of work. Therefore, it is so important from the very beginning to create for yourself a system of tools that will help you move forward even when you don't feel like it at all. Here's what you need.

Time tracker

Time is our most valuable resource. The more efficiently we use it, the more productive we feel at the end of the day. But more often than not, we do not even know exactly where it goes, because we do not follow. For this, you just need a time tracker. The program keeps track of which sites you visit, how many minutes you waste and what the whole work day is spent on. You can also keep records manually, but this option is less accurate.

Electronic planner

It makes it easier to sort tasks according to their priority, set deadlines, and keep track of what you're focusing on. Some, like Todoist, provide statistics on completed tasks and the ability to track your productivity for the day, week, or month. There are a lot of planners now, so choose according to your taste.

Method like GTD

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a technique for getting things done. She helps to organize the fulfillment of obligations without unnecessary stress. In short, according to it, you need to record all incoming information, distribute tasks according to lists and plan the day in accordance with them.

4. Learn to disconnect at the end of the day

If we do not separate our work life from everything else, even in our free time we are haunted by the thought of tasks: it seems that something else needs to be done. In such a state, it is impossible to rest and recover.

Psychologists have identified four elements that help disconnect from work:

Suspension - physically move away from the work environment and tools.
Relaxation - to be alone with your thoughts to digest the past day.
Inspiration - devote time to hobbies and hobbies.
Control - create a shutdown ritual and follow it every night. For example, such an action could be a walk or shower.

Focus on these points so that your mind and body are relaxed and you are not haunted by the feeling of unfulfilled tasks.

5. Determine what “doing enough” means to you

Because of our desire to succeed, we often push ourselves to overwork instead of setting small, achievable goals. In most cases, this brings unnecessary fatigue and frustration.

Look for that threshold, upon reaching which you will be happy with your successes, but at the same time want to move on. A good tool for this is the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method used by Google and other corporations. It is a goal setting system that combines what you are striving for with metrics of success. Thanks to it, you can set your own success rate for each business, freeing yourself from the "all or nothing" mindset.

Here are examples of using the method for work and personal purposes.

Goals	Key results
Increase blog user engagement	Increase the number of unique users to 25,000 per week. Increase the number of links leading to the blog by 20%. Increase the number of impressions of blog ads on social networks by 15%.
Improve user support system	Reduce the number of clients for one manager. Reduce the processing time of a user request to two hours or less. Reduce the number of emails to customers by 5%.
Spend more time with family and friends	Meet one of your friends for a cup of coffee once a week. Gather together for joint family meals three times a week. Go on a big outing with friends once a month.
Learn to surf	In 2020, take 12 surfing lessons. Spend 20 hours learning with YouTube videos.