How To Be Productive When You Are Dealing With Depression And Anxiety
Living with depression can drain your motivation. But with a few simple strategies in place, it’s possible to be productive and get more done.
Depression can affect your energy levels, concentration, motivation, and interest in everyday activities. Even so, there are ways to navigate through your tasks to get things done.
All emotions have an evolved purpose. Sad, depressed, apathetic emotions cause us to pause, withdraw and reflect deeply.
This has self-protective aspects. Sometimes it’s wise to cocoon away from danger. Sometimes it’s wise to question what we find meaning in and not to keep plowing ahead doing the same things.
But in depression, this self-protective, withdrawn, low-energy mode essentially gets stuck “on,” and becomes unhelpful.
Instead of depressed feelings signaling the need to question whether what we’re doing with our lives is meaningful enough, everything starts to feel meaningless.
Emotions are a signaling system. They help let you know when you’re safe versus in danger or heading in the right or the wrong direction.
However, when they become prolonged, they lose their effectiveness as signals. The lower energy you feel, the less you do, the worse you feel emotional, and the cycle continues. Being productive can help interrupt that negative spiral and turn it around.
I have read many books and gone through lots of blogs and articles and here are what things work for me.
5 Ways To Be Productive When You Are Dealing With Depression And Anxiety
1. Change your workplace
When it comes to productivity, working from home can be a challenge under prime circumstances.
Throw a little heartbreak or shame in there, and next thing you know, the only things you’ve crossed off your to-do list are opening the door for Seamless and clicking “Next episode” fourteen times.
Sometimes when I don't feel like doing anything I just take my laptop and just sit outside in the living area and watch outside the window the nature makes me feel better.
5 Innovative Approaches To Improve Your Mental Health Awareness.Despite what depression tells you, get yourself to a coffee shop, library, or co-working space.
2. Decrease your usual workload
When you’re struggling with your mood and high-stress levels, attempting to work at 100% of your usual output is ill-advised. However, not working at all typically isn’t helpful either.
Regular work helps provide structure to your day. When you have the structure of regular activities, this helps regulate your biological rhythms, such as those related to eating and sleeping.
Without the structure of regular activities, including work and socializing, those biological rhythms will become more dysregulated, which will tend to make depression worse.
Fifty percent of your usual activity is a good sweet spot between not working enough and expecting too much of yourself. You may even find that your productivity doesn’t decrease that much with this approach.
It will force you to prioritize deep work and other truly important tasks. Limiting yourself to 50% of your usual work will help you let go of activities that were only medium-productive, to begin with.
Fifty percent isn’t a hard and fast rule. You can choose another number if you’d prefer, but assume the lodestar.
3. Schedule daily sources of action and pleasure.
For mood health, we need two types of activities: those that provide a sense of accomplishment and those that provide pleasure.
As a general rule, try to have one source of accomplishment and one source of pleasure in each of your mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
Some people find it helpful to schedule activities in advance so they can more easily hit the recommendation of one pleasure activity and one mastery activity, per morning, afternoon, and evening.
If you’re depressed, the pleasure you get from activities will typically be muted compared to normal. So, it may be a little harder to identify activities you would enjoy.
Start by brainstorming a list of the activities that provide either pleasure or a sense of mastery or accomplishment for you. Ask someone who knows you well to help if you feel stuck.
4. Improve your focus
Depression can take a toll on your ability to concentrate, making it feel more difficult to get things done.
An Introduction to The Pomodoro TechniqueYou may find the Pomodoro Technique useful to help improve your focus and increase productivity when you live with depression.
Here’s the gist of how it works:
Select a task you want to complete.
Set a timer for 25 minutes.
Work uninterrupted until the timer goes off.
Take a 5-minute break.
Complete this cycle 3 more times.
After 4 cycles, take a 20- to 30-minute break.
If 25 minutes sounds too intimidating, consider modifying this method as needed. It’s important to find a method that works for you.
You Will Be Thankful - Tips About KEYSTONE HABITS You Need To KnowYou could start with 20 minutes of working and a 10-minute break. Sometimes, the hardest part is just starting — but soon you’ll get into the flow.
5. Improve your energy
When you think about exercising, the effort required to get going may seem off-putting. But research in 2018Trusted Source showed that the increased oxygen flow that results from movement can boost your energy overall and increase focus.
Not only that, but hormones produced when you sweat can significantly impact your mood. Thanks, endorphins!
PARKINSON’S LAW: An Incredibly Easy Method That Works For AllInstead, consider taking a break from the task you’re doing and trying something lighter. For example, you can:
dance for 5 minutes to your favorite song
do 30 jumping jacks in the break room
go for a gentle swim
take a walk around the block
do a quick yoga sequence
go up and down a flight of stairs
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