“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.”
– Alan Watts
The way that we measure productivity in today’s world is flawed. For me, it used to mean that I did all of my homework, cleaned my room, or took a walk around my neighborhood. It meant doing as much as I could in twenty-four hours and producing some sort of outcome. Once I got to college, I realized that this definition that I had of productivity had me stuck in an eternal, numbing day-to-day cycle. I found myself waiting anxiously for the weekends to come, hoping that a majority of my week would wiz by. I kept with what was comfortable for me and lived my life accordingly.
There have been a few instances, as I’m sure many of us have experienced, that have caused me to realize how important life is, and how crucial it is to live a fulfilling life. The more you become aware that you want to choose a meaningful life, not only does it grow over time, it also provides you with a happy life. Now, this doesn’t mean that you need to quit your job and just live your life traveling the world. For me, it meant being efficient with my time, focusing on my goals, reminding myself to be grateful for my life, and putting aside time for things that I enjoy.
Once you become more self aware, you become the most present, the most productive, and the most successful. Jennifer Chan, a writer for medium.com, says, “Productive people have spark, ambition and are self-motivated. THAT is the distinction between who is and who is not productive.”
When trading in presence with productivity, there were a few things that I had to (and still have to) remind myself:
- You need to let go of your comfort zone. You have to become the change that you see in your life, and it’s hard to do so by staying in your “bubble” of comfort. By being comfortable with being uncomfortable, you open a world of possibilities for yourself. Traveling over five hundred miles for school was not something that I was immediately comfortable with, but I knew that it was a step towards my future goals of living down south and pursuing a degree at the University of South Carolina. With that being said, it was one of my best decisions and I have never looked back since moving in freshman year.
- Forget about what other people think of you. People spend more time thinking about themselves than they do about you. No one else is living your life, meaning that you need to learn about yourself through your mistakes and triumphs. Becoming aware of when I was overthinking allowed me to slow myself down and think through things more thoroughly. Especially for college students, I think that this is the number one thing that has allowed me to live in the present.
It may look different for everyone, but being aware that you want to make changes, big or small, to become more present is a step in the right direction. We should no longer be stuck in old ways of thinking, measuring our productivity monetarily or in terms of numbers. Rather, we need to experience days by degrees of presence, evaluating our goals, motivations, and happiness.