The Crazy Link Between Productivity and Joy   

Have you been in quarantine lately? What did you accomplish today? What did you achieve yesterday?  Has being stuck inside increased your stress, anxiety, or depression?  

You’re not alone! 🤗

Sitting around, being unproductive can certainly take a toll on your mental health and productivity. 😲

Think about what you did prior to the pandemic. Did you take on a ‘can-do’ attitude when you were challenged? Or did you tend to huddle up in your comfy chair, deeply immersed in a movie, the latest Netflix series or playing a game on your electronic device to avoid the challenge.

How you make your way through an average day, in terms of your productivity, can very well affect how pleased you feel with your life!

Consider the following, when deciding whether to do something productive or to avoid it:

🎯 Be aware of your emotions.

Reflect on your feelings after doing something productive versus wasting a few hours channel-surfing or just hanging out. Think about which situation fills you with the most satisfaction.

🎯 Get organized – It makes it easier to  accomplish your desired goals!

If you’re organized, you know where to find the correct tool quickly to put it to use. Living a disorganized existence means much time is lost trying to locate things. Therefore, productivity is reduced.

🎯 Make lists if you want to get things done.

A TADA list (Tasks Attacked Daily Awesomely) formally known as a ‘To-Do’ list will quickly remind you of what you desire to complete. Plus, crossing items off that list brings that magical feeling of satisfaction that makes you say: “TADA! It’s Done.”

🎯 Get things done when you’re well rested.

Get up and get moving!! What’s best about getting started early is that you can see signs of your productivity by noon. You may be tired, but having lunch will revive you for the afternoon, and you’ll feel accomplished.

Establish a pattern of knocking out a couple of items on your TADA list in the morning!

🎯 Have a schedule and follow it.

If you want to be productive, you need to approach your day with balance.  Schedule in time for work, play and rest.

When all is said and done, you’ve met your productivity goals and still had some play time. Your confidence is likely to sore from your higher productivity level. Plus, your level of contentment grows when you experience some free time, too. That’s two reasons to be full of joy!

If you’re floundering to get something done, set up a time to do it.

Let’s say you’ve wanted to clean out the garage for ages, but you’ve consistently come up with excuses why you’ve not yet done it. Establish a day and time you’ll devote to garage-cleaning, like Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon. Then do it.

If the time comes and you’re just not into doing it… balance your thoughts and emotions as to why you’re feeling that way.  Think about why you’re not into it.  Why are you avoiding it?  How does feeling this way benefit you?  How does feeling this way not help you?  Evaluate the situation as a whole from the center.

🎯 Develop rituals, routines and triggers. Separate your down time and your productive time.

Maybe it’s something simple like putting on your watch when you want to get work done. Or donning nicer clothing when you wish to be productive. Maybe you put on your slippers when you’re preparing to lounge around.

🎯 Simple behaviors can serve as powerful reminders that it’s time to work or play.

Don’t wear your slippers when you’re working if that’s your lounging trigger.

🎯 Pay close attention to how you speak to yourself.

Are you using affirmative self-talk?  When you complete a task, do you say “Good job”, “Wow, you completed that quickly” or “Way to go”? Or do you spoil it by saying things like: “What took you so damn long” or “It’s about f&cking time”?

🎯  What you say to yourself is powerful and sets the tone for how you’ll proceed.

Avoid using derogatory phrasing to increase productivity.

It’s also helpful to take note of what you say to yourself during moments you choose to waste away. Perhaps you’re telling yourself, “I hate doing X” or “I’m avoiding doing Y as long as I can.”

If you find yourself doing this, it’s time to balance your thoughts and emotions so that it doesn’t seem like such a daunting task. 

Your choice to get things done plays very much into your level of joy and fulfillment. Concentrate on increasing task completion with a balanced mindset. You’ll be grateful you did! 🙏 💝🙏

Love & Light, 

Dawn-Marie 

Stress Management Maven & Certified Forest Therapy Guide

Written on 5 November, 2019

Biography

Dawn-Marie P. Dalsass, President of  Livelihood Spirit Balance is a Stress Management Maven. She’s a Stress and Anxiety Expert for Middle Managers. She started her career in Corporate America while she was in high school and worked her way up the ranks finding herself in middle to upper management for most of her corporate career. She loved what she did but along the way she battled stress, anxiety and depression. When work and life were more than she could handle she planned her suicide in detail. Fortunately, she didn’t go through with it when she saw her 2 little boys on her way to get a knife with a plan to end it all. It was in that moment that she vowed to pull herself together and begin a new journey.

In 2015 she started her own business called Life Coach DM. After several years of working with clients, she realized that the majority of her clients were in middle management just like she was. She had helped most go from being stressed, anxious and / or depressed to being more balanced, aware and dynamic while guiding them on their own journey to achieve life goals including work life balance.

Dawn-Marie has since become a Certified Nature & Forest Therapy Guide and teaches individuals how they too can annihilate the stress, anxiety and depression (aka S.A.D) that middle managers and working parents can face through a process called equilibration (the balancing of the mind and emotions) along with the healing benefits a deep connection to nature (both indoors and out) can bring to become fully balanced, aware and dynamic (aka B.A.D).

Through her own practice, Dawn-Marie discovered what she calls Livelihood Spirit Balance where how one lives their life is in alignment with their authentic self, their B.A.D Ass-self. With Livelihood Spirit Balance, Work Life Balance and everything else just falls into place.

Based on her years of work and client success stories, Dawn-Marie changed her business name to Livelihood Spirit Balance to align with her teachings, mission, vision and purpose.

Dawn-Marie offers online courses, personal and corporate development coaching, workshops and seminars. As the owner of  Total Convalescence – Nature & Forest Therapy she also offers public and private Nature & Forest Therapy Walks.

Dawn-Marie is a:

• Certified Mindset Transformation Coach
• Certified Nature & Forest Therapy Guide
• Certified Law of Attraction Wealth Practitioner
• Certified Fraud Examiner and
• Certified Internal Controls Auditor