I’m so excited for this post since it spoke to me last week about something that has definitely tended to overwhelm me in the past: productivity. I’ll admit that I still get stressed out sometimes when I feel like I have a million things on my to-do list. But this post brought me lots of encouragement, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

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As creative people with big hearts and busy hands, it can be easy to ignore the fact that we need to rest. We get so deep into our mission and purpose that everything else becomes secondary. 

I’ve experienced this many times – I get so focused on everything I need to be doing, everything I could be doing, everything I should be doing that I plain old overwhelm myself. 

I remember as a preteen planning my lessons (my personality was such that this worked for me and my mom kept tabs with how I was doing) and making skyrocketing expectations of myself. I would heap up tasks and responsibilities and somehow that made me feel like “the real deal”. All the stress, the hustle, and the hard work made me productive, right? I mean, how else would I get stuff done, learn, and improve myself? 

Well, I quickly found out that that kind of system simply does not work. Contrary to what I thought, stress, hustle, and hard work (too much of it) actually inhibits healthy existence and growth. I was putting myself in a toxic environment of pressure and unreasonable expectations and assuming that this was the way to happiness, freedom, and productivity. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the topic of productivity and I’ve been very ambitious and goal driven since I was really young, but I have since learned (and am in the process of learning) that this mentality of cramming, pushing, and hustling just doesn’t work. For productivity and for the heart. 

And so I propose a different way, one that accomplishes good, meaningful work but that also feeds the soul instead of wearing it down. Here are my five tips for avoiding the winding, rocky path of hustle and turning to skip down the path of freedom and satisfaction.

#1 Realize that not everything will get done when you want it to

And some things might not get done at all. Even though everything feels so urgent, chances are some of those “desperate” things are not that pressing. For instance, I have a garden and this spring I was feeling really stressed about all the plants I needed to transplant and all the seeds that I needed to sow. It was quite a burden and I felt like I was falling behind. But here I am in, it’s June and all the hard, spring work is over. My garden is looking great and everything is in the ground, despite the fact that on many occasions this spring I felt like I was terribly behind. 

So my point is this: some things you just will not get to right away, and that’s fine. They will be accomplished when they need to be, and that might be a different time than you have in mind. But just relax and know that it will happen and everything will be fine.

Chances are, you will end up with a similar result if you worry about it than if you don’t, so why torture yourself?

#2 You’re not falling behind

Going back to when I was telling you about this past spring, I was feeling behind. Like, overwhelmingly behind. (Isn’t that always the amount of behind that everyone feels?:) Thinking about how far back on my to-do list It was making me feel stressed and worried. Until the Lord showed me something that really helped those feelings and gave me a weapon to combat them. 

That weapon was Deuteronomy 28:13 that says, And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them. The part that stuck out to me was the “head and not the tail” part. And so I started to speak that section of the verse whenever I felt behind.

“No, I am not behind. God has made me the head and not the tail.”

And by this, I don’t mean that you should stop thinking about what needs to be done and sit down and say that everything will just magically be accomplished. But I do mean that claiming this verse will take away some of the stress that goes along with dwelling on the fact that you are not completing everything on your to-do list. 

This goes along with what I said in the first tip: most of the time everything works out just fine even though you didn’t complete things exactly when you wanted to. 

#3 There are other ways to be productive

Other than stressing, struggling, and screaming, I mean. XD Being productive does not mean hustling to get everything done, waking up early, going to bed late, and cutting out of your day anything and everything that doesn’t accomplish something. 

To me, it means completing reasonable tasks/goals within a reasonable time frame in a reasonable way. Let me decode all that “reasonableness” for you! By reasonable I mean peaceful, steady, and enjoyable. ‘Cause who doesn’t want to enjoy their life?

But how, you ask, is it possible to be productive and not scramble? Here are a few of the ways that I have come across.

• Get rid of distractions to focus on what most matters to you (I recommend Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky)
• Break your to-do list into priorities (ie, Important and Urgent, Important, and LongTerm Goals. I got this from Abbie Emmons)
• Pick a highlight for your day — this means determining what accomplishment (or activity) will leave you with the most satisfaction and/ or joy. Then if you only get to that one task over the course of the day, at least you will have gotten to whatever is most meaningful to you. 

#4 Rest is productive too

Actually, I would say that resting is one of the most productive things you can do! But not every kind of rest is “real rest”. So pay attention to what truly fills your cup and refreshes your soul, and do those things. You won’t always feel like you need to rest, but you will be glad you did in the long run. Speaking of running…

#5 You are not in a race

You really aren’t! You are so different from anyone else and because of that your day-to-day experience is gonna be so different from anyone else’s. You are so special and just because your goals and accomplishments are different from someone else doesn’t automatically mean that your’s are less productive or inferior. 

And that’s it, my friend! You will figure this out. You will accomplish your dreams while living in peace. It will happen, just keep seeking and learning and growing. You’re doing just fine. 

And here you have it! What did you think about this post? I’d really enjoy chatting with you in the comments!