When you’re feeling down, it can be hard to focus on work. The lower energy you feel, the less you do, the worse you feel emotionally, and the cycle continues. Fortunately, being productive can help interrupt that negative spiral and turn it around. Start by scheduling two types of activities daily: those that provide a sense of accomplishment and those that provide pleasure. These can be very simple — for example, you might find sitting in a sunny window to drink your morning coffee a source of pleasure, and a sense of accomplishment might come from exercising, or sending an email you’ve been putting off. You also want to alternate between easy, medium, and hard tasks. In other words, don’t do all your low-lift or heavy-lift responsibilities at once. Stagger them to break up the monotony of the day and boost your energy. Finally, if possible, find ways to take things off your plate, at least temporarily, by asking for your boss’s help and delegating whenever you can. You may even find that your productivity doesn’t decrease when you cut down your responsibilities. Instead, you’ll be forced to prioritize deep work and the tasks that add the most value.
Make it a great day!