Why some days you're productive and other days you crash and burn

Do you struggle with staying productive consistently?

I work with a lot of clients who know how to be productive, avoid procrastination, and the tips and tricks they need to use to get things done. But they still struggle some days with their productivity. Why is that? 

There is something else going on that a lot of books and teachings don’t talk about, because it’s connected to a different world of study of why some days you’re productive and some days you crash and burn.

There are some days that you feel pretty good, feeling like you are riding this wave of emotion, thinking “I feel great and I’m doing fine.” But sometimes something happens and you get triggered. This trigger leads to a reaction from your body. This can be something like a boss saying something, or having a request come in. It could also be related to your family. All types of things can be triggers, either big or small. This trigger can cause you to go up into hyperarousal. This can be you getting anxious, or jittery, as this is going into your sympathetic nervous system.

Sometimes when people are up in this state, they can be productive, but it’s usually an intense productivity. And depending on the person, you could be up in that state for minutes, hours, or days. But eventually you will crash and come back down into the parasympathetic nervous system, or hypoarousal. This is where the feeling of “crash and burn” comes into play. 

What does “crash and burn” look like?

“Crash and burn” can look like different things for different people, but it is usually an apathetic state where you don’t feel like doing anything. You might not feel like getting out of bed, you might not feel like tackling your to-do list, even though you put it together the day before when you felt fine.

It can be confusing to you to find yourself in this “crash and burn” state, especially when you were so productive the day before, and it can elicit a lot of emotions. This can range from yelling at themselves to having negative conversations in their head, and then doing whatever they can to get out of that state. But the problem with that, and why it can sometimes feel like a rollercoaster, is they shoot themselves up too far back into hyperarousal, and repeat the process again.

How to maintain your productivity

What we want to do for our bodies is to keep them in what is called “the window of tolerance.” Everybody's window of tolerance is a little bit different, and there are patterns that you can recognize in yourself that will let you know where your window of tolerance is.

For example, you might have a cup of coffee or some type of caffeine that takes you up towards the top of your window of tolerance, but instead of continuing beyond that by drinking more caffeine, you’ll regulate yourself to stay inside that window. There is work to do on yourself so that you are able to regulate or parent yourself, so you are not riding the waves up and down.

Windows of tolerance can change based on circumstances

If you are going through a lot of experiences, sometimes it feels like the window of tolerance shrinks and anything could set you off into the waves of emotion. The window is not a permanent fixture, but instead can change based on circumstances in your life. The window changes, how you respond changes, and even hormones can play a part in the fluctuations. 

So instead of trying to put activities or actions into your life or changing around your to-do list, try incorporating these practices and learn how to keep yourself in your window of tolerance. Because once you know what it looks like and sounds like, you can show your body you are safe and you can understand your body’s reactions.

How to Make Myself Work During Designated Times

In today's video I want to present to you a scenario that is probably pretty familiar and in this scenario we're going to talk about ways to break past the barriers that we run into when we're working on it.

I want you to imagine that you have something important you need to do like writing a research report, finishing your dissertation, starting your dissertation, writing a report for work – any kind of activity that's got that you know is going to require large amounts of your time and it's difficult to make it happen in 10-minute bursts.

You know you need a stretch of time.

So think of that activity that you might have on your plate and often a lot of people struggle with making the time to find that block of time where they might be able to work on that, but today’s scenario is about you actually found the time.

You made a schedule something like Tuesday, Thursday afternoon you're going to commit to this paper that you have to write and make it happen and you can't wait to get there.

But then Tuesday afternoon rolls around and you realize, “Oh, here I am at my designated time and I actually don't want to do this” and I'm going to procrastinate, look at that Facebook post, look at that Instagram picture, and there are a lot more other exciting things to do like, maybe I should just clean the house actually, go talk to a colleague or do anything other than what I'm supposed to be doing right now during this designated time.

So this happens a lot across a wide variety of domains and I find it happens to me sometimes too, but a couple of the strategies I wanted to talk to you today are about how to avoid those moments.

1. Eliminate distractions

So, the first thing I like to do if I have that time, I actually use Tuesday and Thursday mornings right now on my schedule because I know that I work best in the mornings, so I can commit to that kind of time.

Let’s say it's 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and one of the first things I have to do for myself is to make sure that I shut down all the distractions. This helps if I can close my door. Nobody's going to come into my office or I'm actually at home working – whatever it might be. No distractions. I see a lot of people with cell phones up like, “Oh look, somebody sent me a notification.” I've got the cell phone put away. I've installed the Freedom app on my computer, so that I can shut down all of the Internet and all the distractions that come with that – so Freedom or the StayFocused app.

So nothing is going to get in my way. I can't look at my e-mail. I can't look at anything distracting. That gets my whole environment ready to be able to work on the thing I need to work on. Now even if something is tucked in your email, I'm still going grab all those documents or whatever I need so I don't have to go searching for all the things. I've got it already loaded. So eliminating distractions is the first step.

2. Set a timer

Then the next thing I do is make sure that if it's something I'm really dreading like I cannot even handle the thought of writing the words for that piece or whatever might be, I make sure I set a timer to just get started because if I know something takes me three hours to do – I need a good three hour stretch of time to make progress on this project.

That still seems really daunting and all of us it's like, “Well, I have a lot of time to work on this” and times slips away from me. But instead, I set a timer, I say, “Alright. It’s go time. I have to work on this. The timer is set. I have to spend the next 20 minutes working on this.” And of course the trick to that is it spurs me to keep working. Once I'm in the groove, it doesn't seem that painful usually.

Setting the timer is the Pomodoro Technique and if you haven't heard of that, make sure you look it up. But it's one of those simple techniques that really helps and when you get out of the habit and then you start doing them again, you remember like, “Oh yes. This is a really helpful technique.” So Pomodoro Technique, we said avoiding distractions, getting yourself ready, setting a timer so that you launch into the activity.

I'd also say with that making sure you do something easy first that isn't as complicated and you've broken down your steps to be able to say like –if your overall goal is to finish that paper you can break it down into smaller groups and say, “Okay, I know I need to write this paragraph” and “I know I need to do this part on the analysis” or “I know I need to create this table.” Little details and starting with an easy one can also help with those timer settings.

3. Know why you’re doing it

And then the third thing I remind you or give you a tip on are about actually writing down the reasons why you're doing this. So things like finishing your dissertation seem like “Well yeah, I need to do this, so I can finish my PhD.” Well, that's kind of obvious, but actually writing down the reasons about why is this important.

Do I actually want to do this? Because sometimes we have all these barriers, so like actually making the time happen, when we have the time we don't want to do it. But if we really get to the root of it, sometimes we just don't want to do it at all. I don't actually want to write this paper, it doesn't actually matter if it happens and that's why I've been procrastinating for the past six months.

So remembering why and starting to list those reasons and put them somewhere where you can see them as you work to say, “This research paper is really important for me to read. Even if only one graduate student reads this paper some day when it's published, that's going to be meaningful to me because I feel like I really contributed to literature here. This is important for my scientific endeavor.” All of these different things that are important to you and kind of the reason why you’ve even gotten into this situation in the first place.

And then, if it doesn't seem like there are any good reasons and you really don't want to do it but you still feel like you have to, I always like the phrase that Jenny Blake uses when it's something really difficult she says, “What will bring me joy in this task? How can I do this joyfully and with ease?” Is there any way that I could make this task enjoyable or kind of have a place of joy for it because maybe there's something little in here that writing this report will help the students in the future or getting this finished and completed is going to be really meaningful, some tiny little piece of joy so that it doesn't have to feel so painful.

So those are three tips of avoiding distraction and making sure you set a timer and remembering your reasons why you got into this project at the beginning.

Stop procrastinating. Get that accountability partner and stop procrastinating. Stop this video and get back to work on that project that you're excited about.

If you need a little guidance to get back on track, get access to my tips for reclaiming your time with the form below!

How to Really Focus on Your Work

Have you ever had a ton of stuff to do on your task list, but can't seem to get any of it actually done?

It's a common feeling. I feel it myself from time to time. I have these big projects I want to spend more time on, but distractions and other smaller projects keep getting in the way. Or maybe you're a student and you have a big test coming up, but you keep procrastinating instead of studying for it.

Sometimes we need to really, truly focus on our work.

We start to realize that we need no distractions. Maybe you have tried some of these techniques before:

• Going to a coffee shop to work instead of your office or home.

• Hiding your cell phone for a stretch of time.

• Disconnecting your WiFi or enabling an app like Freedom to deter online activity.

• Asking your colleagues or roommates to "leave you alone" for a stretch of time while you work.

• Having a work or study session with a friend to keep you accountable.

All of these techniques can be really helpful. But why? 

Cal Newport calls it the skill of "deep work." When we allow ourselves to focus and spend time really engaging in deep work, we get more done. We're more productive and creative. We feel accomplishment from our work sessions, instead of wondering where all of our time went. I have had several recent session of deep work and I am amazed at what I can accomplish during them.

It makes perfect sense to focus on our tasks, but our world has become so distracting. 

It can take awhile to work yourself up to big sessions of deep work. I recommend trying the Pomodoro Technique to get yourself started. Spend 25 minutes completely undistracted on your task. Whatever you need to do to get rid of those distractions (see the list above). You can build up your time in increments. Soon you'll be spending 90 minutes engaged in deep work.

So what has helped you focus on deep work before? What can you commit to right now for focusing? 

Tell us below in the comments so we can share ideas!