Try to remember one of your most productive days. Think about what you did on this day. You probably woke up early and felt inspired to get to work shortly after. Maybe you read a full book. Maybe you accomplished an important task that took a lot of effort.
Now try to think about a day where you were unable to get anything done. Don’t feel bad, we have all had days where even writing a single sentence or reading one page is extremely difficult.
We all hope that the good days come more often than the bad days. And if they do, great. But what happens if they don’t?
The truth is that the good days don’t matter. If you want to be productive and get stuff done, the bad days are the most important. The days where the creativity isn’t flowing. The days where you can’t come up with the perfect idea. The days where you just want to close up shop and go watch Netflix.
Anybody can be productive on their best days. When you are excited about a new project, it is very easy to work on it. But two weeks later, when all of the more enjoyable work is completed, what are you going to do? If you want to be successful and productive, you need to keep going even when you don’t feel like it.
On your worst day, you don’t have to be as productive as you are on your best day. That is not expected. But if you read 100 pages on your best day, you should be able to read 20 pages on your worst day. If you write 2,000 words on your best day, you should be able to write 500 words on your worst day.
“The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain free. He has to play hurt,” said Steven Pressfield in the War of Art.
Early in any athlete’s season, they normally feel healthy and perform at a high level. But as the season wears on and bumps and bruises accumulate, how does the athlete respond? The best athletes are able to play through the pain and continue to do what is needed.
What will you do when the metaphorical injuries pile up? What will you do when you feel tired? What will you do when you really don’t want to go to work? The answer should be that you will power through and do the work anyway. Become the type of person that goes to work even when you are not motivated. Become the type of person that goes to work when it is not fun.
In life, things don’t normally go exactly how you planned them to go. A lot of people let this fact mess up their productivity. But you don’t have to succumb to life’s unpredictability. To prepare for the days where it is difficult to be productive, set small goals for yourself that you will do every day without fail. Here are some goals that I have set for myself:
Read for 30 minutes every day
Write for 30 minutes every day
Be still for 60 minutes every day
It doesn’t matter how little I want to work. It doesn’t matter how crazy my day is. I am normally able to complete these three things each day.
The goals that you set for your worst day are not supposed to be extraordinary. They are actually supposed to be very basic. They are in place to make sure that you continue to make progress, no matter how small. Trust me, over time, this progress will snowball.
Doing this will allow you to remain productive, even when you don’t feel like it. Even when you don’t have a lot of time. Even on your worst day.