All of us have those unproductive days where we do not feel like doing anything, we feel stuck and frustrated. This unproductive time is termed as a rut and was derived from the context of having a wheel stuck in a groove in the road. As much as we want to get through this rut as soon as possible, but being in a rut is a part of your cycle for effort and progress. Without these moments it wouldn’t be possible for us to reinvent ourselves and realize our progress. This time does feel like a negative thing but is crucial for making improvements.
Like any problem the first step in problem-solving is realizing that you have one, hence the first step is knowing whether you are in a rut or not. Here is a checklist for self-diagnosing (compiled by Tania Luna the Co-CEO of LifeLabs Learning), being in a rut might include but is not limited to:
• You don’t feel like doing much except sleeping
• You feel that if you make changes you might become happier but you continue to remain the same and continue to sulk about it.
• Time flies by, most of the days seem like a blur and you don’t even notice which day of the week it is.
• Even though you are checking things off your to-do list, you don’t feel like you have accomplished much.
• You'd like to get your creative juices flowing, but it seems someone left an empty juice bottle in the fridge.
• When you get to your "free time" you feel too tired to do anything interesting with it or you just feel unmotivated.
• You want to explore something new but you aren’t sure if you would be able to accommodate it or not.
• You are tired of hearing yourself complain about feeling stressed, exhausted, and unsatisfied.
• When asked "How are you?", your genuine answer would be something like, "Meh."
The more items you check from this list, the more likely you are stuck in a rut. Now with that out of the way the next step involves action rather than planning, in fact, you might not even learn anything new.
While reading this article from the end of this sentence set up a two-minute timer and think about all those things that fill you with gratitude, don’t think about things that you are expected to be grateful for instead think about things that fill your body with joy, dig deeper. If you haven’t done this yet, let’s do this together don’t just read through this or move on to do something else. 1:59…….1:25…..1:04……0:45……0:10….0:01. Now that we have completed the first action task let’s move on to the next which will sound oddly familiar, cleaning your room or your workplace. This might be something you have been meaning to do for days but you haven’t gotten time for, a cleaner room will bring some order to you, if not well at least your room is clean now.
Now you need to stop punishing yourself for not being able to do something productive rather reward yourself, be proud of yourself and be nice to yourself. Let’s talk about the third action task, the Danish concept of Hygge (pronounced hyoo.gah), this involves doing things that give you a warm feeling of coziness. Set up a sixty-second timer looking for something that gives you the feeling of coziness, it could be watching Netflix, playing FIFA, making yourself a cup of tea or coffee, reading a new book, or just taking a deep breath.
If you made it this far then congratulations!
After carrying out these three action tasks it is important to change the way you have been working/studying/living because it was the reason why you got into a rut in the first place. Do something fun that you have been withholding yourself from doing, do something new, find things that motivate you, or give yourself a small dare task for each week. You could even go crazy and say yes to everything someone asks you to do for just a day, there is a movie on this called Yes Man starring Jim Carry on Netflix if you want to check it out. For each of us, the way back to being productive from being in a rut is varying, and while some approaches may work for one person but not the other. You might even come out of a rut doing better than you were before it. We will get the metaphorical wheel stuck in a groove in the road free and back on the road once again, maybe even better than before.
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