“I GET TO DO THIS”

I’ve been watching a lot of productivity and “life improvement” videos on YouTube recently. I have mixed feelings about them, I find it really interesting to see how people organise their lives but I wonder if you can spend so much time trying to optimise your life that you never actually do anything? Similarly, can you spend so much time mindlessly consuming these videos without actually taking anything from them?

There are SO many videos on Youtube on how to be more productive, how to get more done, how to optimise your life etc. Yet the comments section are consistently filled with questions about how to actually be more productive, get more done and optimise your life. So many people are looking for an easy solution, a quick answer that will magically make them a different person. But it doesn’t work like that; just saying “don’t be anxious” to someone who has anxiety, is not going to help. Something I took from therapy that I found helpful was that trying to fight against my anxiety was fruitless. Now, that’s not to say that you just give in and engage in damaging self-determination, but anxiety is a natural human reaction, so instead of wishing it away, it’s more practical to find ways to manage it. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure. Being honest with yourself about the kind of person you are, and working with that, is better than fighting against yourself.

I think that’s why I find watching these videos interesting, instead of copying everything they say, I’m looking for tips that will help me work with my nature. I think that’s how you get the most out of the videos, you learn to recognise what’s going to work for you. For example, recently I saw a suggestion to switch the thought “I have to do this” to “I get to do this”. I saw Ali Abdaal (a YouTuber I’ve been loving) talk about this in one of his newsletters, but he got it from Seth Godin. For some reason this simple shift in thinking resonated with me. Godin ponders “in general, I wonder to what extent we can hack our own brains into acting as if doing stuff is a privilege rather than a burden”.

I suppose this ties into the concept of positive thinking, as well as practicing gratitude, so I had to think about how to reconcile this with my belief that you have to work with your nature. I think the reason I like this piece of advice is because it’s so specific. It’s a practical tool you can exercise to manage negative thoughts, rather than a board sweeping instruction like “be positive” or “be grateful”. It remains to be seen how well this is going to work for me, but I’m going to give it a try.