You Can’t Stop Time, So You Might As Well Be Productive

Time is going to pass, no matter what you do. You can’t stop it. You can’t change it. So you might as well make the most of it. You might as well do something worthwhile with your hours. You might as well be productive today, because you will appreciate all of the hard work you put in tomorrow.

Of course, productivity doesn’t have to mean what you think it means. Sometimes, being productive is as simple as reading a book. Taking a walk around your block. Researching new, healthy meals to cook. Checking in with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Reorganizing your drawers. Deleting old emails.

You don’t have to do something massive every single day in order to feel accomplished. Sometimes, the smallest things end with the sweetest victories.

Remember not to discount the little things you’ve been doing to better yourself. Putting in a little bit of effort every single day is going to add up. You’re accomplishing more than you think by practicing a new language for ten minutes each day, or reading a book for fifteen minutes each day, or exercising for a half hour each day.

You don’t have to run a marathon or write a 100,000 word book in order to feel like you made the most of the week. As long as you’re putting effort into the things that matter the most to you, you should be proud of yourself. You should consider yourself successful.

There are too many people who let time pass without doing anything about it. They will be in the same exact place months from now as they are today because they haven’t put in the time and effort to learn, to grow, to evolve.

You might not think you have enough time to put into betting yourself when you’re swamped with work and chores and to-dos, but all you really need is a few minutes. You can use your lunch break to talk on the phone with someone you’re worried about losing touch with as you grow older. Or you could use your commute time to listen to an audiobook from your favorite author. Or you could read while eating your breakfast in the morning. There are a million little ways to be productive that don’t involve major changes to your routine.

You just don’t want to overwhelm yourself. You don’t want to trick yourself into believing the only way to be productive is to go full force. To dedicate your whole day to accomplishing whatever goal you’ve set. To complete whatever you’ve been dreaming about in a matter of days.

It takes time to reach your goals. Nothing is going to change overnight, so it’s okay to move slowly. It’s okay if you’re only dedicating a few minutes to your goals each day. It’s okay if you don’t really feel productive because you wish you would have done a bit more — as long as you remember that you’re wrong, that doing anything at all is a step in the right direction.