115 - What To Do When You DON’T FEEL LIKE Being Productive

Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify

Summary

Let’s talk about it—what should you do when you don’t feel like being PRODUCTIVE?! This is an important question to ask because even high-achievers get into seasons where we have low productivity. We’re going to talk about the signs that you’re in one of those seasons, why it happens, and how to get yourself out!

For show notes, head to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠coachellyn.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and, of course, follow me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠OR check out my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more!

Takeaways

• Even high achievers go through seasons of low productivity and it's important to be compassionate with ourselves during these times.

• Signs of a productivity slump include feeling overwhelmed, lacking motivation, difficulty focusing, procrastination, and tiredness.

• A productivity slump can occur when one of the components of sustainable success (sustainable systems, sustainable self-care, and sustainable mindsets) is missing.

• To overcome a productivity slump, check in with your values, break tasks down, prioritize self-care, establish routines, and seek support.

Sound Bites

"What to do when you don't feel like being productive"

"Overwhelm isn't having too much to do, it's not knowing where to start"

"Check in with your values and how you're treating yourself"

Resources

• Take the “What’s Your Burnout Type?” Quiz

• Check out my NEW program Burnout-Proof Business!

Do you have anything to add?
Drop a comment below…

RELATED POSTS:

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello my friend and welcome to another kick -ass new episode of the Burnout Proof Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about something that, high achiever or not, I know we all deal with. We are going to be talking about what to do when you don't feel like being productive. As much as us high achievers want to pride ourselves on our ability to just get shit done always, to be productive, to be the people who you can always count on to do the thing and to get stuff done, which don't get me wrong, we often are.

We all get into seasons when we don't feel like being productive. And today what I want to talk about is a little bit about why that happens and what to do when it does happen. What are some things that we can do to make that a little easier on ourselves? So we are going to get a little bit tactical today, but you know, we got to have some tactics every once in a while. That's why we're all here and, you know, we're listening to podcasts and trying to grow is to get those things that like, what do I do? What's the how?

Right. So that's what we're going to be diving into today. I'm super, super excited for it. So let's go ahead and let's start with the signs. How do we recognize the signs and how do we know when we are kind of entering into this era and why does it happen? Really, the signs that we are experiencing a productivity slump are things that we first and foremost, I think, have to acknowledge without judgment. Like I said, it's really, really natural for a high achiever to be operating at 100 percent all the time.

You know, we are being productive all the time. We're getting our stuff done all the time. We are the people that people can count on. And it's easy to pride ourselves on that. You know, it's natural for that. But what can sometimes come with that is the opposite. We're not being productive. Instead of priding ourselves on that, we're judging ourselves for not being that way. And I think that's one of the first most important parts of this. That we just, we have to frankly just be compassionate with ourselves.

As much as we pride ourselves on this, as much as we expect ourselves to be this, we are not gonna operate at 110 % at all times. That's not sustainable, it's not gonna work, it's not practical for you to have that expectation of yourself. So that is, I think, the first thing is we've got to come at this from a lens of non -judgment, okay? So first and foremost, and in terms of the signs and like the why, it's gonna vary a little bit from individual to individual, but it can often feel like overwhelming.

Ellyn Schinke (02:15.118)

It can often feel like a lack of motivation. It can often feel like difficulty focusing, procrastinating maybe more than usual or just feeling tired. Those can all be signs of you're experiencing a productivity slump. But like, why does that happen? I think a productivity can happen for a number of different reasons. And I honestly think it ties very much back to the sustainable success framework. Sustainable success, which you've probably heard me talk about before, encompasses and includes sustainable systems, sustainable self -care and sustainable mindsets.

And I really feel like the reason why we get into this mode where we are not feeling like being productive is because one of those three pieces is missing. It could be possible that multiple of those pieces are missing. Maybe your systems are failing you. Maybe that is part of the reason why you are, you know, you don't feel like being productive is because you've been shouldering the burden of staying organized just in your own brain. You've had to kind of clutter or take care of all of the information in your brain. You have had to keep yourself focused and motivated instead of your.

systems shouldering that burden for you instead of your systems keeping you organized instead of your system showing you what your priorities are and what the broken down tasks are that you need to do. Our systems should be running a lot of that thing a lot of the logistics behind the scene for us so we're not constantly having to manually do it ourselves. So that could be a reason and that could be part of what's missing. It can also be sustainable self care. You know tiredness can from you.

come from, yes, overwork and overwhelm, perhaps because you aren't leveraging your systems enough or you just don't have those systems in place. But that tiredness can also come from the fact that we are just not approaching our self -care sustainably. Maybe that means we are not prioritizing and doing the things that we know we need to do, resting, working out, like nourishing ourselves, those self -care things that we know we need to do, but that are as, they're hard, they're not hard to do.

What am I trying to say? There's that saying of there's things that are...

Ellyn Schinke (04:21.518)

What is this saying I'm trying to think of?

Ellyn Schinke (04:40.302)

Those things that are hard to do but easy not to do. That's kind of what we're talking about. All of the stuff that the self -care industry has told us we need to do, it's also stuff that we might know but it's easy for us to not to do. Common sense doesn't always mean common practice. That's really what I'm getting at here. So maybe we're not doing those sustainable self -care practices. Maybe we're not being consistent with that. Or on the flip side, maybe we're doing too much and that's part of why we're tired is our self -care standards are here and we don't have the

for that. You know, they're too high and we don't have the capacity for that. So it could be that and then it also could be sustainable mindset and a sustainable mindset can come from, you know, not having enough compassion for ourselves. We literally kick this thing off by talking about non -judgment and the importance of non -judgment. Maybe that's part of where this is coming from for you is there's too much judgment, there's not enough compassion. Maybe it's coming from, you know, a misalignment with your values and that's why you're struggling to be productive.

There can be so many facets of emotional burnout that maybe you are not taking care of, you are not prioritizing. Heck, maybe it is an issue of boundaries violation. Maybe it's you are violating your own boundaries or you're letting other people violate your boundaries. All of those can be reasons why we get into this mode. But again, what do we do to get out of it? This is gonna be stuff that's probably a little bit more logistics and productivity focused. But one of the first things I think we can do to get ourselves out of it, if we feel like it is a mindset thing.

We can check in with our values and we can check in with how we're treating ourselves. Are we being compassionate toward ourselves? Are we actually living in alignment with our values? Like if you go through and you ask yourself, how is this value showing up in my life? Can you identify that for each of your values? Because if you can't, that could be a reason why the emotional parts aren't lining up, why you are feeling that lack of motivation. But what we can also do here, another thing that we can do here is we can break tasks down.

I've always loved the quote, overwhelm isn't having too much to do, it's not knowing where to start, because so many clients that come to me, they use the phrase at what's end to describe how they are feeling. And when you're at what's end, literally what that means is you feel like you have done everything with no results. If you're still failing, it's still not working. And you're literally so overwhelmed and confused and you just don't know what else to do. That can sometimes feel what that can sometimes be what we feel when we are in overwhelm and what can really, really help with that.

Ellyn Schinke (07:00.046)

feeling and that experience is breaking tasks down. A lot of times we treat our to -do list as kind of like an organizing center for our projects. The projects are the things that we put on our to -do list. That is a really, really bad way to approach your to -do list. That is like a to -do list a don't, if you ask me. What we should do instead is instead of putting our projects on our to -do list, we need to take those projects, break those projects down to tasks and put the tasks in our to -do list. We need to make our larger task into smaller task and here's a good rule of thumb for this.

If you look at a task on your to -do list and you can't clearly see and know what that task is and what is meant to be done in that task, it's not small enough. You need to break it down smaller. That is a really, really good rule of thumb when it comes to how small your task should be. We need to make our tasks on our to -do list more manageable to make progress on those tasks feel infinitely less overwhelming. Like I'll even take today as I'm recording this podcast for an example.

I had on my to -do list that I wanted to work on some of my programs that I'm enrolled in right now and kind of work through some of the content in those programs. That is a way too vague step on my to -do list. And when it came to actually working on those things and doing those things, I procrastinated and I didn't do those things because I didn't have a lot of clarity on what I was asking myself to do. And then when it came to content creation, I knew I wanted to record the solo podcast for the month of May.

That was clear. I saw exactly what podcasts I had scheduled out. I had exactly what I wanted to cover in those podcasts. That was a lot clearer of a step for me to do, but just the other one of work on these programs that I'm in, not only did I not define what program, I didn't define what I wanted to work on. It wasn't clear what this looked like. So that's a big indicator. Second, we need to prioritize self -care. Now you notice not all of these things are gonna be sustainable systems related. They're also gonna be related to sustainable self -care.

So we've got to make sure we're prioritizing that. We've got to make sure we're taking breaks. I'm planning on taking one after I record this podcast. We need to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is going to be like the key thing. Mindfulness is really about self -awareness and it's going to be the key thing for helping you figure out what you need, what you are and are not and giving yourself so that you can make sure you fill in the gaps. We need to prioritize activities that energize and refocus us.

Ellyn Schinke (09:15.438)

You know, I'm doing a lot of podcasts recording today because it is miserable and dreary outside. And as much as I want to go out and do things, it's not really a day for that. So I'm kind of switching my mentality to focus more on, you know, inside stuff, stuff that's easy for me to do during the day instead. So can we prioritize self care? Can we prioritize activities that are going to recharge and energize and focus us? You know, I'm still going to go work out. I'm still going to do energizing things. I'm still going to paint. I'm still going to do those things that energize me.

and I'm still going to prioritize those things, that's still really, really important for us to make sure we're doing. So break down your tasks, prioritize self -care. I mean, that one's like a one, I'm not going to be labor. That's why I kind of covered that one quickly. The next one, though, is to establish routines. And this is actually another place where I think our systems can really, really benefit us. I talk about something in my work with my one -on -one clients and my Burnout Proof Business program about the importance of having a CEO schedule. And really what this breaks down to, whether you're a business owner or not, is to have...

kind of consistent habits and routines, maybe even themed days in your schedule where you are providing yourself some structure. And that structure, especially when you are in moments where you don't wanna be productive, especially when you're in moments where you wanna procrastinate, it is gonna help you create momentum. It's gonna help you stay productive even when motivation is low. A great way I've done this, and I touched on this a little bit in the Burnout for Business Bootcamp that happened recently, a great way that I stay productive is I have themed days in my calendar.

And what I did to take this a step further in terms of how my system support me is inside of Notion, I have those themed days kind of identified by different day planners. So whatever Monday's theme, I have a day planner that I use for Monday that really kind of walks me through, okay, these are the things that you need to do today. I have a day planner for Tuesday's theme. I have a day planner for Wednesday's theme. So each day when I generate the planner for that day of the week, when I generate the day planner for Monday in my Notion systems,

It literally is already prompting me through my entire power hour, my entire next steps of things that I'm going to focus on. It honestly takes a lot of the burden off of me to schedule out tasks and to do is because I already have that structure set up in these day planners. That's something you're interested in hearing more about. Let me know. Head on over to Instagram. I'm at Coach Ellen, E -L -L -Y -N or head on over to YouTube or LinkedIn because I also have these on YouTube now. Head on over to either of those places to let me know, hey, I'd like to see more about this.

Ellyn Schinke (11:38.83)

you know, CEO schedule and how you use your day planners help reinforce your CEO schedule. Because what I have found, this is a relatively recent change for me. And what I have found with these is it just takes so much of my mental energy off of having to remember what is my theme for today. What did I, what do I want to do during that theme? It just allows me to fall into a rhythm. And that is something I haven't had in a really, really long time in terms of my day to day and the flow of my day to day. So we can establish routines and we can use our systems to support those routines.

And then last but not least, and this might be a given, but sometimes, you know, again, common sense isn't always common practice. Sometimes we need these reminders. Maybe sometimes what it is about is seeking support. Maybe it is about reaching out to a mentor, reaching out to a coach, reaching out to a supportive community, accountability, and doing what is called, what's it called, body doubling, I think is what it's called, literally sitting down and getting work done with other people. It's why I love doing co -working sessions. If we can have those,

those are gonna really support us through the times when we don't wanna be productive. Because whether you call it like social influence or whatever, being around people that are also getting stuff done is gonna make us more likely to mirror those people, to body double those people to get stuff done as well. They also might be able to provide us guidance to help us get through any stuck points, to provide us motivation. And again, just that accountability when we are struggling to stay productive.

I have a free co -working session every Thursday morning at 9 a .m. Pacific time, 12 p .m. Eastern time that you are welcome to join. Just head to CoachEllen .com slash co -working and join us. It is completely free and open for anybody. You don't even have to turn your camera on. Just come sit and let's co -work together. Let's get some stuff done together. Or if you're finding that the support you need is really about troubleshooting, it's really about helping you build those routines or build those systems that can support your routines.

Let me know again, head on over to CoachEllen .com, head on over to Coach Ellen on Instagram. Let me know. Let's DM, let's chat about it. Let's see if there's some ways that I can support you. I offer one -on -one coaching. I offer all sorts of stuff, but let's just DM and figure out what's gonna work best for you. If you do feel like you need some support beyond just, you know, accountability and having people to co -work with. That is absolutely something I can provide you and it's something that I love to do, especially the system side of things. I'm a systems ninja. I would love to support you in that. So.

Ellyn Schinke (13:56.11)

With that, those are all of my tips for today of what to do when you don't feel like being productive, where it comes from, some of the things that we can do to help us get over that productivity hump and that slump to work through it so that we can get back to being our badass, high achieving selves and getting the stuff done that we know we are capable of getting done.