Learning to Eat the Fruit That’s In Season

THE PROBLEM WITH PRODUCTIVITY

Apparently, my endeavor to make my titles more search-engine- and user-friendly caused me to stop writing. Just kidding, it wasn’t just that. I missed a few blog posts because I’m learning to eat the fruit that’s in season. But I haven’t totally gotten the hang of it yet.

Don’t fret, I will explain. In fact, I always explain, so no need to get nervous about it each time. I hereby solemnly swear to try my very best to tell you exactly what I mean every single time I post. We’re in this together, so it only seems fair for me to be as clear as possible.

Now, about the fruit.

You see, I have several personality quirks and trained behaviors that make it difficult for me to do anything poorly or slowly. For instance, if you ever work with me, you might notice I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I like things to be the best they can possibly be. I also like to be productive. Although I’m not ambitious, I was raised to believe that getting things done is valuable and that productivity plays an important part in our personal contribution to the world around us. Those quirks and beliefs are not inherently wrong, they’ve just created a small problem for me: when I’m not being productive I can feel useless, invaluable, and lazy.

THE FRUIT THAT’S IN SEASON

I need to spend more time in therapy to untangle the sources of my issues and why they hold so much power over me now. But in the meantime, I’m trying to just calm down about it. Which means finding ways to lessen the pressure on myself. And one of those ways is to “eat the fruit that’s in season.” In other words, to tackle (or not) what I feel up to in that moment, and not stress about what I am not doing.

Here’s what that looks like. Let’s say I have fifteen things to do today. I can label them on a scale from most to least important. I can decide how much time each task will take me, try to force myself to do the urgent and important tasks, and even reprimand myself out loud and inform myself in no uncertain terms that this blog post just simply MUST be written.

But the problem is that I’m not always up for it. I don’t always have a solid blog post idea at that moment. Or I might be having trouble focusing. Or any number of other reasons I might be struggling to do the next task. And I could force myself to get it done, but that actually makes the situation worse.

INSTEAD OF FORCING IT

In the past, I became frustrated with myself and felt lazy or like I wasn’t contributing something of value because I couldn’t do that specific thing at that moment. But what if that task, or three of the tasks on the list, just aren’t in season at that moment? What if I’m just not ready for them yet?

Earlier this week, I planned a really solid writing day. I hoped to write a blog post, a chapter of my book, and the outlines for my next three YouTube videos. But when I sat down to write, no words came out. I got annoyed, which rarely helps with creativity. I said passive-aggressive things to myself, like “It’s like you don’t even want to make money.” And then, suddenly, I decided to eat the fruit that was in season. I looked at my to-do list and decided to do laundry instead. And then I cleaned the kitchen. Then I paid my bills, ran some errands, and tidied up the house. I didn’t accomplish what I wanted, but I felt productive and ready to jump into writing without distraction as soon as I could find my creativity again.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SEASONAL FRUIT

So, I’m learning to eat the fruit that is in season. I look at the list and say, “Well, what can I do? What won’t be a struggle right now?” And if the answer is “nothing,” then I don’t do any of it. Do you know how much more I’ve gotten done with this strategy? So much! I’m able to crank through certain tasks by taking the pressure off and just doing what I can. But sometimes it does mean that I don’t get the “most urgent” things done on time. And there’s probably room to grow in that area – I would like to be more consistent in blog posts being in season. But I’m learning not to pressure myself to create something out of nothing.

What do you think? Have you tried eating the fruit that’s in season, and does it work for you?