Last updated: August 10, 2023

One of the main things that I’ve noticed about myself is the need to be “productive” with my time, and with it being summer vacation one can expect that to be quite challenging. Obviously, being productive comes in a variety of different forms, from conventional tasks such as refreshing knowledge on academic subject matter to less conventional tasks such as going for a long bike.

The problem with many of these tasks is commitment. Even when writing this blog post, I will be going off task multiple times due to someone sending me a message, my mind wandering, or random thoughts that pop into my head and the need to explore them further. Shortening attention spans are not a myth.

Some of these tasks suffer more than others. Especially ones which I have no intrinsic motivation to perform at the moment, such as learning how to cook or cleaning up my room. It’s easy to take the lazy way out by putting it off, knowing that there will be food to eat in the fridge and the room isn’t thaaat dirty, right? But these tasks then never get done, and I lose out on learning some valuable life skills because of that.

What do I do in place of all these tasks? That’s right, mindlessly scrolling on the internet. Obviously it gets to a point where I feel like I must do something to be productive, and so I come up with more tasks, most of which are not actualized at all, because guess what? The feeling of there being too much to do makes one do nothing.

This is the slippery slope towards staying at home and scrolling on Reddit for 12 hours a day. Therefore, I think the key to actually being productive is not to swamp oneself with tasks that you say you will do but never start. Stick to a few tasks as part of your routine, where progress can be made and recorded on a consistent basis, and the feeling of idleness will go away.