When It Comes to Productivity, Less Can Get You More

What has the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 highlighted for me? 

Pre-COVID, I was an over-scheduled busy little bee furiously flapping from one activity to another: work meetings, breakfast-lunch-dinner meetings, charity events, church, grocery store, gym, –  doing the most all of the time. The one most likely to be a coronavirus super spreader. You get the picture.

COVID halted all, but the essential activities creating a stillness, a more home-centric existence not experienced by me since my technology and license-free days of childhood. COVID brought an extraordinary opportunity too.  Each week as I deleted canceled events, my newly, wide-open calendar provided a couple of important things – time for introspection and space that allowed for objectivity.  What started as a whisper niggling at the fringes of my consciousness, became a revelation that I could not ignore: I DO NOT MISS DOING THE MAJORITY OF THE THINGS ON MY CALENDAR. IN FACT, I AM THRILLED NOT TO DO THEM.

Unlike many who felt adrift, my inner introvert relished the unscheduled days where I did not have to be “on” and in performance mode. Surprisingly, the work that needed finishing was accomplished — with fewer meetings.  It also became clearer which voluntary pursuits brought me joy — because I began to miss them — and which ones simply took up precious time, energy and created a sense of being overwhelmed.  What captured my attention was how much more productive I was by doing less.  I vowed to use the pandemic to create a new mindset where I focused on how to be more productive, more joyful, and more at peace. If you, too, want to get more by doing less, try these tips.

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