Last month I observed some students appearing for exams and the one ironic change in them was that they were conscious of every passing minute and trying to make the most of it. You may wonder where I’m heading with this. I can associate this with my personal and professional life.
Heavy terms like Anxiety are now becoming an adjective to express one’s minor inconvenience. Now enough of me ranting and lashing out, Let’s jump to the point.
It’s a legitimate fact that we all go through some or the other kind of anxiety as it is a Natural response to stress. But most of us deal with Mild anxiety which doesn’t have a negative outcome.
When should you be worried?
To put this in layman’s terms, When your anxiety has reached a point that it is interfering with your life and affecting your performance, that’s when you should be concerned and consider consulting a specialist.
Through this article, I’m aiming for a specific kind of Anxiety… Productive Anxiety.
Have you ever experienced a constant nagging in your heart that you are not enough or that no matter how much effort you put, it’s not fulfilling? That’s what Productive Anxiety looks like.
Here are a few symptoms :
1. Uninterrupted Restlessness
The feeling of constant sting in the back of your mind that you are falling short.
2. Overworking
- This is a common phenomenon across work setups. According to a statistics by WHO in 2016, 488 million people have been overworked across the globe and the worst case is that 745,000 people died and it is believed that their work plays some role in it.
- Often people use working as an escapism from problems that needed to be tended to.
3. Procrastination
- This doesn’t mean that one is too lazy to do work.
- The need to produce a ‘perfect’ work and the fear that it might not reach our expectations is the most common sign of Anxiety.
4. Relieving Anxiety with Technology
- Most of us scroll just to distract ourselves from addressing the real problem.
- We even use technology as a way of procrastinating and deteriorating our mental health.
Have you ever wondered, After enjoying your youth for a significant period .. How/ When things start affecting you?
Let’s address WHEN?
- Before becoming an employee we all live a fairly care-free life.
- The sudden change and expectations not just from society and parents but your own self becomes a burden.
- When there are no significant milestones achieved after sometime we start to feel inferior.
- Peer pressure is a constant reminder of what you were not able to do.
Now, Let’s address HOW?
- We don’t give ourselves enough time to settle down and get used to this new pattern of life.
- In the pursuit of success often we end up being disengaged and there is a resistance towards responsibilities.
- Our self worth is defined by external validation.
- Failure is no more a stepping stone but a stone thrown at your face.
All this may sound like I’m asking you to be less passionate but no, dream as big as you can. Don’t forget the small wins. Make it a point to not obsess over your failure and embrace it wholly as a part of your journey.
You can definitely have a marriage with your job but don’t kill the sanctity of it by overdoing it.
You may ask if there are any methods to tackle these …. Of Course!
And to your surprise these are minor changes that you can instill in your pattern.
How to Tackle Productive Anxiety:
1. Acknowledge your Anxiety
- Instead of running away from your feelings, sit and address it.
- Find ways to keep yourself calm.
- It’s okay if you don’t have any definite solution.
- Take your time to figure it out.
2. Reach Out
- We all are living a life of solitude and though this has been romanticized in an unhealthy way, We need people.
- Let people help you.. That doesn’t make you weak.
- Take help from professionals, if you have the source for it.
3. Set Achievable Goals
“ Great acts are made up of small deeds”
Lao Tzu
- We often fill our to-do list with essential tasks and end up doing one or two.
- The one thing that you can attempt is to have 3 important goals everyday.
- Prioritize the ones which need your immediate attention and then focus on the other.
- It’s okay if you missed one of them, you still got tomorrow.
4. Schedule Rest
- The most essential task of all is Prioritizing your health.
- As the old saying goes, ‘Health is Wealth’.
- Resting means just shutting down yourself and enjoying time with yourself.. Not scrolling.
- Eat clean and keep yourself nourished.
This might be a bit unexpected, but there are some benefits of Productive Anxiety.
The first time I heard about this word was in the series “The Big Bang Theory”.
Case Study: Sheldon Cooper’s Productive Anxiety:
Let me give you a background. The character named Sheldon Cooper, an intellectual scientist was going through a slump phase where he was not making a significant discovery or even progress which led to him being extremely anxious. And to overcome this he discovered a way to be productive through anxiety.
Here was how he made the most out of it :
- Enhanced Focus and Attention.
- The anxiousness constantly poked him to work on his goal.
- It will heighten your awareness and concentration on the task.
- Increased Motivation
- If you have a healthy amount of anxiety it can actually act as a drive for you and you may end up doing things that are daunting to you.
- Goal oriented Behavior
- This can correspond with the first point where your focus is intact in one particular goal.
- The distractions are minimized by your own mind.
- Heightened sense of Accomplishment
- You may finally start feeling that you are making progress.
- This may boost your performance for future goals.
Now, we have reached the end of this Article and I won’t recommend Sheldon’s way of being productive. Anxiety shouldn’t be your drive to perform better. It is an inevitable emotion and we can’t escape it and having a healthy amount won’t harm us either. We should know when to stop.
If you are someone who is dealing with this I hope this article made you feel heard.