#1 Gentle productivity for the rest of us

This is my ✨Why✨ - not just another productivity newsletter

I have to admit that I’m constantly humbled by the fact that taking the first step is TOUGH. It’s tough EVEN though I know it’s tough.    

In this launch post, I’d like to share more about the struggle of taking the first step and what it took me to get to the other side.

My motivation behind this newsletter is to help others overcome their first step. And the more I struggled with this myself, the more I felt compelled to make it happen because I’d have learnings to share.

It wasn’t a linear process of “oh, let’s write about [solid, concrete idea]” → “BOOM. The newsletter is up.” There was a lot going on behind the scenes, mental battles I had in my mind, and help I received along the way.   

What I needed to get to the other side

Like most projects I have started, I created a Notion page for brain-dumping ideas for this newsletter. It was just going to be another productivity/personal knowledge management system newsletter, but with my own flavour to it. What flavour? I…wasn’t sure.. I found myself getting stuck at many levels. Writing down some initial content ideas. Finding a name for it. Creating a logo. Writing the About page etc, etc. I kept myself busy with the setup of this newsletter without actually shipping.

There was a sense of fear holding me back.

I have set the bar really high for myself. I was comparing myself to the productivity guys who have been creating on this topic for years.

Let me paint a quick picture of what the current productivity landscape looks like.

A quick search of personal knowledge management system (or what we commonly refer to as PKM) on Google will give you results on the Best Tools and Apps for your Personal Knowledge Management system blog articles. These are written by the content team of the app trying to get you to sign up as they sneakily add their own app into the list with other similar tools. Each one promising similar features but for slightly different types of users.

If you search it on YouTube, you could find better results, with productivity folks talking about similar things like Best Tools to Use, Building a Second Brain, the Zettelkasten method, and examples of how they built their own workflow and how it has changed their lives. Amazing video quality. Exciting dashboards and advice designed to help you be a better person.

Two things might happen:

1: You fall in love with the idea of organising your life and start having many ideas on what to keep track of. Perhaps you’ll struggle with picking a tool to use. There are so many shiny new apps to try! It becomes a whole task of its own trying to figure out which one to build your system on. And once you’ve settled on one begrudgingly saying no to the rest, you now look for more examples and templates to get inspiration.

2: You decide it’s way too much work and you dream about having a perfect system like this but go back to your old ways.

I’ve oscillated between the two scenarios for the past few years and recently re-ignited enough of the geekiness in me that I started working on my own system and processes again. But of course, my system is far from the aesthetic and extensive dashboards these guys seem to have.   

While I felt excited to work on it in a deeper capacity and share my learnings, I worried about not meeting the standards I felt were already set in this space, and had this fear of being not good enough to share my own thoughts about it.

Playing devil’s advocate, questions on the assumptions I held came up:

Do I even want to be seen as an expert? Nope. I don’t feel like I know it all and have it all figured out. I’ve just been in it a little longer than some, and it’s a good enough starting point.

Do I really need to compare myself with them? Why not just focus on my own starting point, and be confident in putting something honest out there?

I’m trying to believe that the internet has enough space for different writers that write about the same topic. Nothing is really ever truly new or groundbreaking at this time, but we’re adding a little twist from existing great ideas, with personal contexts sprinkled in it.

If I start out trying to be as “successful” as those who have built their systems and audience for years, I would never feel enough. And never start.

The fear of failing and the fear of not matching up can feel debilitating. But as this first post sees the light of day beyond just GDocs proves, there’s always a way through.

When I pushed myself to write and nothing sounded right, I kept hitting figurative walls and wondered if I’d ever produce something I’d be able to share proudly. I figured I was in a slump, both in life and in writing.

Instead of forcefully making myself write, I allowed myself to rest and let my mind wander off to think about other ideas. I knew at the back of my mind that I wanted to get this going. In the process of getting unstuck, I started reaching out to people I thought would be interesting to talk to about my situation. I started small conversations that I could still handle.

Every one of those chats felt energising and gave me a little bit of a boost to keep going. It sometimes felt like I was procrastinating doing the actual thing, but each step that I took also felt right to me.

I got a little bit closer to articulating what this newsletter could be about.

What is this newsletter really about?

I am writing for the rest of us normies who are getting overwhelmed by the notion of elaborate and seemingly perfect systems that feel a little (or a lot) out of reach.

When I thought about how I kept going and why these current productivity videos don’t resonate with me at certain stages of creating, one idea popped up.

Gentle productivity.

The current landscape was for those who resonate with the idea of going hard and fast. High energy. Feeling on top of their game.

My spin on productivity is a little more gentle, a little bit slower. I think this might resonate with some people and not others. It probably resonates with the ones who are feeling burnt out, who have the inner voice pulling them back, the ones who have not found the groove of things and need to get to a starting point for good habits to snowball.

It will probably not resonate with someone who is in high gear and enjoying hustling through their days with full awareness of their energy levels being able to sustain them for that hustle. Some of my friends would freak out at the idea of attending a slow yin yoga session, because they feel like it’s too slow and boring. I’m taking it more in this direction, where I’m finally understanding that I need to go slow to go far. This is how I am currently, who knows when it may change?   

If I could give one piece of productivity advice to myself right now, it would be: take care of your body and mind so that it becomes a well of energy to draw from.

This looks like experimenting with habits to be more intentional with

• what I eat

• my sleep habits

• how I start and end my day

• what I fill my day with

They are all essential to the functioning of my mind. When I’m in a slump and feeling unmotivated, I can’t keep up with trying to be more efficient with every hour of my day. I just need to nurse myself back into feeling okay again to keep going. And sometimes 1 paragraph a day is all I can manage, that’s okay too. There will come a time when the full article becomes possible.

So to summarise what helped me get through the figurative wall:

1. Do something else other than that thing I was stuck with. Take walks in nearby parks. Pet your cat or dog, or in my case, my friends’ cats and dogs.

2. Get perspective. Talk to as many people as I could grab hold of who would listen to me rant and mope. Random nuggets will just click.

3. Let the ideas morph. Gather signs about what really resonated with me, and add details to my fuzzy picture. There was a general direction I was going with, but I ran with it and shaped it up as I went along.    

My tiny intentional step approach is how I want to help myself build my PKM, my writing, and also my life. It has always been about keeping the bicycle going by pedalling forward. One step at a time. I can’t compare myself to people who are 1 km ahead of me, but I can keep up with the end goal of finishing the race. Perhaps, helping those who are on the same route as me but just slightly behind by cheering them on too.

Over to you.

1. What first step are you trying to take?

2. What’s pulling you forward?

3. How does gentle productivity sound? Does it scare you or is this what you think you need?

Let me know what you think!