How to Create Sustainable Work Habits.
I am no stranger to being pushed into massive overtime for months during “peak” real estate season.
As a 17+ year real estate professional, whether I was in a W-2 job or a 1099 job it was apparent that certain times of the year were busier than others.
In Texas, the months of March through September are usually known as “real estate season” so after working tons of overtime for 5 months straight during the 2021 purchase and refinance “frenzy”, I had my first nervous breakdown at work in the 44 years of being on this planet.I’ve worked overtime many times in my life before, but not for that long, it was usually momentarily extra busy.
I was a Mortgage Assistant for 3 of the 4 Top Producers at my old company (a hard money mortgage lender) specializing in investment properties and vacation rental homes. If you can only image having these 3 Loan Originators cranking out mortgage loans because of the amazing relationships they have built with these high volume investors - that was a lotta loans I had to handle!
I refer to 2021 as “the busiest year of my whole career” as investors bought and refinanced an ungodly amount of homes across the U.S. following the 2020 pandemic.
Thank Goodness my job was a work-from-home position as this allowed my nervous breakdown to be completely and utterly PRIVATE. I had only spoken to one co-worker about what was happening but the heavy breathing and tears indeed did start to flow and that co-worker knew something was way off with me.
Experts say that your body can experience a reaction to stress much later than the actual event of the stress. That nervous breakdown happened after the tail-end of the busy months of real estate season. The vivid feeling of the breakdown was as if some force was pulling me away from my work computer every time I tried to sit back down.
At first, I thought I was just tired and needed to break for lunch but instead I went straight for a nap. I remember feeling electrifying anxiety running through my body.
When I tried to return back to my computer, I opened up my Outlook and saw the amount of emails flooding my inbox, then quickly stepped away from the computer again, trying to gather a few things to comfort me.
I grabbed a snack
a cozy blanket over my lap
My favorite good-smelling candle
But then, I got up a 3rd time, this time I went straight for a shot of tequila poured into a frozen shot glass. (yep that bad)
I felt like I needed to do some deep breathing exercises because I felt I couldn’t breath, so I turned on a meditation video on YouTube for some calming, tranquil background music.
After trying all of the above, I poured myself a glass of wine. Then another, then another. Followed by a hit of marijuana I had stashed in my apartment for those womanly time of the month emergencies. (yep it cures cramp pain too)
I remember thinking “why the heck am I doing all this in the middle of the workday? I can’t do this!”
My co-worker had called me and I immediately broke down, crying on the phone “I can't do this, this is too much!”
The following week, my Sales Manager had called me to say he was removing one of the Loan Originators off of my load of work.
My caring coworker had stepped in to help me resolve my own issue by contacting our manager. Had he not done that, I may have been too proud to have said a word to anyone about my workload.
We Are Overworked.
In today's fast-paced work environment, the constant push for higher productivity can often lead to stress, burnout, and a decline in work quality.
Enter "slow productivity," a concept that advocates for a more deliberate, thoughtful approach to work, preferably the kind of work you are the best fit for versus doing work that goes against your natural productive abilities.
We are all productive at various levels or hours of the day. This is something that most companies will never be able to comprehend as they want all of us to work like robots at the same time each day, at the same level, and at the same productive output.
Just because you work less doesn’t mean you are less valuable. If you still get the same job done in a shorter time than your peers you are more productive and should be valued more, which should be directly related to your pay level.
By focusing on fewer tasks with greater attention, slow productivity aims to improve both mental well-being and overall work quality.
Just like in minimalism, in slow productivity, less really is more. With less things to do you can focus more on what is in front of you.
After decades of striving for speed and precision in my work and emphasizing my “multitasking” abilities to potential employers, I found it a significant and challenging shift to reprogram myself.
Deciding not to brag about multi-tasking in interviews was going to be a shift in my normal habits. This change left me feeling inadequate as a professional and made me feel like I was moving backward in my level of work dedication.
I now had to start thinking about myself and my productivity, and not the employer.
Now, I want to help others take a step back from the hectic pace of work, life, and excessive activities. I want to share with you a guide to understanding and embracing slow productivity in your lives.
Understanding Slow Productivity
Slow productivity is about prioritizing meaningful work, activities, and life responsibilities over sheer volume.
It emphasizes deep work, mindfulness, sustainable pacing, quality over quantity, and a balanced approach to integrating work with personal life.
(for the sake of this article, let’s also give credit to stay-at-home moms, dads, grandparents, guardians, caregivers and retirees as having a sense of deep work or purpose during their non-traditional working years)
This newer concept reflected in the book “Slow Productivity” by Cal Newport, challenges the traditional high-speed productivity of “hustle culture” by promoting a more slower, sustainable, and fulfilling way of working and living life.
The Core Principles of Slow Productivity
1. Deep Work
Deep work involves dedicating uninterrupted time to tasks that require significant cognitive effort.
Most of us will rarely achieve this level of focus in our daily jobs, let alone hectic home lives when we come home to kids, dirty dishes, piles of laundry, and an empty fridge we now have to go grocery shopping for.
It’s all just so exhausting.
With the constant interruption of our inbox, phone calls, voice messages, and meetings that could have been an email, most of us are only productive but 2-3 hours a day during our 8-hour workday.
A study by the productivity-tracking software company DeskTime found that, on average, employees are only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes out of an 8-hour workday.
This statistic highlights the inefficiencies and challenges associated with maintaining consistent productivity throughout a traditional workday.
By minimizing distractions and focusing solely on the task at hand, you can produce higher-quality work and achieve a state of flow, where you are fully immersed and productive.
This is why production lines, as boring as they may be, are the most efficient because employee is doing the same task day in and day out with minimal disruption as they are able to focus solely on the task at hand.
Establish clear boundaries between work and personal time by avoiding the temptation to check emails or complete work tasks during off-hours. This separation helps you recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
One of my favorite ways to get into the state of flow is listening to the kind of music that sends you a “que” that it’s time to work. Entrepreneurs call this Deep Work Music.
Deep Work Music is usually music without lyrics and can come in a variety of BPMs (beats per minute), whatever pace of music that you feel is suitable for your pace of productivity.
For studying or reading, you may want to listen to classical music scores or lo-fi music.
For cooking you may want to listen to Parisian or Italian music that is upbeat and happy where you find yourself floating around the kitchen
For coding or those in the tech space, electronic or trance music may be more suitable since the music is at a higher beat per minute, closer to your heart rate.
For writing, I like lo-fi or meditation music because it puts me in a super chill and relaxed state.
2. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged in your current activity.
By concentrating on one task at a time, you can improve your focus and reduce the mental clutter that often accompanies multitasking. I believe the hardest part of mindfulness is overcoming the guilt of not doing enough at work or home.
Just remember, those YouTubers that are already 10 steps ahead of you, yet you feel bad for not being at their working pace…it took them time to get there!
Granting yourself the freedom to focus on tasks according to your energy levels throughout the day, would be a game-changer if companies could embrace this incredible productivity hack of just allowing workers to work when they want to, without being micromanaged and to take as many breaks as needed.
Mindfulness enhances your own quality of your work by allowing you to choose how you work best and fosters a sense of accomplishment within yourself.
The only way to know how you work best is to try different things such as using a planner or planner printables or various productivity methods such as the Pomodoro Method or writing out a Project Planner.
Incorporate mindfulness techniques into your daily routine, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or simply taking a few moments to pause and reflect. These practices can help you figure out what makes you tick and what works for YOU.
3. Pacing:
Working or doing activities at a pace that is sustainable to YOU is about working at a steady, manageable speed that you can do rather than sprinting through tasks.
One of the best experiences I had simply working from home after the Pandemic was the feeling of being independent and being able to work at my own pace, especially without the office noise around me.
Being able to pace myself allows for adequate rest and recovery, which is crucial for maintaining long-term productivity and creativity.
One of the most well-known productivity hacks is using the Pomodoro Method, which allows you to set a timer to work in 25-minute increments with a 5-minute break in between.
Great for students who need to study for long periods of time, but also great for those doing deep work like writing on a laptop or graphic design work on a desktop computer.
Pacing and taking breaks helps prevent burnout and keeps you energized throughout the day. I can honestly tell you I get more done in a day when I am able to work for 2-3 hours, then break for a few more hours.
I am able to do feel more relaxed and less anxious when I know I have all week and weekend to work my 40 hours worth of “work.”
Sometimes a quick 20-minute catnap (or workout) during your workday, or lunch, can revive you tenfold into productive clarity versus grabbing for an energy drink or coffee.
With rising amounts of eyesight and headache issues from staring at computers all day, the more humans work on a computer, the more breaks we should be giving ourselves.
It’s recommended that for every hour you are on a computer or device, you should rest your eyes away for 5-10 minutes.
What surprised me is finding out that some computers give off UV rays, which is why it's recommended you wear blue light glasses while you are working, gaming, or are on any type of device. (which means most of us would be wearing these all day long!)
Since I got LASIK in 2022, I have to take longer breaks from a computer than what the Pomodoro Method allows because my eyes are now working even more overtime when focusing on a device for too long.
4. Quality over Quantity
Instead of aiming to complete as many tasks as possible, slow productivity focuses on the quality of the work produced. This allows you to take the time needed to deliver exceptional results, leading to greater satisfaction and better outcomes.
Most of us have to-do lists or enjoy that feeling of checking something off our checklist. Those type of items are typically task-based items that naturally are easy and simple to do.
The deepest or longest kind of work such as writing a book or remodeling a bedroom take time, therefore the approach is different.
One of the best ways to combat rushing through a project is to prioritize against the other items you also have to accomplish by using the Four Burner Method - a metaphor used to describe the balancing act required to achieve success.
The idea is that life is like a stove with four burners, each representing a crucial aspect of our life:
Family
Friends
Health
Work
Since there are trade-offs in time and attention, The Four Burner Method serves as a tool for self-reflection, helping people to evaluate their current life balance and make informed choices to align their actions with their goals and values.
This is where you list the four most important things going on in your life (or work) during any given day, week, month, season, or year and simply “turn off” one or two of those burners so you can focus on fueling the ones left.
5. Balance
Achieving a balance between work, family and personal life is a cornerstone of slow productivity but not everyone will be able to equally balance every part of their life.
By setting boundaries and prioritizing activities that nourish your well-being, you can create a harmonious and fulfilling lifestyle. There may be some things you can do longer than your peers can tolerate, so make a note of that.
If you have a family to care for or living with other roommates, speak up about what you need in order to focus. Put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door, wear noise-canceling headphones, or goto work at a coffee shop.
In order to be able to spend a significant amount of time on content creation, I decided to go ahead and do Gig Work instead of a full-time job working for someone else.
That way I could spend some additional part-time hours working on my personal brand while still being able to maintain a minimum level of income to still pay all my bills and being able to take a break as I see fit.
This balance ensures that you remain motivated and engaged in both your professional and personal pursuits.
Periodically reflect on your work habits and make adjustments as needed. Assess what strategies are working well and where improvements can be made to better align with the principles of slow productivity.
Conclusion
Embracing slow productivity can get you ahead with projects that take more time to complete.
I feel slow productivity goes hand-in-hand with minimalism because the whole idea is to decide what is most important to you and feeling more whole by doing less.
Start incorporating these principles into your routine today and experience the benefits of working smarter, not harder.
