Go Do Something That Doesn’t Make You Feel Worse
An unconventional piece of productivity advice
Once, when a former manager caught me moping around the office during a rough day, he grabbed my shoulder and said, “Michael, go do something that doesn’t make you feel worse.”
I stared at him, confused. So he clarified: “Take 10 minutes and go outside to get some air. I guarantee you won’t come back into the office feeling worse than you do right now.”
In that moment, I very much disagreed. Stepping away was the last thing I wanted to do: I had just started at the company, and a potential client was breathing down my neck to get them a revised proposal as soon as humanly possible. Still, I did what he said.
When I came back into the office, I realized my boss was on to something. I wasn’t exactly beaming with happiness, but this shift from feeling miserable to just slightly annoyed was a massive improvement. I had my energy back. I could focus. A few hours later, my client signed off on the proposal.
This was a lightbulb moment for me: All of us will have stressful days. Bad things will happen, and people will do things that annoy us. But I realized that productivity isn’t about being positive all the time — sometimes it’s simply about figuring out how to be less negative. We don’t…
