Go Do Something That Doesn’t Make You Feel Worse

An unconventional piece of productivity advice

Michael Thompson
Forge
Published in
2 min readNov 5, 2019

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Photo: JESHOOTS.COM/Unsplash

OOnce, 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…

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Published in Forge

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Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson

Written by Michael Thompson

Co-creator of two cool kids • Storytelling Coach •.Fast Co., Insider, Forbes • Free storytelling guide here: https://bit.ly/3h1KZeT

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