Stop Calling Yourself Lazy, and Other Strategies for Getting Out of a Slump
A therapist shares three approaches to riding out overwhelming times
How can I make myself productive again? It’s a question that has come up again and again in my sessions with therapy clients, especially in the first few weeks of the new year: Amid all the crises of 2020 and a brand-new 2021, many of us are grasping for a way to stop feeling paralyzed and unfocused — to get back some amount of motivation as a way of holding on to a semblance of normalcy.
But what does that mean, anyway? When humans are anxious, we are quick to latch on to a definition of productivity that says humans should operate like successful businesses, always growing and producing. Any flat lines or dips in functioning are evidence of laziness — a trait that, in this definition, is the ultimate personal moral failing.
When people feel like they aren’t getting enough work done, they usually have two responses. They chastise themselves, or they aggressively try to push themselves. Often they attempt both at the same time, only to become depressed when this vacillation between scolding and psyching up doesn’t seem to work.
