Productivity: 0

[Admiral Squish]

I'm not sure what it is about my strange relationship with productivity.

When I do nothing, my productivity is low. Sometimes I might do something, but mostly I'm just watching TV or surfing the net making nonproductive posts and refreshing pages over and over.
When I work, my productivity vanishes entirely, and I can barely even think in creative/productive terms. I get home and just veg out. I can't even make good posts in my PbP games.
When I'm in school, though, my productivity SOARS. I come home at the end of the day with pages upon pages on notes on things I want to do or make.

Does this happen to anyone else?

[Teddy]

I tend to be most productive at night when I'm alone and slightly tired. These are, however, the times when I find it easiest to entertain myself, so the likelyhood of me sitting down behind my note book and jotting it all down is pretty low, sadly, because when I find time to do so, my productivity seems to have fallen down to nil.

[Winter_Wolf]

I've noticed that when I do a lot of things in a day, I tend to be more productive with my spare time. I attribute this to the fact that I'm keenly aware of having less time to do things than if I hadn't been at work. This kicks in the "dammit now I have to squeeze a day's worth of stuff into the few hours between end of work and bedtime" mechanism.

Sadly, the classes I'm taking tend to put me in another frame of mind, namely "man I frikkin' hate this course, what was I thinking? Hell with it I'll just put it off until 'later.'" Yeah, it's not a good thing when first half of first trimester and you're already going, "this was an astoundingly bad move, even for me."

Last night I found myself thinking that I was kind of sad I don't go in to work again until Monday. It's a bit of a new experience for me to have a job where I *want* to keep going back for reasons other than a paycheck (which let's face it, is going to be tiny no matter how I slice it). I mean, I like all my co-workers (there's not even a single "that guy" at the place!), believe in the mission, and feel like I am actually contributing to something good. Where was I? Oh, right, productivity. Anyway, I work hard on the job because I want to, not because I fear getting fired if I don't kiss up and take on too much work to do a good job doing any of it unless I clock double hours and forsake my family and recuperation time. I have noticed that outside of the place I work, there are pretty much no other office jobs I know of where people enjoy their job, so much as fear losing the money from it even though they hate it. Basically, for me, the desire to be productive carries home with me because I wanted to and enjoyed being productive when I was working, and that attitude is something I can take with me at the end of the day.

Out of curiosity, has anyone else noticed that if they start their morning off with, "I'm going to have a good day at work today", that day seems to be harder than days when you don't give yourself that pep talk?

[Kiren]

I always feel like I am trapped for time, rationing it between by interests.
High school can be a trap for time, I like the idea of how colleges do their classes.

[Seffbasilisk]

The brain is like any other part of the body. If you don't use it, it will atrophy.

In school, you're thinking, you're learning, you're engaging new concepts, and drawing them together for new ideas. Even if you're not attending classes, you're interacting with people, finding the cheapest beers, subconsciously mapping out the course that a frisbee or a pool-ball will go...

That stimulates you, so you find yourself able to keep it up.

If you aren't thinking, you start to stagnate, and it's harder to get moving.

[Duncfoo]

I have found the most useful method for keeping myself productive is to make lists!

One list of things I have to get done and a second of things I want to get done. It helps with keeping my priorities straight and making sure I engage in my many hobbies.

I'm years out of college and working a job I'm not a huge fan of... so I keep myself engaged with challenges that keep my brain chugging along (crosswords, suduko puzzles, adventure designs, reading / debating finance and politics)

Try arranging your needs vs wants on a list! You don't need to update it daily, or be obsessive on it. And don't feel afraid to shift things between the two. Sometimes you need to Game (or eat ice cream).

You can also set rewards for yourself arounds tasks... although I often would end up distracted by my rewards when I did this.

[Admiral Squish]

I have found the most useful method for keeping myself productive is to make lists!

One list of things I have to get done and a second of things I want to get done. It helps with keeping my priorities straight and making sure I engage in my many hobbies.

I'm years out of college and working a job I'm not a huge fan of... so I keep myself engaged with challenges that keep my brain chugging along (crosswords, suduko puzzles, adventure designs, reading / debating finance and politics)

Try arranging your needs vs wants on a list! You don't need to update it daily, or be obsessive on it. And don't feel afraid to shift things between the two. Sometimes you need to Game (or eat ice cream).

You can also set rewards for yourself arounds tasks... although I often would end up distracted by my rewards when I did this.

This actually sounds like a pretty good plan...

I'm going to have to start doing this, I think.

[Xyk]

I have virtually no productivity but very little problem with it. Because, given my high test scores and pretty decent GPA of past years, among other things, I'm set for getting into college. I'd have to fail to graduate to somehow not get into college. These little homework assignments are trivial and I've decided that the information is more important than the grade for now. So I just pay attention in class and enjoy my senior year of high school.

[Cobalt]

At school I get all kinds of non-school related stuff done. But when the Summer rolls around I'm in bed till like, four, and I don't do a damn thing, ever. Life's funny like that. Tis all about motivation, and unless I have something else to put off, I'm not motivated to do anything. Somehow I've survived this far.

[Dr.Epic]

Yeah, happens to me all the time.