With the introduction of COVID vaccines and a never-ending uncertainty of when colleges will reopen, we asked the Réveil team to explain what productivity meant to them and how they were productive during the lockdown. Being forced to stay indoors dismayingly helped numerous people identify and understand themselves better along with picking up new hobbies.
How would you define productivity?
“I feel productivity is intrinsic. As long as I don’t feel like I've wasted my day at the end of it, I feel I'm productive. It necessarily does not necessarily mean something revolutionary.”
Being productive is subjective but a meaningful process towards feeling self-accomplished. Productivity is and should not be proportional to happiness or achievements; simply watching your favourite web series or finishing a jigsaw puzzle can make an uneventful day eventful. Checking out the boxes in a to-do list, contributing to your physical, mental and overall growth, feeling a sense of contentment and fruitfully utilizing time are all definitions of productivity.
Ways in which the team was productive
Limited to our homes for days, with our time whiled away behind four walls, finding the urge to be productive does not come easy. However, our peers seem to have found a way to make being productive less harrowing- by sprucing the process up with passion.
Passion differs for each. For some of the team members, it was developing physical health -
“I just began incorporating healthier lifestyle choices such as basic exercise, increasing my fluid intake and so on. It's something I've put off for a while now, and although it's not a drastic shift of lifestyle, I believe it's a good place to start.”
Learning new skills such as cooking, Photoshop, writing, playing golf, becoming a Potter-head and even binge-watching was something some were passionate about; and for a few others it was rediscovering old passions like sketching, crafting and reading .
A career and academics driven passion was also something that prompted people to be productive “I did 2-4 new courses on Coursera for my CV development”; “I have learnt how to manage a business”
Apart from these, there is one passion that holds enormous importance yet is the least spoken of taking care of one’s mental health. Learning to spend time for ourselves and giving our mind a break from the toils of everyday life is undoubtedly something to be passionate about. Furthermore, despite conventional notions, the time spent in it is extremely productive. It was hence, delighting to see responses such as “I definitely did get a lot of time to fix my mental health.” , “I worked on self-growth” and “took sufficient OFF days to well, do nothing (that was way more productive too!)”
All in all, we must learn to equate productivity to something we truly enjoy, and not to what society narrowly defines.
Do you plan on changing anything in 2021?
We got a diverse set of answers for this question, right from, “I still feel I wasn’t able to do much like other people did so yes I will and am trying to change that in 2021” to “Felt quite productive in this lockdown.”
As students, we all know that learning never stops. So whether you were the “even though I was kind of productive, I don't feel it was up to my full potential. I'd like to get some internships, take on some courses to enhance my resume” type or the “ feel like I could undertake activities that could potentially develop newer or improve my existing skill-sets” type, perhaps we can all agree that the lockdown really changed our perception of learning and 2021 is witness to it.
With 2020 bringing boredom and procrastination into the bargain most students were unable to stay consistent in their routines. Which leads us to- “Staying consistent.” This was one of our peers' simple, yet conceivably one of the most challenging resolutions.
Let us not forget that it was the little things that got us through 2020 which could possibly help us advance into 2021 as well. In that case, is a change necessary at all?
“I've been wanting to learn basic video editing for a while now, and I plan on getting started with that”
“From the first day of this year, I've actively worked upon building a habit for the things I wanted to achieve this year and I plan on making this a habit to actively involve myself in seeing a better self a few months down the lane!”
“'I'd like to get some internships, take on some courses to enhance my resume, be consistent with my dance and channel, learn more about the topic of health and fitness.”
Could it possibly be that learning a skill on our own pace, ticking boxes from our day to a daily to-do list or simply uploading our favourite dance cover are reasons enough to keep persevering? Our peers certainly think so.
“Learning to prioritize more and to lead a balanced lifestyle to avoid burnouts is what I hope to achieve in 2021.”
“Ensuring that productivity does not come from a place of insecurity is a change that would make things better.”
Productivity has been linked to academic accomplishments for as long as we can remember. Studying day in, day out and working till we are out like a light was synonymous to feeling useful. However, that’s not the case lately as working towards your goals tirelessly need not yield the results one was looking forward to. Some days, we can be up and running, catching up with old friends, going for jogs, turning in all the assignments and meditating. The other days, we are only able to stare at the sky and paint a picture. Both the instances are directly linked to how one feels productive and if it’s only possessing the strength to get out of bed, that’s productive too.
Edited By
Vani Ambardar - 4 BBA F
Shruti Nayata - 4 BBA D
Khushi Varshney - 2 BBA A
Harshita Manoj Jaswani - 2 BBA C
Kanishka Saravanan - 2 BBA C
Designed By
Sharanya B G - 2 BBA A
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