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Is productivity a lie?
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HTML & CSS for absolute beginners: https://learn.kevinpowell.co
HTML & CSS tip of the week: https://html-css-tip-of-the-week.netlify.app
In this podcast episode, I discuss the complexities of motivation and productivity, emphasizing the importance of not feeling demotivated by the perceived productivity of others. I explore the illusion of productivity, the impact of social media on self-comparison, and share strategies for maintaining motivation even when feeling less productive. I encourage listeners to recognize their own achievements and to be aware of the curated images presented online, ultimately reminding them that they may be doing more than they realize.
My primary YouTube channel where I teach frontend development, with a strong focus on CSS: https://youtube.com/@kevinpowell
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Transcript
Introduction: Kevin's Podcast and Topic Struggles
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello my front-end friends and welcome to my podcast, General Musings. My name is Kevin and here in my podcast I talk about whatever is front of mind for me in any given week, usually in some way that's related to front-end development. And today I was originally, this is like my third take of doing this and then I'd start listening to it and I'm like, this is terrible. Part of it might just be because my voice is off. I am, I'm fighting a cold now or getting to the end of, of
Demotivation from Observing Others
00:00:24
Speaker
fighting a cold. But originally what I wanted to talk about was motivation.
00:00:27
Speaker
And by the end of the third version of this that I did, I think I finally figured out what I really want to talk about. So I'm happy that I'm taking the time to do this properly. And it's less about motivation. And what I want to talk more about is not being demotivated when you see how productive other people can seem to be.
Misleading Appearances of Productivity
00:00:53
Speaker
ah Right. Because there's I think, I mean, there's the productivity market in general is just a really big thing. And I'm not necessarily talking about this in terms of web development, but it definitely could be within that realm as well, where you see people producing so much cool stuff and they have a full time job and they're doing these side gigs and they're doing these other things. And maybe I'm one of those people that seem extremely uber productive to you.
Workaholism: Passion or Problem?
00:01:19
Speaker
And I think most of it's a lie, even coming from like the productivity people, right? And definitely we can have things in place that can help. And there's, you know, people that get an insane amount of stuff done can either to be workaholics, which often leads to burnout. I know a few people that go through just the wave of tons of stuff and then burning out and then tons of stuff and then burning out and they can't seem to break that cycle of getting out of an area where they're just overdoing it when they are in the zone or when they're in working and all of that. ah So that could be part of it too. And there's other people that do get tons of stuff done because
00:01:59
Speaker
they're that's what they enjoy doing too. Like I do think some workaholics it's because they enjoy work, right? They're not going to go and watch Netflix or play video games or do other stuff. And so if you're single, I think that you can even get away with that without any or too much detriment as long as it is enjoyable to you, the stuff you're doing, because if you're being if you're doing all of this, quote unquote, productive stuff and it's fun for you than it's the same as having other hobby as a downtime or watching Netflix or whatever it is right and and watching TV or playing video
Self-awareness and Personal Work Strategies
00:02:31
Speaker
games. at Whereas some people need that downtime to unwind and that's awesome and fine and completely normal to need something that's different and turn off the brain for a while and just I think that's important for a lot of people as well. And
00:02:47
Speaker
A big part of it it too is knowing yourself and being aware and and putting strategies in place based on how you work that can help. And that was a big part of what I was talking about in my the last take I did was was knowing yourself and everything and the importance there and building strategies around how you work when you're aware of the types of things that prevent you from getting certain tasks done.
Procrastination and ADHD Challenges
00:03:13
Speaker
And if that feels like it's something, like if you know you you do things, if you have stuff you don't want to do and you purposely procrastinate and you find other things to do instead to fill the time, I'd actually suggest you give the previous or two episodes ago when I talked to Chris Fernandez about dealing with ADHD as a developer. Even if you don't necessarily have ADHD, he's website he linked to or he had a whole bunch of resources, but there's lots of strategies and other things you can put in place.
00:03:40
Speaker
And sometimes the wrong one, you you try something, it doesn't work. It doesn't stick. And then you just stop those. I've done that a lot. And I've gotten better at sticking with strategies
Public Sharing and Perceived Productivity
00:03:49
Speaker
that work. But yeah, what I want to focus on more is getting demotivated when you see people that can just seem to get an insane amount of stuff done. And I want to use myself as the example, because I know some people have asked me how I get so much stuff done. And I'm like, I don't, it might seem like it. And as I said, I feel like maybe it's a little bit of a lie.
00:04:09
Speaker
And part of the reason it can seem like I get a lot of stuff done is because I share basically everything I'm doing publicly. So anytime you're looking at my stuff, there's a new video coming out, ah there's a new short, there's a new podcast episode, there's a new newsletter. I'm sharing, I have a new website now, HTML and CSS, tip of the week. I have another course, like there's lots of stuff constantly coming, but that's because every single thing I do, I share publicly. And so it artificially, or not artificially, but it just seems like I'm doing a lot because there's, if you're someone who follows me,
00:04:45
Speaker
because you just see this constant stream of things that I'm
Social Media and Unhealthy Comparisons
00:04:48
Speaker
doing. I'm not the most productive person in the world, definitely not. And there's lots of things I do. I have a lot of struggles with maintaining productivity and I have a lot of different things in place now, some of which aren't going to work and some of the which do. And I'm constantly shifting strategies and trying to find the things that can work for me to make sure that I can get all the things I want to and need to get done.
00:05:09
Speaker
done and I still put things off important tasks off a lot of the time just because I don't feel like doing them and I'll go and play in CodePen instead or or do something else or distract myself somehow or end up on social media whatever it is like I i do all of those things and I think most people do and Yeah, it just that thing of comparing yourself to others can be really hard. It's the same. It's not necessarily just with productivity as well. Like social media has this thing where people, most people, not everybody, some people are very genuine and share the goods and the goods and the bads, the ups and the downs, I guess, would of be better there of everything that's going on and give a bit more of a genuine
00:05:47
Speaker
feel of them, I guess. But most people are only sharing the stuff they want to share. So it's a very curated image of everybody. And that's for Joe Schmo, all the way up to the celebrities and everything in between, right? Where it's always this curated image based on what you want to be sharing. And like, if it's something that's not good, we probably won't share it and unless we're looking to commiserate or something like that, or we just need some, you know,
00:06:10
Speaker
some other people to validate the feelings we're feeling when we're down so sometimes that's the thing too and other people ah on social media do focus on the other side where it's all negative all the time which can be tiresome but yeah I think it's you know being very aware of that and not comparing what you're doing to other people.
Reflecting on Past vs. Present Productivity
00:06:32
Speaker
I've often even compared myself to past self and been like and I still don't understand how I did it because I put out courses when I was working full time and making weekly videos on YouTube and. How I don't know, you know, and my family was younger back then and part of it was I was younger, so I did more work at night, which I can't do anymore.
00:06:54
Speaker
um I found a few times where there's different tasks that I can do at night now that I um So it depends a little bit. So if I am in the crunch time and I need to get work done, I can focus on sort of prioritizing okay these things I'm going to do in the evening because I can actually do it like once the kids are in bed. But a lot of the work that I do now, i just i I'm out at like once it's once my workday is officially over, like I'm done and I can't concentrate well enough to get stuff done. So I think part of it's getting older. Maybe part of it's just I don't feel like doing it as much. like when it's
00:07:26
Speaker
When you're working full time and the YouTube channel is your part time job, it's more fun. Like, oh, I get to work on my my my hobby thing, the cool thing that I'm doing. And now that's my full time job. So I don't feel like doing it during the day and then again at night. So that might also play into it a little bit. The same with the courses and other things. But yeah, I compare myself to like how productive I felt like I used to be in the past. And I'm like, oh, I'm failing now. And I have to remind myself, no, I'm actually like, look at all the stuff you're doing. There's a lot of things I'm doing. And sometimes we just need that reminder of like,
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm actually doing more than I realized or I'm doing a lot and it might not feel like it at the time. You might be stuck on something or you might be putting something off and things like
Sustaining Productivity Beyond Initial Motivation
00:08:03
Speaker
that. And the reason I wanted to bring up this motivation thing is first of all, or this, this part of it anyway, but my first, first thing I wanted to talk about was just motivation and taking advantage of motivation because when I recorded that, when I was still super highly motivated, I recorded it a few weeks ago. December was like a super highly productive month for me and one that really motivated me going into 2025. And I've planned a lot of stuff and I'm still really motivated for the things that I've put in place. But then I got sick over the holidays and I'm just recovering. I lost my voice for a few days. I was having
00:08:39
Speaker
I just, you know, it it killed almost um all possible momentum because I basically, I was already taking time off from work because my kids were home. I was doing family time stuff. And then when it came to getting back into work, I couldn't because I was sick. So I'm like, I could do some demos and do the background stuff, but I just didn't feel well either. I was tired. And so I wasn't, I wasn't doing a whole lot and it just sort of sucked the everything out, right? Like I had all this energy going and all this forward momentum and it just all died off. And so I've been trying to get back into it. So that first one, I was like, where I was highly motivated. I'm like, Oh, this is, it was great that I was at the time, but I think getting work done when we're motivated, it's nothing special. It's getting work done once we're past that motivated stage, which can be hard. And so that was what I sort of started talking about after that in, yeah, I was talking more about the strategies I have for
00:09:32
Speaker
Working not necessarily when you're motivated but just like I block time off on my calendar for specific tasks and other things like that just so I I know what I should be doing and I try and stay on task for stuff and then near the end of that conversation when I was say conversation I'm just here talking about myself, but near the end of that I started talking a bit about more I'm talking about now and I think that's one thing that a lot of people have told me is it can be hard to maintain motivation when you feel like you're not a as productive as other people are.
Breaking Down Tasks for Better Productivity
00:10:03
Speaker
And I think we often underestimate or don't realize how productive we actually are, especially if you don't look at all the different tasks and all the different things you're doing on a regular basis and like actually breaking it down and being like, oh, yeah, I just did this one small thing. And, you know, when you break that bigger thing down and you realize, OK, I only did this one task today and I should have gotten more stuff done because I have this huge list. But when you look at that one thing you did, either it was a lot of work.
00:10:28
Speaker
Just because you got stuck you know a bug that you couldn't get through and it took way longer than you expected to that happens that every one of us or just it was a much bigger undertaking than you realized and you're able to break it down and and make it work at the end of the day and do all of the different things that involve a And when you look at it afterward, it might seem like, Oh, I just got that one thing off my checklist. But no, it was actually a ton of work that you did. And sometimes putting that into perspective can really, really help as well. And don't compare yourself to other people. That's like the easiest way to get demotivated and feel like you're not doing enough. So yeah, that's it for this week. Thank you very much for listening. And of course, until next time, don't forget to make your quarter of the internet just a little bit more awesome.