Effortless Thursdays #39: Overcoming Your Productivity Dilemma

Join me to connect your heart to your productivity

Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street Gardens

I was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last weekend. It’s now an annual pilgrimage over the last bank holiday weekend in August, and this year we saw 12 shows over three days. 

Most of them were plays with some physical theatre and comedy thrown in.

But this year - for some reason - the festival felt a little hollowed out, especially compared to the years before the pandemic lockdowns.

The overall quality of the performances was - perhaps - slightly down.

The audience demographic was different to previous years, too. Older, perhaps more wealthy. Higher prices of tickets and accommodation compared to previous years no doubt contribute to performers and audiences who would have come when prices were more reasonable.

Since 1947 the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been a fixture in the performing arts calendar. And like anything that evolves - an institution, or even you - everything each day or week, or year seems the same. 

Until it isn't.

Heaven or hell?

My highlight of the weekend was a play called Heaven by Eugene O'Brien.

It’s a story about a couple at a local wedding in Ireland who are trying to keep their own marriage together.

Perhaps they got together for the wrong reasons, but events during the weekend wedding made them look into their hearts and re-think what they really wanted out of their relationship and themselves. 

What's good for each of them individually? What's good for them as a couple?

At the end of the weekend, the five of us who make the annual pilgrimage to the Fringe ranked this show number one out of all the others we saw.

The Fringe 5

The thing is, what can start out as heaven can evolve into hell. (Or even something a little less melodramatic!)

Have you noticed in your own life how things change over time - for better or worse?

It’s a change that happens imperceptibly at first, and then it becomes so obvious. What emerges is the gap - between what went before and what is unfolding now - that is so distinct that it's impossible to unsee the change. It’s a change that was invisible only just before.

It happens with our brains. If we're diagnosed with a neurodegenerative condition, like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease. We might have a diagnosis in our 50s or 60s, perhaps even in our 40s like with early-onset Parkinson's. Yet the foundations for those diseases were already being built in our 20s and 30s, imperceptibly. Step by step. These diseases can take years to progress to the point of showing noticeable symptoms.

It happens with our relationships. We meet a childhood sweetheart and 10 years later, it turns out what we wanted isn't what we need, and fun has turned into frustration.

It happens when we start a new job or a career. We might start bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and at some point, the malaise has set in, and we wonder if it's all worth it.

It can even happen within a day. You start the day with your morning routine - a moment of mindfulness, or going outside first thing to start your circadian rhythm - but your productive streak has turned into you feeling frazzled and exhausted at the end of the day.

Join me to connect your heart to your productivity

On Friday 1 September (yes, that's tomorrow!) I'm going to be running one of the 12 sessions that are on offer as part of the Action-Powered Productivity Digital Conference.

RJ Nestor, a productivity coach, is the mastermind behind the 3-day event (31 AUG - 2 SEP).

You can get a preview of my session here about how we can connect our heart to our productivity so that we can be productive, efficient and creative without ending each day feeling frazzled, snapping at everyone around us, and seeing our health slowly deteriorate.  - perhaps only when it's too late.

RJ Nestor has brought 9 productivity experts together, including Lukas Kawerau from Cortex Futura, and Ev Chapman. There are some teaser videos showcasing the full lineup here.

If you would like to join any or all of the sessions, you can sign up for all the sessions for free for the digital productivity conference here. 

Over to you!

What do you notice about the almost imperceptible changes that are happening within you?

What (if anything) do you want to do about it?

ps If you’re an entrepreneur, a lawyer or another high-flying professional and want to see how joy can transform your productivity, your impact and the kind of leader you’re known for, get in touch and let’s have a conversation.

That’s it for this week!

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To your health and success!

Eric