## What’s in a Day? A couple of months ago I was explaining to my therapist how I’m constantly occupied with how I spend every minute of every day of my life, and whether those minutes are bieng used “effectively” or not. “Productivity” is a point that’s featured heavily in this Garden. Not because I’m one of those grindset freaks, but because I have [[ADHD]], and if I’m not careful, I’ll never get anything done. There’s a balance that I try to hit — focus on productivity too much and I burn out. Don’t do it enough and I don’t hit the goals I’ve set for myself. Said therapist asked, empathetically: > [!question] > What does a productive day look like to you? This question was impossible for me to answer, because I didn’t ever ask it of myself. What is a productive day, *truly*? I had to get back to her on that. I have never tried to interrogate what a productive day actually _is_. This is dumb because I should be logical about whatever gives me anxiety, or else it shouldn’t give me anxiety. Eventually, I came up with a list. I won’t share it here, but the general idea is that if I check off at least one or two of the 8 boxes I addded as a note in my [[Obsidian|Obsidian Vault]], then I can rest easy that I have spent my time well that day. I think if you’re like me you should try this out. And on top of that you should: ## Ask What’s Good About You This was another suggestion from my therapist. After a very traumatic event that occurred earlier this year, I felt super down about myself. Said therapist suggested that I write down what’s good about me. I agreed to try it. This was, unironically, one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do this year. No one can ever dog on me harder than I dog on myself, readers. It took me an hour to come up with a suitable list. I even had to write it in third-person, so it felt less like I was trying to “convince” myself — even if that’s technically what I was doing. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that either! Convincing yourself of something doesn’t mean that something isn’t true. It just means you need evidence. I wrote the things I appreciate about myself and even supplied evidence via links and screenshots and quotes from other people. Now that page, and the productivity one I mentioned earlier, are bookmarked in Obsidian for easy access. I look at them whenever I’m feeling down, and it helps. If you’re tough on yourself, give it a try. I don’t think it’d hurt.