This post is a bit of a follow-up to this week’s Thursday Thought.
As a consequence of testing out a web app that one of my cousins is developing, I was struck by how easily we can underestimate what we have achieved.
Many of us evaluate our productivity via a task-orientated/concrete outcomes lens. This can be due to a person’s particular personality type. However, it can also be to do with how we are socialised into thinking that we must be productive, we must have something to show for it (hustle hustle hustle) and so on.
Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with having tasks, goals etc. that one wants and needs to get done. We could though sometimes do with applying an additional lens, filter or perspective with which to mark how successful we have been at doing so. Enter Proud.
The primamry premise of Proud is essentially very simple. You are given the opportunity to answer one question:
What have you done today?
When I trialled Proud it was after 10 pm on a Friday. I wasn’t feeling as if I had been very productive that day. In fact, if anyone had asked how my day had gone, I’d most likely have said I hadn’t been very productive or potentially been even more disparaging of myself.
Yet along comes this opportunity to make a note of all the things I’d achieved, and as I began to do so (in support of my cousin as opposed to expecting to have much to jot down) the list went from one thing to nine things.
I was truly surprised to see what I had gotten done. I also genuinely felt significantly affirmed. -By a web app of all things!
A sign -to me- that subconsciously I was feeling less than impressed with myself. Which may not have been exclusively related to my prior perception of that day. It could potentially have been my evaluation of my entire week. I also had a moment later that weekend when I actually said to myself, “I could really do with Proud now.”
There’s a line in a hymn we use to sing a lot in church when I was younger,
Count your blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Johnson Oatman (1897)
It came to mind when I was recording the Thursday Thought, and I made the connection that it could surprise you what you have got done.
As Proud – the brainchild of my cousin btw- is still in the final stages of testing, yesterday I chose to apply the basic principle via the notes app on my phone.
Once again, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I had done. I experienced both affirmation and a sense of achievement when compiling my answers to the ‘Proud’ key question.
I’m also sure there were a few more things. Encapsulated in ‘other usual messaging, responding to…’ alone is at least 30 – 40 mins (if not more) of effort and engagement.
To-do lists have their place (I do use them from time to time), but personally I more often than not find them to be an indictment of what I haven’t managed to do. Overshadowing and obscuring from my mind what I have achieved—what the wins (however small) of the day were.
So counting my achievements may well become a daily habit for me. One I’d encourage you to try too.
- If you’d you like to check out Proud in the future or potentially contribute to the final rounds of testing DM @MorleneFisher