Freedom Friday: If You Want To Be More Productive...Stop!

This episode embraces the importance of taking time to sharpen our metaphorical axes, acknowledging that productivity improves significantly with a solid foundation of self-care and preparation. We discuss the struggles of managing busy schedules and the impact of neglecting our routines, encouraging listeners to find ways to invest in themselves for greater outcomes. 

• Understanding the impact of busy lifestyles on mental health 
• The significance of morning routines on productivity 
• The parable of sharpening the ax and its relevance 
• Exploring various activities that help sharpen one's mental focus 
• Recognizing signs of overwhelm as cues to take action and prepare 
• The long-term benefits of investing short periods in self-care 

Let's keep unlearning together so that we can experience more freedom. Thank you once again for listening to the UnlearnT Podcast. 

We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode!

Chapters

• 0:10 Sharpening Your Ax for Success
• 7:54 Prioritize Self-Care and Preparation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello everybody and welcome once again to the unlearned podcast. I'm your host with Abigail aka RA, and this is Freedom Friday, where we come and share something we've unlearned recently and now it has made us just a little bit more free. So, for those of you that may be like me and you have a lot, you have a lot going on right. You have a lot of roles you play, whether you're a parent, a spouse, have a leadership job at work, you're a key volunteer, you're a friend, you're a daughter, you're a son. You have a lot of roles. So you probably have a lot to do and if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are very growth-minded. You want to continue to unlearn, you want to continue to grow, get better, and so those of us like that find ourselves very busy moving a lot, having a lot on our plate, having a lot on the to-do list, having a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes they end up piling up a little more than we intend, but we're good, we want to do it Like. That's who we feel, like we are. We want to push forward, we want to go for it. We want to go for it, right. Um, I'm one of those people. I'm with you, that's me. And coming back from Christmas break, uh, I realized we're at the end of January. I know that Christmas break was a month and a half ago, I get it, but um, when I tell you that break I broke, it was a real break and it took me a minute to get back into it. And so one of the things about I started getting kind of getting back into it and I, man, I just something wasn't clicking, something wasn't. I wasn't able to really be as productive. I knew I had a lot to do but I just could not get into it. I had assignments due, I might've had grants due and I just could not get into it. Now I've done all those things, I got them done, but the grind to get the motivation have done all those things, I got them done, but the grind to get the motivation was such a high grind. It was higher than it had been, more intense than I remember it being. It's like, why can I not get moving here? And one day I just I knew what one of the things I needed to do was, just like I needed to get back into my morning routine. I had lost my morning routine really for a while where I just kind of spent time with God, spent time with myself read, breathe, pray and just don't go immediately into go mode. And so I realized I hadn't started doing that and so I realized I hadn't. I had started doing that. Well, I started doing it really out of a need, just to relax. It's like I just don't have it in me. But that really started me back on this really healthy pattern.

Speaker 1: 3:16

I was listening to a podcast and, um, god was telling kind of the a quick parable. A lot of you may have heard it before. It was the first time I'd heard it this way and it really just resonated with me. Um, say, you know, two guys were in the forest, uh, and chopping down trees. First guy starts chopping immediately. Second guy sharpens his ax for 10 minutes, starts chopping. The second guy, who sharpened his ax, even though he started 10 minutes later, finished cutting the tree down faster and that that stuck. I hadn't heard it that way. He said it like it was something that had been said forever. It was like, oh, this is just, everybody knows this. And I was like, excuse me, I don't, I hadn't heard it and it really resonated and I began to ask myself how do I sharpen my ax.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Why is sharpening my ax so important? And I started to realize that the morning routine I had was my sharpened ax. And so I want to ask you um, how do you sharpen your ax? Do you sharpen it or, like me, sometimes do you just start chopping? Go, go, go, go go. We have to unlearn that, um, we don't have enough time to sharpen our ax. You got to unlearn that you don't have enough time to sharpen your ax. You can't afford not to sharpen your ax. What do I mean by sharpening your ax right? Getting yourself in a position to perform at your maximum capacity. How can I perform at my maximum capacity? The sharper the ax, the better it's going to cut, and the better it cuts, the faster it cuts right. So what do I need to do to do that For me? Calm my brain. I need to read in the morning. I need to pray. It doesn't have to be long.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Sharpening your exes doesn't have to be a long drawn out routine. You don't have to spend hours doing it. This guy in the parable sharpened it for 10 minutes. It's all you need to do. It's not how long you do it, but it's what you do. So why don't we do that Like why don't we sharpen our ex?

Speaker 1: 5:30

Because we feel like we're under pressure, because we feel rushed. We sometimes feel unprepared. Feel like we're under pressure because we feel rushed. We sometimes feel unprepared, feel like we're too busy. We might feel like we don't have enough time. We just don't make the time right. So that could be why you don't sharpen it. But again, the consequences of not sharpening the ax on the front end, you're going to feel it deeper on the back end. So you want it to be meaningful. It doesn't have to be long.

Speaker 1: 6:05

For some of us it's reading, like myself, journaling, praying. You might play music. You might listen to a podcast get your mind going. You might cook breakfast. Sometimes sharpening my ax is cooking and I just need to do something. You know what I mean. This is kind of an aside, but this also really helped me. I think that's in the same podcast.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Like he said something interesting that, again, I never heard before. He said if you usually work with your mind, it's good to rest with your hands. If you rest with your hands, I'm sorry. If you work with your mind, it's good to rest with your hands. If you rest with your hands, I'm sorry. If you work with your hands, it's good to rest with your mind. So if you rest with your, I'm getting it wrong, hold on. If you work with your mind, rest with your hands. If you work with your hands, rest with your mind. In other words, for those of us who might be in the office a lot, we're on my computer a lot, we're in meetings a lot. We're doing things mostly with our minds and we're not just physically active at our job.

Speaker 1: 7:09

A good way to potentially sharpen your axe is to do something active, is to do something with your hands to work a different muscle, to do something with your hands to work a different muscle. I like to cook, and I like cooking things that might take me a while to do it. I can take my time, I'm not rushed in it, and so that could be one thing. I also play music. That's another way. So something that exercises a different part of you, and if you work with your hands right, reading a book, listening to a podcast, journaling, sometimes doing something that engages your mind in a little bit of a deeper way where your hands are not as active, right, that could be helpful. Anyway, that's an aside. I thought it was a good advice.

Speaker 1: 7:54

But whatever it is you need to do to sharpen your eggs either one, like whether it's your hands or whatever it is you need to do it. Look, um, it's been cold outside, and so we all know what it's like to walk out to a car that's been sitting out. And, uh, my husband's really good with this. He makes sure that my car is warmed up every morning. I am not good at warming up my own car, so before I was married and even like if he happens to be gone and I got to warm up my own car, I rarely do it, right and so. But you can feel a difference in the way your car runs, if you want, whether you warm it up first. If you warm it up first or if you just start driving cold.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Not sharpening your ax is like going out to a car that's been sitting in the cold all night, turning it on and revving up the engine and going. You may not have the immediate negative effects you may may not see right now, but over time that car is going to wear out. You're going to see the wear and tear on the car. Don't do that to your body. Don't do that to your brain. If you just wake up and go and go, go, go, go, go go, without sharpening your ax, you might begin to see the wear and tear on your body. We call it burnout acts. You might begin to see the wear and tear on your body. We call it burnout Um. And sometimes it can be taken care of by 10 minutes of just breathing, praying, resting, um, and really preparing your mind, preparing your soul, preparing yourself for the day.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Don't just get up and go. I've been doing that probably at this point for about a week and I can honestly say, and it's one of those things that's seasonal y'all. Like I said, I didn't start off the year like that and it's one of those things that's seasonal y'all Like, like I said, I didn't start off the year like that and I had, like you know, I had a morning routine and for a season I was doing it and then I stopped, I got caught up in the, in the grind, and I was feeling it, and then I I began to take myself back down, rest. Don't get up and start cold, warm up first. Um, and it's been incredible, I've had some of the best days, um, that that I've had and I one of the things that I am reminded of is that the 10 to 30 minutes you spend on the front end is going to give you hours of valuable time on the backend.

Speaker 1: 10:33

The 10 to 30 minutes you spend on the front end is going to give you hours of valuable time on the back end. The 10 to 30 minutes you spend on the front end preparing yourself, sharpening your ax, warming up your engine right the 10 to 30 minutes you spend doing that will give you hours of valuable time back on the back end. So don't don't give up the hours on the back end because you won't give up 30 minutes on the front end. Take time, sharpen your ax. A good, a good key to know when you need to do it Is, if you ever, if you feel like you don't have enough time to do something, you probably need to sharpen your axe. If you're feeling rushed, if you're feeling under pressure, if you're feeling unprepared, if you're feeling like you're too busy, you have too much, it's too much, it's just too much. If you're feeling overwhelmed, you probably need to sharpen your axe. It's going to feel counterintuitive, it's going to feel counterproductive because you have so many things you have to do, but the reason you have so many things that you have to do is because you haven't been doing the things you need to do. And the reason you haven't been doing things you need to do is because you haven't felt the energy to do them. And the reason you haven't felt the energy to do them is because you haven't slowed down enough to get yourself warm, to sharpen your ax, so that you can have the real energy to get it done. Try sharpening your ax, don't just go cold. All right, that's it, folks. Hopefully that was helpful.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Once again, this is Freedom Friday, and if you haven't caught the episodes earlier this week, do that. We're in a new series that we are really, really enjoying around talking about what you have to unlearn from the kitchen table, whether it's your family, your community, your environment or society from when you were younger, and so we're diving into that. We started that series. Y'all check it out. Like, share, comment, subscribe. Let us know we love building this community. We love you guys. Thanks for listening and let's keep unlearning together so that we can experience more burrito Peace. Thank you once again for listening to the Unlearned Podcast. We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode. Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to let us know what you think. We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together to move forward towards freedom. See you then.