One of the most striking lessons I’ve learnt from the last few months is how fundamentally linked productivity and wellbeing are. In truth I’m a bit embarrassed that it’s taken me this long to realise. It’s not really surprising that getting stuff done is a struggle when you’re feeling down in the dumps. That said, for me the experience of being stuck at home with no external distraction has really brought this fact of life into sharper focus than ever before.
As a rule, I’ve discovered that when I’m happy, I’m productive. When I’m feeling low and in a funk, I’m not. I think we can all be forgiven for feeling low recently, so I’m trying not to be too hard on myself. But without the distraction of pub trips, weekend plans, holidays and football to break up my weeks and give me a lift, I’ve found that the onus is well and truly on me to regulate my own wellbeing and, by extension, my productivity.
In my search for ways to do this, I recently discovered The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos. Dr Santos is a professor of psychology and human cognition at Yale University. Her course “Psychology and the Good Life” focusses on the science of happiness and wellbeing and recently became Yale’s most subscribed lecture course.
A guest on one of the recent Happiness Lab podcasts was talking about how the principles of Stoic philosophy could be helpful in maintaining optimism and resilience in a time of crisis such as the one we are going through now. I had some vague recollection of studying the Stoics at university when I studied philosophy, so my interest was piqued.
From the podcast and my own research I discovered some helpful Stoic methods for staying optimistic in difficult times, which I’ve been trying to incorporate into my daily life. The experience of actively taking steps to improve my wellbeing and resilience has been really empowering. While it’s certainly not a panacea for all of life’s ills, it feels good to try and take back some control over my emotional welfare. It’s also been useful to have some go-to methods that I can rely on when I’m feeling unproductive or just generally a bit down.
I therefore thought I’d share my top three Stoic life hacks with you. Maybe they can help you stay happy, resilient and productive too.
I - Reframe crisis as challenge
The first Stoic method involves “framing”. Framing is a phenomenon whereby the way you emotionally experience a situation can change based on how the situation is “framed” or presented to you. Situations or events presented in a positive manner are more likely to elicit positive emotions than the exact same situations or events presented in a negative way. The Stoic Challenge approach makes use of this phenomenon to reframe moments of crisis. It works like this:
Imagine that there exists a collection of “Stoic Gods”. These Gods have a mission – to test you and put challenges in your way. These challenges can be small (the Wi-Fi going down) or big (a global pandemic). The Stoic Gods provide these challenges not out of spite, but in order to give you an opportunity to show resilience and grow as a person. In the face of whatever challenge is presented, you have two options. You can respond negatively with anger, resentment or sadness. Alternatively, you can respond positively, with resilience and a solutions-based approach, seeing the challenge not as a calamity but as an obstacle that was put in your path to test your mettle. If you respond negatively, you “lose” the challenge. If you respond positively, you “win”. Your goal is to try and make it through the day, the week, and ultimately your life accumulating as many “wins” as possible.
If the whole “Stoic Gods” idea seems weird or puts you off, you can imagine these challenges being set by an invisible teacher, sports coach, or even the universe itself. The point is to reframe crises that arise in your life as challenges which have been presented to you so that you can overcome them, rather than merely as misfortunes which you have to passively endure.
I find that this reframing helps me to respond to events in an emotionally constructive and resilient way. It allows me to play an active role in deciding how to respond to a situation. Rather than being at the whims of my emotions, I am actively taking part and trying to tilt the scales in the positive direction.
II - Imagine telling the story of your life
The second Stoic method relates to imagining your future self looking back and telling the story of your life. You could imagine yourself writing a memoir or a letter to children or grandchildren. The only catch is that you have to be completely honest when retelling your life story – no sugar-coating. This forces you to think carefully about how you respond to events in your life. It encourages you to respond gracefully and resiliently. After all, you want this part of the story to be one that future you enjoys telling.
I’ve found that considering my life from a third person perspective in this way forces me to be more objective as I confront situations. It leads me to analyse both the situation at hand and, more importantly, my response to it from the perspective of my imagined distant, future self. I find that this approach really helps to dampen knee-jerk emotional responses and promote level-headed, calm thinking.
III - Negative visualisation
The third and final Stoic method takes a bit of bravery and may seem a bit counterintuitive at first. It relates to negative visualisation, which involves allowing yourself to imagine losing something, or even someone, that you hold dear. Now – and this is important – the idea is not to dwell on this possibility for an extended period, working yourself into a knot of anxiety. Rather, the aim is to simply allow yourself to reflect briefly on what your life would be like if you lost the thing in question.
The idea of this method is that, upon completing your negative visualisation, you will be filled with a newfound appreciation for whatever it is you were thinking about losing. You will have reminded yourself of how amazing it is that you have this person or thing in your life. I find that this is a powerful way of counteracting our tendency to get used to and, eventually, take for granted all the great things in our lives.
In a sense, lockdown has itself been one long acted out negative visualisation. All of a sudden, we are confronted with the loss of a whole host of experiences we used to take for granted - restaurants, pubs, theatres, time with family, hugging friends. Lockdown has forced us all to re-evaluate and I know that, at least for me, the first time I get to do these things again when lockdown ends will be a moment of immense gratitude.
Negative visualisation allows me to re-evaluate things in my life in this way at any time, and without having to go through a global pandemic. It reminds me that things could almost always be worse. Imagine a lockdown without the internet, Netflix – or indoor plumbing! This in turn makes me grateful for what I have. As the saying goes – the Stoic does not see the glass as half empty or half full. Rather, she is grateful that the glass exists at all!
Take back control
So, there you have it – three ways to try and stay happy, productive and stave off those lockdown blues using some good old ancient philosophy.
I’m not going to pretend that these techniques have suddenly turned me into some kind of a Buddha. I still get grumpy, sad, and have dips in productivity. But one thing these methods have definitely helped me do is counteract the sense of monotony and powerlessness that had begun to set in a few weeks ago. It feels good to take back control.
If you’re interested in hearing more about the above techniques, you can find the relevant Happiness Lab podcast here.