The way I see this thing changed a lot in the past year. Or even in the past month.
I was a happy person, who naturally had to do things I didnāt like or want to do, but I always was able to do what I want as well ā to draw after I finish my homework, to read books in the evening, or watch anime, or go to jewelry classes and make ceramics at home after work. Iāve always had opportunities to do anything I wish ā and I was used to it. And when the pandemic hit I was not upset at all because I could spend the time I used to spend on the way to the office and back on my own projects and hobbies, on the things I love.
The war started ā and all my dreams and plans and hopes and habits were ruined in an instant, and after the series of events I ended up in entirely different place, where I can not do creative things that I used to do for years. All I wanted to do was implossible here. And I was stuck with the boring work that I hated.
At some point I found myself absolutely unable to focus on my tasks ā like, my attention span was shorter than a tiktok video, I struggled with filling in even a short form (I was working with documents a lot). I was distracted by literally everything, from my phone to the sounds behind my window, and the fact that Iām working from home didnāt help at all ā I did anything possible but not work. And I felt as crap.
Should I even mention that I didnāt have any energy even to go buy groceries? I spent weekends watching dramas and even not remembering what Iāve watched.
But at the same point Iāve started to get less paperwork and my priorities changed ā Iāve returned to working on a project that Iām really interested in ā and guess what ā my ability to focus āØmagicallyāØ reappeared, and last week I worked for 7-9 hours a day almost without distractions ā though my environment or schedule or anything else didnāt change. It was just the interesting vs important but boring staff I have to do. Thatās all. And still, it feels like my condition changed radically.
So lately I was thinking about all this a lot ā Iāve never noticed how important is it to at least like your work. No, of course I knew that to like what you do is better than to hate it ā but it never crossed my mind how much it can influence my energy levels.
So. What I wanted to say. For everyone who read this ā try to do more of what you like to do! Not just think tat itās important, but what you feel good doing, even if others think itās silly (iām working on a language learning app now, and itās obviously much less important than making an accounting system (especially in a tiny country where accountants still do everything manually and need some good software), but itās way more joyful for me, so Iāll do that silly little language learning app!). Thatās it.
