Conversation

Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
Some hazy reflections in response to
@mayli
's "any tips on how to shake the forever feeling of not having done enough"
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Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
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Replying to @mayli
I’m terrible at this (I call this feeling “my screaming harpies”), but thinking out loud: Zooming out usually helps. I’m often disappointed with what I did this week but feel great about what I did in the last few months. twitter.com/andy_matuschak
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Kanjun 🐙
@kanjun
For me, the critical shift was to stop believing that this "not enough" feeling was serving me. I used to think it was the root of my drive - that if I felt I'd done enough, I'd stop doing things. Turns out, now that I think I do enough, I accomplish far, far more.
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Kanjun 🐙
@kanjun
A few realizations that helped the belief shift: 1. Feeling "behind" activates your sympathetic nervous system. This makes you less creative. 2. Feeling satisfied creates psychological safety, which increases creativity.
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Kanjun 🐙
@kanjun
3. I've done however much I've done. Thinking I "should have" done more doesn't change how much I've done. 4. If I feel like I've done enough, I think about what to do next with a clean slate and open mind.
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Kanjun 🐙
@kanjun
5. If I feel behind, I laser focus on a path toward a nebulous state of "enough". This is often (usually) the wrong path, or at least a suboptimal path.
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