How to Act Productive Tip #11: Feel Guilty

Photo by: s-t-r-a-n-g-e

Here at Grad Hacker, we feel that simply being productive is not enough. What good is your inner, clandestine, productivity, if your bosses, colleagues, and you yourself don't really know the extent of just how unbelievably productive, busy, stressed, in a rush, and important you really are? For these, reasons, every once in a while we will provide you with a tip on how to act productive.

Warning: This tip may hit close to home. You may walk slow, and eat a lot, but there's a good chance that you've felt some guilt before. I don't apologize for any hurt feelings.

Productive people feel guilty. A lot. About what? It doesn't even matter, they don't have time to think about stupid questions. When you have a lot things to do, there's inevitably a lot of things you wish you could do. But you can't. Because you're "just so busy right now." Result: guilt. A lot of it. This is the life of an important, busy, and thus productive person.

Productive people feel guilty about:

- Asking for an extension on assignments because the rest of their life is too busy.

- Assignments that they can finish on time but could have been done better.

- Neglecting their friends and family because they're just so busy.

- That long list of someday/maybe projects that they know they will never get around to.

- Not exercising.

- Skipping lunch and making up for it with Cheetos from the vending machine.

- Feeling guilty all the time.

If you haven't felt guilty in a while, chances are you're being lazy. Summer is not even an excuse. In fact, that's when you should look back on the semester of neglected "I should get around tos" and feel guilty about neglecting them. Then make a list of all those items and tell yourself you have to get them done. If you don't, don't worry, you can get your guilt on come fall.