Cassandra "Caz" Stark

FUNCK Example

Journaling to be more productive has layers, like an onion of motivational hope and feelings of self-defeat! Many journals claim that forming habits around productivity will drive happiness in your life and relationships. Sure. They will. For a little while. But the fact of the matter is, there’s a reason you’re in this position. Whether you’re experiencing a momentary lack of motivation or complete burnout, your body and mind are trying to tell you something. That something is plain and simple: You have an unmet need.

A lack of motivation or complete burnout can manifest in depression, anxiety, and chronic pain or illness throughout your body. The key is to not try to do more or force yourself through these down moments in order to “get back on track” because you “should” or “have to” and [insert the name of whoever you are prioritizing over yourself – mom, dad, boss].

When you find yourself in this kind of rut, your automatic coping mechanism is firing a survival mode of “freeze” (fight/flight/freeze/faint).

Why? Imagine you’re lost in the woods as your cave-dweller self, and you hear a rustle in the bushes. You don’t know if it is your pet sabertooth tiger or the one that wants to eat you. This is a huge breadth of “what ifs.” Cue: Anxiety. Even if it doesn’t feel like anxious because you’re lacking the energy to be that hyped up about… well… anything, anxiety can creep in almost silently when you find yourself in a moment where you feel like you need to push, prepare, and plan for endless possibilities just in case. That’s a lot. There’s too much to compute.

So, you freeze.

Often you’ll stay in that freeze mode because you’re simultaneously lost in the big picture aspect of it all and which detail to start on. This is when everything feels urgent and important, flooding your mental inbox with a lot of “should-ing BS (belief systems).”

Let it go.

Easier said than done? Not really. These things are choices. The difficulty comes in asking too many questions of yourself when underneath, the choices are largely the same. Let go of the questions. Let go of the answers. Realize the choices you have. It is easy to take deep, soothing breaths and choose to know yourself at this moment. Hear yourself. Don’t push, prepare, and plan. Your body wants you to freeze for a reason. While you can feign productivity by forming more task lists, downloading apps, and pushing through your planner, you’re not going to feel like yourself or do very many things well until you give yourself a little spotlight.

You’ve likely noticed that pushing through productivity often slows you down. Maybe you make more mistakes, lack focus, or your brain feels like mud, and what should take you 10 minutes is suddenly taking hours of your life. It is hard to understand why. So… work on the why!

Journaling to be more productive starts wherever you are now.

Journaling to be more productive isn’t necessarily a plan.

Journaling to be more productive is an understanding of where you are now, why, and what unmet need is causing you to freeze in this inopportune moment of possible saber tooth task-list death!

Let’s work through the FUNCK of this BeMo writer’s struggle with feelings about productivity.  This is a real example of a BeMo FUNCK practice with details removed for user privacy. 

How Is This Journaling For Productivity?

This is a great start. This BeMo user is just getting to know themselves. Through their journaling practice, they’ve caught themselves “shoulding” right off the bat. They’ve understood that a lack of rest is at the core of their productivity. (Note: Rest. Rest is not always sleeping.) For this user, they recognize that rest comes in the form of a healthy night routine and journaling more often to let go of anxious thoughts.

Great start!

How To Dig Deeper Into Topics

1. 5 Whys
2. Revisit with time
3. Uncover the BS (belief systems) and free-write about experiences
4. I Get To
5. Imaged Future

5 Whys

If this BeMo journaler finds themselves continuing in this cycle of pushing against productivity, they can dig even deeper with a 5 Whys practice. Let’s write out an example.

Why Am I Feeling So Unproductive?

1. Why? I didn’t sleep very well last night.
2. Why? I ate really late and watched TV for a while so I didn’t get to bed on time or take time to journal.
3. Why? I needed a break. It was a hard day at work, and I just wanted to do something I enjoyed.
4. Why? I really need some downtime. Everything about the day seems draining to me because I don’t really love my job. I feel challenged to do my job at all, not challenged in a way that motivates or drives me. I’ve been taking care of the dog because he hasn’t been feeling very well. I haven’t had a lot of me-time. It feels like I’m not finishing anything, even books I want to read.
5. Why? I don’t really feel like I want to do anything.

Ok… what now? I clearly need a break. Clearly pushing myself to do more and plan isn’t actually helping me do more or be more of anything. I am going to take some online quizzes to figure out more about myself, my personality, and where my values are. I think if I understand more of what drives me and helps to create happiness, I can focus on things that are more balanced and less “doing” for others. I’ll try this and return to it in a week to share more of how I feel in my BeMo.

Revisit With Time

Another way to dig deeper is to revisit the problem over time. The next time this comes up for this BeMo Journaler, they can start where they are now – at this new level, how they feel in the moment, with the knowledge of what they’ve been able to uncover before.

For example, this user knows rest and anxious thoughts are a big issue that prevents them from being more productive the next day. Ok, but what if this keeps happening? Good! This is an opportunity for greater self-awareness.

The best way to solve this problem is to be where you are now and show up for yourself.

Stop downloading more productivity apps to find what resonates with you. Ask yourself why what has worked no longer works. That’s the only way to get working again.

So next time, this user can begin by uncovering the BS (belief systems) at play and then doing a free-write on their self-created journal prompt. Like so…

Uncover The BS (Belief Systems)

Uncovering BS (belief systems) is a great way to create future topics for yourself. Consider your BS (belief systems) a journal prompt creator.

The BS (belief systems) at play here are: I am not doing this right. I should have done better. I know better than this. This isn’t my best.

Ouch! That sucks. Your internal best friend would drop a You Note on you so fast and tell you to stop listening to that BS (belief system).

The great thing about uncovering the BS (belief system) at play is that by doing so you are actively listening to yourself. You are daring to hear, know, and see yourself. You’re allowing that internal thought track to have a voice. And… that’s ok.

Just like children, as soon as you hear them (I mean truly hear them), they stop nagging you. Often your inner vocal track is also your inner child. This is where taking that BS (belief system) to FUNCKy town is going to be an amazing (and possibly long) journey for you.

To do this, free-write answers to these questions:

• Why do I believe these things?
• Where have I heard or felt these things before?
• When did I first hear, or feel these things about myself and why?
• Who has taught me or reinforced these feelings about myself?
• Who do I surround myself with that reinforce these beliefs?

End with asking yourself, “What now?” This is the part where you take those beliefs to FUNCKy town. FUNCK it out again at a whole new level just like the first version up above.

Using BS To Find Unmet Needs

Quick reminder: Uncovering BS (belief systems) is a great way of finding your unmet needs. To do so, take key words you’ve uncovered from your BS (belief systems). From the example above: hear/know/see, not right, and not good enough. Find synonyms for these beliefs on the BeMo negative beliefs wheel in your BeMo pocket guide, BeMo journal, or from the tools in BeMo courses. Then, bust out the BeMo needs wheel to match your beliefs to your needs wheel. For example, the belief of “I am not good enough” will match up to a need for enoughness (See below: I Get To list), understanding, being known, being seen, being heard, and more.

Extra Extra: BeMo About It

Continue to take what you know to a whole new level by implementing some BeMo Extra practices. I Get To and Imagined Futures are great ways of checking your needs at the door and scanning their IDs. Sometimes we get lost in filtering “cans” into the “needs” section of our brains. Ironically, this is when we feel needy to others and start to shame and blame ourselves into a corner of sharing less because we have been stuck for far too long. So much BS (belief systems) at play here! There is no “stuck for too long.” Drop that BS (belief system) right here and now. Other BS to drop: believing you’re stuck, not believing you are allowed to share, and feeling like you have too many needs. Stop it. Just stop that mess right now.

Sometimes realizing these internal thoughts can be very depressing. This is when creating an “I Get To” list to work against journaling for productivity works out really well. By creating an, “I Get To” list, you drop the storyline of “I should” or “I have to” in order to recognize what you get to do.

Example: I Get To

I get to work from home and spend more time with my dog, do some laundry, and cook whatever I want for my meals which is pretty awesome because I love the alone time, and I actually feel more productive (ironically).

I get to save money because of the job I have. Even if it isn’t the job I want anymore, it works well for me and allows me to live in this amazing home and buy the things I need.

Continue for as many “I get to” topics as you can possibly think of. While this sounds similar to a gratitude list, it goes so much deeper in relieving mental stress you may not even recognize you’re putting yourself under.

Example: Imagined Future

Still can’t uncover the foundational need at play here? One of the best tools for discovering what you really need is the Imagined Future journal entry. Use your BeMo guide for more information on how to tap into your future using present-tense language and imagine exactly what it is you want to feel in the moment as if it were right here, right now. As you write, you’ll subconsciously turn BS (belief systems) into needs without even trying. You’ll better understand what it is you’re looking for. You’ll be happy to discover it isn’t as high-level as “I want a new job” and is far more about the way you want to feel at the end of the day, the values you want to align with at work, and the hopes you continue to have for your future as a result of feeling successful with your day.

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This post was originally published on the BeMo Blog.