Why real productivity starts with your body, not your to-do list

Your best work doesn’t come from pressure. It comes from peace.

Apr 29, 2025

This Month’s Theme

The Productivity Reset

A reader recently asked me, “How do I stay productive while working with whatever is happening in my life/body?”

Here’s the answer I wish someone had given me years ago: True, sustainable productivity starts with prioritizing your healing and nervous system regulation.

Powerful, effective productivity stems from a regulated state of being. Without it, you're not creating, you’re surviving. We were taught that anything outside of capitalism’s definition of productivity—growth, output, constant action—wasn't valuable.

So naturally, we learned to treat healing, rest, and tending to our bodies as distractions. As luxuries. As something we could only earn after we hustled ourselves into the ground.

The truth is that our ability to produce, create, and contribute shrinks when we ignore what our bodies need.

Stillness isn’t laziness—it’s a strategy

It’s like trying to pick up objects with only your pinkies, because society decided they were more valuable than your other fingers.

Yes, tasks would take more effort. Your hands would feel sore and exhausted, but you’d keep going because this is what "being productive" looks like, right?.

What if you started using all your fingers again?

At first, it would feel strange. Awkward. Uncomfortable even.

But over time, you'd regain your strength. You'd move faster, freer, with more power and ease than you thought possible. And soon enough, you'd realize the old way, the way everyone else told you was "the right way", was holding you back all along.

This is what it’s like to shift your relationship with productivity.

There’s no real productivity without rest, reflection, and regulation.

If your body sends signals, tending to them isn’t an interruption. It is the work. Every action you take, every idea you generate, flows from the state of your nervous system. When you're stuck in survival mode, you can only make fear-based decisions.

But when you regulate? Your body floods with safety, creativity, and openness. Your cells begin to sing together to unlock momentum, clarity, and ideas you couldn’t access before.

There were so many times I chose to rest instead of pushing through the overwhelm. I resisted it. Every part of me wanted to keep going. But I knew that forcing myself would only make things worse.

And every time I paused—even fifteen minutes—something incredible happened. A flood of inspiration and clarity would rush in.

It still amazes me how deeply we’ve been tricked into believing that constant action is the way forward, when in reality, true momentum often begins with stillness.

✨ Regulation is productive.
✨ Rest is momentum.
✨ Listening to your body is progress.

Yes, sometimes life demands seasons where we have to push. But even then, we can build tiny moments of regulation into our day:

A slower morning.
Deep breaths between meetings.
Walking without our phones.

These micro moments matter more than you know. They build a new foundation inside you. One where work feels lighter, energy flows easier, and success is sustainable.

A different way to think about productivity

Instead of pushing yourself harder, what if you asked:

How can I regulate before I motivate?
What would it feel like to create from safety, not survival?
In what ways can I honor my body as the source of my best work?

This is the ultimate rebellion against a system not designed for your well-being.

When we regulate, we reclaim the space to think original and creative thoughts and reconnect with our actual values. A world that worships capitalism doesn’t want this. It thrives on distraction and impulse because when we don’t have space to create meaningfully, companies have an easier time influencing and controlling our actions.

Ready to work with yourself, not against yourself?

That’s what we’ll dive into inside The Productivity Reset, my 3-day live workshop happening May 7–9.

Across three days, you’ll learn how to:

Regulate your nervous system before you try to motivate yourself
Reconnect to your capacity and real energy
Redefine productivity in a way that builds you up—not drains you

Each session is live, 45 minutes, and includes a one-page PDF to help you take action immediately. This isn’t about working less for the sake of it, it’s about working differently, sustainably, and powerfully.

✨ Get your ticket here and start your reset.

(You’ll thank yourself for making the shift now — before burnout forces you to.)