Mental Health Tricks To Make Any Task Easier

Every single year, I always forgot to post something on social for mental health awareness week. Like many, I get tunnel vision with my day-to-day tasks, and shit just slips away from you. There are several different things pulling my attention at the moment. It's kind of hard to write about mental health when you're not actively caring for your own right now. But as I've submitted my last freelance blog post for the night, I feel like it's time to chat about mental health and work.

With the current lockdown, it feels like most workers are going through a mental health crisis. The commutes have disappeared, and healthier work/life balances been struck; the pandemic and shit too remote working has undoubtedly taken a toll on everyone's mental health.

But I'm no a lawyer, doctor, or builder. I'm a marketer and writer; I spend my days glued to a laptop or hunched over Google ads. So instead of speaking for all roles, I'm going to focus on my own.

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A recent survey from the 2021 Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey reveals 40.2% of the 2,453 surveyed say working from home has had a negative impact on their mental health. Amongst marketers aged 18 to 34, the number rises to over half (51.6%).

Mental health is cited as the main reason for over half (51%) of calls, followed by low mood and confidence (20%) and work pressures (16%).

I used to get anxious completing mundane tasks when I first started out, the social anxiety that came with something as detached as sending an email. I felt like I was floating through tasks, creating mental blockers to the tasks that caused me stress.

But some time ago, I heard a trick that I want to share:

"This skill of picturing our future selves is fundamental for discipline - but its also important for happiness, which is just as important.

Be Kind To Your Future Self

As humans, we're pretty bad at picturing our future selves. Researches found that when we think about them, the brain regions that are activated are the same as those activated when we think about strangers - but not as much to those activated when we think about ourselves in the now.

It might be one reason people undersave for retirement. Or why we stay up too late - because a lack of sleep is a morning guys problem. But the same research found that when people could actually see pictures of their aged selves, then they made better choices.

This suggests the wisdom of really picturing ourselves on the other side of any hard choice. For instance, you might remember that in the past, you've always felt exhilarated after an invigorating sunrise run. Presumably, "Future You" will feel the same way. Picture yourself on the other side of the unpleasantly cold moment when you actually have to swing your legs out of bed and put your feet on the floor. Instead, focus on coming home, rosy-cheeked and on a runner's high.

This really disciplines in a nutshell. By picturing ourselves on the other side, we don't have to choose what is immediately easy.

Get disciplined about happiness.

Of course, it's not just about discipline and choosing what's good for us. Picturing ourselves on the other side can actually lead to a lot more happiness. That's because the "self" is really multiple selves. The psychology researcher Daniel Kahneman offers a helpful rubric: There's an "experiencing self" (what you are doing and feeling right now) and a "remembering self" (where you mentally spend a lot of your time — thinking about memories and what you've done in the past). I often think about my anticipating self, too — the part that's dreaming and wondering about the future.

You're anticipating, and remembering selves want you to do all kinds of wonderful things. Your anticipating self would like to take a spin on that outdoor ice rink downtown that everyone's talking about. Your remembering self will have fond memories of those twinkling lights, the gleaming ice, and the amazing hot chocolate you sipped afterwards. Unfortunately, your experiencing self is the one who actually has to get off the couch, bundle up, and drive downtown in the cold. She resents this division of labour, and so she suggests you skip it and do what's easiest at the moment: stay home and watch TV. Which is fun, but probably not as fun and memorable as the ice rink.

The only solution to this constant happiness dilemma is to picture yourself on the other side. If you're excited about doing something, most likely, you'll be happy to have done it. You just have to go through a short time of something challenging to emerge to this happy state.

I, for one, am certainly trying to remind myself of this and start several big projects. I'm building my portfolio, rebranding my blog, growing my client base, and hustling in the 9-5. It's a lot of work, but I know that by the end of the year, I'll be close to reaching my goals, perhaps on the other side.