To expand on the “work softer” idea, you can relax your body and accomplish just as much, if not more in fact, in a way that is more enjoyable. You don't have to choose between enjoyment and productivity 1, because you can simply allow your attention and body to become softer, or make your environment more enjoyable and with less friction, or surround yourself with more supportive people, etc.
A lot of the tension we carry in life isn't useful for anything: tense shoulders, tense eyebrows, tense wrists, tense lower back, none of those solve any problem whatsoever. We simply tend to tense our body by default because it creates a sense of emergency, and that is very often how things get done in school—using threats and deadlines.
And then those bad habits bleed into personal interests and life in general, even though they do not provide any advantage whatsoever. So you can allow yourself to work softer, and you will see how you can accomplish the exact same things without stressing out all the time.
1 You only need to choose one thing at the expense of another when you are in a situation of Pareto efficiency, but I would say that no human has ever lived a Pareto efficient life: you can always improve one aspect without making any other one worse.
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2024-08-05