Ants don’t have a leader to assign them tasks or give them directions. No individual ant knows what’s going on, yet they are very productive everyday .
In fact, each ant makes an independent decision on what it wants to do and collectively as a colony, the ants survive, build vast colonies, look for food and raise their young. You will never see a lazy ant.
The Bible tells us to learn from ants in the book of Proverbs 6:6-11.
You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food at harvest and stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty, your permanent houseguest!
When I read the above lines from proverbs, I felt guilty of not having this innate quality of an ant, this single minded focus towards getting things done, to work efficiently and to not get distracted.
I have wasted countless hours doing either redundant things or just scrolling through my phone. A few minutes of break turns into senseless scrolling of instagram posts and youtube videos.
Frustrated with distraction and in an effort to work efficiently, I decided to live like an ant for a day.
We can learn how to be more productive everyday from ants. Life lessons from ants are very effective as is evident from the Bible verse above.
There were two things I wanted to learn from ants : How to be more productive everyday and how to work hard like ants.
I set out with a few rules that had to followed to imitate the life of an ant.
Rules to live your life as an ant :
- Phone : Can only do research for 15 min
- Social Media accounts : Can’t go on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook,
- No watching Netflix
- Can listen to audio book, music while walking or doing chores
- Only do activities directly related to goals
- Try to be more physically active when doing tasks
- Have a planned list of tasks/goals to accomplish
3 things that increased productivity
1.Plan ahead to be productive during the day
Generally my day started by reading headline news, but today I was laser focused on making a daily to-do list and a weekly one. As a mom it was very helpful as this included meal planning, home maintenance and work goals.
2. Stay Focused like an ant
With a morning cup of tea, I researched on my blog article, made breakfast for the family and was able to sneak in 15 minutes of piano practice before stepping out of the house. That was a pretty productive morning !
Turning off notifications on all apps and placing the phone in a different room, I continued to work on the blog and finished some projects at home while listening to audio book. As was no distraction from social media pings, I started on early dinner preparations .
3. Be aware of time to be more productive right now
I realized that the ants worked consistently all day long. So instead of lounging on sofa, I replaced my social media break time with a change of project like organizing drawer or tidying the car. I even was able to sneak in exercise while taking a break.
Conclusion
Overall working like an ant for 24 hours proved very productive. I learnt valuable life lessons from ants.
I completed everything on my list, had time for workout, was able to cook and the best thing was that I planned ahead for the week.
With no distractions and a clear plan, life seemed less stressful. At the end of the day, I slept peacefully with the satisfaction of a hard day’s work.
Also, with no social media, my thoughts didn’t wander to all the senseless wants, but stayed on the now of things.
