How to stay productive when the future feels uncertain
Right now, we’re living in a period of significant uncertainty about the future. AI is having a significant (but unknown) influence on the future of work. Global instability is making it more difficult for companies to engage internationally. All of these factors are affecting investment in new business, which is making the future economy more difficult to predict. It can be hard to focus in the face of feeling anxious about the future. Here are three strategies for coping. Keep calm and carry on An underlying anxiety will have several bad influences on your daily work life. For one thing, it raises your overall level of psychological energy (called arousal), which can ultimately make you less productive if deadlines and other work pressures compound and you end up with so much energy that you can’t concentrate. In addition, when you’re experiencing anxiety, it generally magnifies your attention to any potential threat in the world, which can make you see the workplace as hostile and filled with potential problems. It is important to reduce the anxious energy that uncertainty can create. Uncertainty reflects the aspects of work life that you cannot control. It is tempting to seek out news stories that amplify the uncertainty. There is a reason why so many headlines focus on potential problems. Those headlines tend to attract views, because people orient toward the sources of anxiety. The problem is that you can’t do anything about those anxieties, so the time you spend worrying is wasted. Instead, address the elements that are under your control. Keep a to-do list and engage yourself with those tasks. If you are going to speculate about the future, think about how to solve problems that can be addressed. That will help to keep the predictable aspects of your world in order. Seek hidden opportunities A key side effect of focusing on the potential threats in your environment is that it puts you in a defensive crouch and likely to avoid taking risks. Yet, times of unce