Moved to Chiang Mai for 3 months and my productivity tanked for the first 2 weeks

3 comments

3 Comments

What finally snapped me out of it was forcing myself to have one small win per day. Not "write three chapters" small, but like "reply to one email" small. I'd do that first thing after breakfast, then give myself permission to screw off for the rest of the morning. By week three I was up to two or three little things before lunch. It felt stupid at first, like I was just playing pretend at being productive, but it broke that freeze-up cycle eventually. The hammock nap thing though? That's still going to happen some days.

kevin_williams1mo ago

Are we really calling two weeks of low productivity a "tank"? I mean you moved to a different country, that's like a whole vacation in itself. First two weeks should be for eating pad thai and figuring out how to cross the street without dying, not for stressing about your output. If you're on a 3 month trip and worried about week one productivity, maybe just admit you needed a break and stop overthinking it.

xena_hernandez981mo ago

Dude, same. First week here I literally sat in a coffee shop for four hours just staring at my laptop. Opened my todo list, closed it, opened it again. Told myself I'd write one paragraph. Ended up watching five YouTube videos about Thai street food instead. Second week I realized the wifi in my Airbnb was garbage so I went to a coworking space... and just napped in their hammock for two hours. It's like the brain short-circuits when you change time zones or something.