How to savour progress

There is always more to be done - why focussing on progress helps manage the overwhelm. A tip on setting, savouring and celebrating milestones.

The deadline was looming and there was so much more work to be done. Writing my first book was hard, in hindsight I shouldn’t have agreed to that deadline, not while working full time. I set my morning alarm increasingly earlier to write before work. I was tired, overwhelmed and felt pretty miserable about the whole endeavour.

The ‘what done’ versus ‘to do’ equation

Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie is quoted as saying:

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done." - Marie Curie

Curie achieved so much. She was celebrated in her lifetime for her world-changing, life-saving research; she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two different fields. Did she notice that? I can only guess, but reading into her quote, Curie is aware that noticing what we have done is part of the equation.?

Stop and smell the roses

Focussing our attention on milestones, such as hitting a word count or finishing an essay or a story, can lead to a positive mindset as we work towards our long-term goals. Researchers call this ‘savouring’. In short, giving our attention to those moments of pleasure, helps us to appreciate and enhance positive experiences.

Savouring is considered to be the opposite of coping, which was my approach when grinding out the words on my first book.

So, back to that exhausted summer of 2018, when I was writing and working and despairing about how much I had to do. I kept working at the same pace but I switched my focus to the other side of the equation. Rather than just seeing what remains, I began to notice what I had done.

Not only that, I began to celebrate my progress, so when I hit a milestone such as a drafted chapter, I did something nice. Nothing fancy, meeting up with friends at the weekend for a coffee or cocktail, taking a slightly longer walk in the sunshine, sharing a nice meal.

Celebrate how far you’ve come

Looking back now, I have a vague feeling of how hard it was to write that book. Yet, I remember my celebrations clearly - they are specific, distinct recollections. As I wrote about in the power of noticing good things, memory is like a camera, in that it will only capture what you focus on. Celebrating milestones changed I how I felt about the process of writing and what I remembered about that experience.

Celebrating activates the reward centre of the brain, releasing feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine. Creating these moments of joy and celebration increases wellbeing in the present.

It also leads to a sense of satisfaction at our achievement which can help motivate us to continue. This is why it’s so valuable to celebrate progress as well as output.

• What can you notice and celebrate today? Did you write, show up to the page, hit a time or word count goal? Small is good - actually, it’s precisely the point.
• What about this week - what are you working towards, how will you notice your progress? Can you make a note or track so you have something tangible to remember?
• What small way can you attach pleasure to what has been done and rebalance your equation with ‘what remains’?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this - pop a comment below.

A version of this article first appeared in Breakthroughs & Blocks.