If you feel anxious to be productive then try the “Relaxed Urgency” framework.

I spent over 1,000 hours studying myself.

That’s what it’s like living as a Zen monk. I got to know myself very well. And I uncovered what I call “achievement anxiety”: a subtle, tense, scanning for things to accomplish. I learned it’s always there — lurking just below the surface.

I decided I don’t want to live that way.

This essay is about achievement anxiety: what it is, how to identify it, and what to do about it.