How to Stay Productive When the World Is in Chaos

Life will surely have dark days so have a generator of light on standby

Chaos and crisis is something that everyone tries to avoid. However, despite the best efforts crisis, chaos and conflict happen. It is just part of life and one has to learn to deal with it or suffer defeat.

The question is not whether chaos, crisis, or conflict will appear in one’s life. It will. Most importantly the question is how you will respond to chaos when it shows up.

How you respond will determine how well you fare in the future and it will have a major impact on the quality of your life and perhaps those whom you care about.

There is an old saying that addresses the usual reaction that most people have when it comes to making decisions when faced with chaos or crisis.

The saying is… “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s difficult to remember that your first task was to drain the swamp.”

When the alligators of chaos and crisis are in the swamp of your life snipping at your ankles with sharp carnivorous teeth of despair, desperation, and defeat it is extremely difficult to pull the swamp plug and drain the cesspool of chaos you are currently in. That is unless you are prepared before the tsunami of chaos and crisis comes.

The good news is you can be prepared. You can, if you already have a strategy and tactics in place that you can summon and deploy whenever chaos or crisis comes knocking at your door.

This article provides five fundamental steps that can be applied in any chaotic situation to help you meet and defeat or at least manage the circumstances.

1. Never make snap decisions.

Snap decisions under pressure are usually wrong and made entirely from an emotional standpoint. Train yourself to take time to think. Step away from the chaos for a bit if you can. Collect your thoughts. Ask these questions:

• What was in order before the chaos came? What did the order look like? How did it feel?
• Look at the chaos, what is different from the order and calm that was in your life or the circumstance before it came.
• What is different, distinct, or unique about what’s happening now than from the order you had before? Once you see the difference or distinction, you’ve just identified the problem.

Now you can concentrate on solving the problem. Get on it right away. If you don’t it usually will get worse. If you need help reach out and get it. People have a natural inclination to help when they are asked.

2. Trust yourself and your strengths.

In times of chaos and confusion, it’s easy to try and be like somebody else. This is a mistake. If you try to be like someone else, it’s not natural and often will not lead to the results you want.

That does not rule out reaching out and getting an opinion or suggestions from someone you trust and respect their opinion. What it does mean is you must make the final decision yourself. This path also helps to increase the feeling of you being in control of the circumstances.

Focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses. Get assistance to help with the things you are weak in. “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” — Oscar Wilde

3. Have a moral compass and stick with it

When chaos comes one’s thoughts often are all over the place. It’s common to try lots of things all at once to solve the problem. This concept and action are like “throwing everything against the wall and seeing what will stick.”

It doesn’t work. The reason is that when you throw everything at chaos all at once and something positive comes out of it you now have the problem of determining what it was that you threw against the wall that made a difference.

Chaos often causes one to do things against the core of who they are. They compromise and cut corners to make things right. Then they suffer from the pain of guilt because they know it went against the very core of who they are and what they believe in. This is not a good place and should be avoided at all costs.

Stay true to your core values. They will see you through and make you stronger when the storm passes over.

My core values are based on my belief in God. Throughout my life whenever I’ve been faced with chaotic circumstances and stuck to the core values of faith, love, forgiveness, and action taken in a determined and focused way, things have usually worked out well.

4. Learn to say “No”

For some reason, humans are programmed to say yes and be accommodating to others. Learn to say no. It can be quite liberating. There is no need to burden yourself down with all the woes of everyone else.

Learn to take care of yourself and treat yourself well so you can be in a position to help as many others as possible during chaotic times. You can’t do this when you have excess baggage from all the confusion and crazy things that happen in and around your life daily.

Saying no is not being selfish. It is craving out reality and staying as fresh as you can so you can be better for yourself and others.

Learn to pick your battles. Not everything should be challenged just because it isn’t going your way. Some things are best left alone.

Usually, if it’s something that you can live without, it doesn’t cause you significant pain, or doesn’t pay your bills you can leave it alone and let it work itself out. The chaos often dies a natural death.

5. Leadership in Chaos.

If you’re leading others during chaos your responsibility for how you conduct yourself and decide on what to do are even more important.

Leading others requires empathy, understanding, patience, and decisiveness. People you lead watch you and take their cues from you on what action to take, what to say, and what to do.

If you crumble in chaos you lose the respect and the support of your followers. That is not to say you should always have a stiff upper lip and trudge forward no matter what. This is unrealistic.

What it means is you must be transparent. It’s okay to show some vulnerability. Just make sure you move forward in that vulnerability and show those who are following you that they can count on you amid chaos.

One of the best things to do when leading people through chaos is to communicate, communicate, and communicate. Keeping people informed and letting them know that they can come to you with whatever they need to discuss is crucial during confused and chaotic times.

Most of all tell the truth. Don’t ever mislead or withhold essential information, even when it’s not good news, from those you lead. This will be the kiss of death for your leadership position and is the quickest way to break trust and lose faith in following you.

Chaos will come but calm is the aftermath if you have a system in place to follow whenever it comes your way. If you have a system already in place then it’s easy to just rely on the Nike slogan and “just do it.”