An Unconventional Way to Get More Productive, Focused & Grounded

Hint: this approach involves the Roman pantheon—and NASA.

Hi friend,

Are you in the mood for unorthodox, maybe downright weird productivity advice?

Good! Because that’s what I have in store for you today. While I can’t promise that it works for everyone, this approach got me from futzing about to completing this article. Best of all, it only took a few minutes and no effort on my part!

Ready to get started?

Why I’ve been craving more structure and focus

Over the last few weeks, I’ve started to use another name—Louise, my middle name

I can’t put into words how big of a shift that is to my self-identity. In the midst of that change, I have found it much harder than usual to focus and be clear about my goals.

This isn’t surprising. After all, it’s through our self-identity that we make sense of the world. When we change our identity, everything else changes as well.

Have you ever experienced a dramatic change in your self-identity?

Often, people experience this when they retire and have to let go of their professional selves. Other big identity shifts can be caused by life events such as

• becoming a parent (when people suddenly have to embrace a new identity, that of “parent”),

• losing one’s last living parent (when people no longer have someone around who fulfills that parental role for them),

• discovering something big and previously unknown about oneself or the people close to oneself,

• drastic changes in the area of relationship (endings or beginnings), of career (esp. radical shifts from one path to another), of money, or of health.

Our productivity can also be impacted by smaller shifts in our lives—changes to our routine, frequent interruptions, etc. Or maybe you are just overwhelmed with too many things happening too quickly.

Either way, this approach might be helpful.

How I’m finding focus & productivity in the midst of this big shift

What helps me is…

…

…

…

NASA footage of the planet Saturn!

For instance, even this image has a grounding and focusing influence on me:

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

But wait, there’s more: Thanks to NASA’s Cassini mission, we now can not only see, but also hear Saturn!

I’ll share my favorite videos that contain Saturn’s radio emissions below. When I feel unfocused or ungrounded, I find it helpful to play these in the background for a few minutes.

First though, it’s time for an explanation.

What Saturn has to do with productivity

You might be wondering how listening or watching footage of Saturn might help with productivity. Why on earth (pun sorta intended) would this work?

Fair point. Let me explain:

Basically, this is a low-key form of magic where we connect to a specific archetypal energy.

Saturn’s specialty: boundaries, boundaries, boundaries

Saturn is often described as the planet of boundaries. This is for a few reasons:

• Saturn is the last planet we can easily see from Earth with our naked eye,

• The planet is named after the Roman god Saturn (who is based on the Greek god Cronus who is quite literally the father of time—and what is time for us mortal beings but a boundary?), and

• Saturn’s rings can give the impression of a demarcation, similar to a fence around a house.

Boundaries are important for productivity and focus—what we give our attention to, what ideas we pursue (and which ones we let fall to the wayside), how we guard our time, how we respond to the external demands, etc.

For instance, according to research, restraints and limitations can actually improve creativity and innovation (it’s all about balance, though, and finding the right amount of restraints).

In addition to time and boundaries, the Roman god Saturn is also associated with agriculture—which is ultimately about producing fruit, i.e. productivity. All this is to say that Saturn is the ideal Patron Deity for focus.

So, in short: Saturn can help us tap into the energy of limitation and focus, thereby increasing our productivity (maybe).

A word of warning

If you want to experiment with listening to Sounds of Saturn, I would just caution against over-doing it. While we need the Saturnine energy of boundaries/limitation to be productive, we also need the opposing energy of expansion/openness.

Focus is important, but if we have too much focus, we develop tunnel vision. If you notice that you are becoming overly restrictive in your approach, focus more on the energy of expansion. This energy is associated with Jupiter—but that is a topic for another day/week.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Warmly,
Louise

Playlist:

Here’s a video of Saturn’s radio emissions:

I also quite like this one: