How do you stay productive when something bad happens?

Meditation usually helps. Keeping in mind that I can't control everything it also helps me to keep productive, makes me remember that's one thing I can control. I hope it helps you and best wishes for your dog.

1) Listen to music 2) Exercise and/or rest 3) Ask friends, family, or professionals for help 4) Practice stoicism — write down negative thoughts / worse case scenarios, understand that some things are out of our control, and think positively.

Sorry to hear about your dog. Hope they get better soon! I try to come to terms with the fact that I may not be productive that week and buffer out my goals and expectations so that If I get absolutely nothing done, it's OK. If you must get something done, I recommend breaking items down into smaller goals and figuring out if it's possible to delegate some things. Make sure you plan time for yourself though :)

I hope your dog will recover soon. In such situations, I always remind myself: "Why am I doing this? Why did I started it?" then it instantly reminds me memories back in time and put me on an unexplained good level of energy. Also, meeting up with friends, doing sport and walking in forests/mountains is always a good way to reset my brain. It helps also to think in a rational way so I keep emotions on the side and focus better in hard moments.

First of all, don't be so hard on yourself. It's not a crime, nor bad, to take off a week or two to focus on life. Maybe divert from your main project and focus on a smaller project/new habit you've been putting off to get back in the groove. My dog is my life and when she had a bad allergic reaction last month, I couldn't get anything done for a week myself. I hope you and your pup get well soon!

Music is the best medicine

Thank everyone so much for the support on this. I didn't expect this much feedback and honestly now I feel much better. This community is amazing!

I sincerely pray that your dog gets better. To answer your question: for me, I would usually take some time off from doing any work for about a couple of hours. Then I try to be optimistic and remain that way. It's hard but life itself is hard. You have to keep on grinding/hustling. Don't give up!

Hope your dog will recover soon. My suggestion is you to stay optimistic and maybe you can busy yourself with other stuff to make you forget about that for a while.

I try to change the focus and do things that make me feel better (go to a good place and drink coffee that I'm obsessed with). While I'm drinking coffee I don't think about the bad stuff. To be honest I refuse to think about stuff that makes me sad at all. That's my meditation. Another good thing is to read/watch an interview with the person whos inspires you. Everyone has bad days and you have to know that you're not alone. Actually, sports helps too.

Hope your dog gets better soon. Sometimes it's tough. I was having a hard time staying productive when I was facing some challenges with immigration a few months ago. What worked to mitigate a bit for me was eating healthy, exercising, and trying to sleep regularly. Still some days my mind was completely off, so in that case I found it's just better to take a day off and get some distraction: video games, sports, going to a park, whatever works for you.

Hope your dog is getting better! For me it works fine, I just do something not to think about bad things. Try to start something new, refocus. Everything will be fine. https://jiji.ng/dogs-and-puppies

Hoping your dog gets better! Sometimes I can work just to switch off emotions - when there are people involved it can make things hard since they can interpret the situation as if I wasn't caring. In reality, this is how I put things into "processing". Not thinking actively about the issues and facing them once they're "cooked". I know this might not be helpful for a situation where sickness is involved, but generally, shielding yourself with work can function if there's something urgent going on and you might be letting other people down by not being active.