After waking up at 5 in the morning every day including weekends, Jennifer spends next one hour with nature. Her morning routine includes a gentle walk, vigorous exercise, and deep meditation. Next, she prepares breakfast and lunch for her family and kids and drops her children to school. Her work begins at 10 am when she teaches French via online mode for two hours.
After that, she spends 4 hours writing and promoting her health and fitness blog. Every evening she ensures that she spends ample time with her kids by cooking them their favorite dish and taking them out to a park. For her, productivity is about completing important tasks before they become an urgency.
John finds it hard to wake up every morning. Although he has a cook to prepare his breakfast for most of the time he eats it while driving. He spends the first hour to settle down in his office and create his to-do list. He works till late in the office and reaches home late. So, his life is between Saturday and Sunday which he spends partying with friends. And the same story continues on Monday. He finds no time for his health, fitness, and forget about family.
Do you see the difference in the two?
John has got more resources than Jennifer. But she is way more productive than him. Jennifer’s story is pleasing to read and inspiring too. You might be feeling like giving a lot of suggestions to John after reading these two stories. For John-productivity can be earned through money and needs no effort to achieve it. Whereas for Jennifer it’s all about the hard work she puts to remain productive throughout the day.
This is not the story of some John and Jennifer but this is what we are in our daily lives. We all have played John and Jennifer at some part of our life. We all wish we had something called as the ‘productivity guide’ through which we would easily achieve cent percent productivity. Sadly, there’s nothing like that available in the world. Productivity is a mere outcome of planning, organizing, experimenting, managing, and the most important of all real learning.
So, what’s the real secret of unconventional productivity? Is it about earning money to buy resources which can make our lives more productive and efficient? Or is it about planning your time and resources in a way to lead a happy and healthy life? Let’s find out in this article.
Being Happy Makes You Productive
Happiness and optimism levels have a deep impact on productivity of an individual. So, it is important to do things which give you real happiness and make you feel good about yourself. For instance, if your job isn’t the one which you love then get involved in things outside of work. This can be involving yourself in social work, joining a creative class, or learning a new language.
Practice Living in the Moment
Right from childhood, we have been taught to focus on our goals no matter how many obstacles we face. In fact, we are programmed to look into the future and work for it without paying attention to what’s happening in the present. This continuous chasing for future creates anxiety and dissatisfaction among an individual which also affects productivity.
In order to stay happy and productive, you must start living in the present moment. While that doesn’t mean that you should stop planning for the future, but you should start rejoicing in the present moment. This will help you appreciate the beauty around you and will boost your happiness levels also.
Stop Checking that Email
I know you might be like uh, “Where’s this email thing coming from in between the happiness and present moment stuff”. The way you handle your mailbox is crucial to your productivity. If you begin your day by reading a big bunch of emails you are definitely wasting a lot of productive hours.
So, the solution is to take help of good technological tools which can save your time and efforts in reading emails. For instance, if you use a project management tool you will get notifications only when something worth your attention takes place.
Set Realistic Deadlines
Whether it is about personal goals or professional ones, it is important to set realistic deadlines. For instance, if you want to write a book you will have to give yourself enough time, say six months. You cannot pressurize yourself for completing it in a week or a month. You must also set short targets of completing X number of tasks in a particular time. With this simple practice, you will be able to move towards your goal peacefully.
Don’t Fall into Self-Pity
At times, when we fail to achieve our goals or are unable to follow that discipline it leads to guilt and regrets. Many people get trapped into victim consciousness and start blaming themselves for everything that goes wrong. For instance, if a project is rejected by the client managers start feeling that it is only their fault. But this can only lead to a negative state of mind which can never lead to productivity.
There’s no point of over sympathizing with yourself. Give your best and don’t get stuck in the results. Feel confident about yourself and believe in your capabilities. At the end, remember that only the best will happen.
These were some of the simple yet effective tips for achieving unconventional productivity at workplace. They can work great in making you more productive in your personal life as well. Try to implement them in your life and see how they work out for you.