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You might come across into several tips about productivity or even tried doing different things, but still failed to increase your productivity. I read several books about productivity and realized that this boils down to some important aspect, that if we neglect to realize or understand these things we would always stumble and failed to reach the effectiveness that we ever wanted.
But before that, let us define first what is “Productivity or state of being productive ” is and “Why it is crucial for our success?”.
Merriam-Webster defines Productive as follow;
“yielding or devoted to the satisfaction of wants or the creation of utilities”
“yielding results, benefits or profits”
It was defined that productivity or being productive often can be identified with results. We often see ourselves as unproductive when we have identified that some tasks or activities are not yielding any results.
I need to remind you too that being busy doesn’t always equate into being productive. There is a clear distinction between the two. The former is all about the state of being busy or SITUATION or CIRCUMSTANCE where you have multiple things to do, whereas, the latter focuses on the OUTPUT or RESULT that your activity has yielded.
This may always be the case, but, you must know that not all task will always result instantly into an output or result. Oftentimes, your goal is like a project which consist of series of small tasks or activities that needs to be done before you can reach your goal or complete your project.
What I am telling is that you must define and assess yourself whether you are busy or productive. This plays a significant role to your success as it shows if you are JUST MOVING AROUND OR MOVING TOWARDS YOUR GOAL. Defining it means that there should be clarity and awareness within you for you to discern which task or activity is considered as productive or not.
We noticed that once you did the following things, your productivity will certainly spike:
1. Set your intentions
“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.” – Blaise Pascal
I have recently read the book “High Performance Habit” by Brendon Burchard, wherein he identifies one of the important things that sets apart those high performers in our society. They have this clarity in their minds, they have clear identity of who they wanted to be, the skills that they needed, and know wanted they wanted to achieve.
This is also one of the crucial things why despite spending hours and hours we still haven’t considered ourselves as a productive person. Despite doing so much we still see it as if we haven’t accomplished anything, that despite all the efforts made we always ended up with things that must be completed.
The problem with us is we never set our intentions. We never set what we wanted to do; we always do things even without knowing what will be the end result.
In chapter 2 of the famous book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey, he mentioned about BEGIN WITH AN END IN MIND. Which is knowing first what needs to be done or the end result in every task or even in your goals and in your life.
How many time you’ve set your intention and define what needs to be done or even pictured out the output? How many times you planned on what to do, before doing it? We often try to do something even without the clarity on our what needs to be done.
We are like mouse running in the running wheel, tired, restless, frustrated but never moved, even an inch, to where it will go.
We have to understand the significant distinction of being busy and being productive. We must bear in mind that MOVEMENT WILL NOT ALWAYS RESULT TO PROGRESS. Doing something will not always result into progress unless we become clear on our intentions in the things that needs to be done.
Now, this is what you can do; (I have seen this exercise in the book High Performance Habits to increase our clarity).
Before you start doing something, first SET YOUR INTENTIONS. KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. What are your intentions in doing that specific task? Focus on the final output or the result. If you have a hard time defining this, it just means that the task at hand is not clear with you or you need assistance from others to fully understand the activity. The fact that you can’t define or have a clear picture of what needs to be done simply means that you can’t do this productively, and that’s the common mistake that we usually commit.
This challenges your mind to have specific picture or vision before doing something. Have you ever seen someone building a house without having a plan? That certainly will never be constructed. If you wanted to finish something you must have clear understanding and vision of what will be the result.
Remember, whatever activity or task that needs to be done you have to SET YOUR INTENTION, without this you will certainly fall into the trap of just being busy.
2. Consciousness
“If every person on this planet made conscious decisions everyday
It’d be a huge change” – Anonymous
How many of you have experienced looking at what you have done for the week and realized that you still have tons of work to do? Or still not satisfied on what you accomplished for the week?
To make this worst, have not accomplished anything?
The main reason for such surprise is oftentimes caused by not being aware or conscious. You were not aware that the weeks has already passed, and you haven’t finished what needs to be done. You were not aware that you are focusing too much with non-important things that you neglected the most important ones.
Consciousness plays a big role on how we can reach success or even with the smallest tasks that needs to be done. If you neglect how you spend your time on the tasks you are doing, you would certainly be surprised in the end. This is also important on how you use your time.
Are you conscious on how many times you got distracted? How many hours you spent before you completed a task? Being conscious on the time spent on a specific task means a lot. It is not just looking at your time but also means managing your progress.
You can spend all day long and realized that you just finished one thing that can be completed in few hours, if you are not aware on the time you spent for it. You would certainly consume all the time that you have if you are not aware of your time.
Completing one task a day is okay, in some circumstances, but you need to remind yourself that projects won’t be completed with just one task. It is often consisting of several activities and tasks that needs to be completed. Thus, you can’t finish the whole project with that yield or result, thus, you have to be more productive.
Now, when was the last time you’ve become conscious on how you spent your time? When was the last time you got distracted by your phone and spent an hour or more before going to your task? Without being conscious on what you are doing and how you are spending your time will always ended up just BEING BUSY.
Start now by being aware on how you spend your time for what you are doing right now. Be conscious on all the distractions and remove it. Always, remind yourself on your intentions and be aware on how long you are doing certain tasks.
In the end, CONSCIOUSNESS IS ALL ABOUT BEING AWARE OF THE TIME AND RELEVANCE OF THE TASK. This gives you clear way of measuring your progress along with the clarity or intention that you have set.
Conclusion
The above are the crucial things that you must understand for you to be more productive. Setting a clear intention and being conscious means everything if you truly wanted to accomplish something and become more productive. WE MUST GET AWAY FROM THE MINDSET OF BEING BUSY AND HAVE LASER FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS AND THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES TO BE PRODUCTIVE.
Let me too know what are the common things that hinders you from being productive.
Vir Glarea 