How many times have you been busy all day, feeling like you are running non-stop, yet at the end of the day you feel like you haven’t accomplished very much at all? It happens to all of us. It may not be due to poor time management, it may be your current mindset that is the problem.
Your mindset is what influences your behavior and attitude and determines your results. If you experience the above feeling often, then it’s important that you understand and adopt a productive mindset.
What Do You Mean by Productive Mindset?
A productive mindset is a frame of mind that guides you to make the most out of your time and available resources. Remember that being busy is not necessarily equal to being productive. So even when you have a busy schedule the whole day, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are getting done what needs to be done.
Having a productive mindset is not about trying to do and be everything. Instead, you have a clear set of goals, which you are focused on accomplishing using the available resources that you have.
How Do You Cultivate a Productive Mindset?
Now, if you feel that you’ve been tackling productivity the wrong way up until now, don’t be discouraged. There are ways you can develop and nurture a more productive mindset.
Here are some of the important traits you must develop when you want to have a productive mindset.
You Are Motivated
Having a productive mindset starts with being motivated. Motivation is what prompts and pushes you to take action. Why do you want to achieve a particular goal? Think about what inspires and drives you towards making progress.
You Are Curious and Inquisitive
Being curious means that you are always willing to learn new things. You have questions, and you are willing to explore to find the answers. It sets up your productivity because you always have something new to discover, and you are progressing.
You Are Persistent
Motivation can only do so much. It’s often unstable. That’s why it’s important to develop persistence, which means you keep going no matter how tough the challenges may be. Whenever you feel like you’re stuck and not making any progress, persistence is what will help you push through. Know that obstacles are common in whatever you’ll do, so don’t let them kill your productivity. Keep going!
You Have a Vision
When you have a vision, it is clear to you what the purpose is of everything that you do. Otherwise, you’ll be treading blindly, and you’ll feel like you’re not making any progress—because you don’t even know how far you’ll go. Set clear goals, and you’ll know whether you’re productive or not.
You Are a Critical Thinker
Remember that not everything goes your way. When you encounter a setback, think about it critically. That means you look at both sides of the situation and weighing them objectively. That way, you’ll know what to do better, instead of wasting your time feeling stuck and upset.
You Have a Positive Outlook
When you are feeling positive, you are motivated and energized to do a lot of things. You become productive. Negative feelings will still creep in from time to time, but you know that you are in control of your attitude.
You Are Mindful
Being productive means being mindful of what’s going on around you. Each moment is clear to you, so you tend to be more productive. Because you are aware of what you are working on to accomplish and why, you become intentional in everything that you do.
You Seek Balance
As said, being productive is not about being everything – you need to maintain balance. So, when you have a productive mindset, you know that you need to take a break and recharge. You know when to stop to give yourself time to rest, so you can come back energized. Don’t push yourself beyond your limits because you risk burnout, and that’s not going to help you with productivity.
Being is busy is not always an indication of being productive. You may have a lot of things to do, but you might not be making real progress. That’s why it’s important to have a productive mindset so that you’ll know that what you do is maximizing the time and resources that you have and contributing to your goals.
