3 Proven Ways To Boost Your Productivity And Happiness

Have you ever felt guilty of doing nothing?

You think, “I have to be busy. Everyone else is busy. If I am not busy, I probably won’t matter much”.

You probably equate busyness to productivity. Productivity is highly valued in our society. Wouldn’t anyone want to be productive?

You are probably in The Busy Trap.

Tin Kreider, in his article, “The Busy Trap,” he described that our culture has assumed that idleness or doing nothing was a bad thing. But “idleness… is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets.”

It’s a moral decision to stay busy, not a rational one. 

Then, how could we break the cycle of busyness and achieve peak performance? 

We need to rest. Yes, you hear me right. REST. 

So, what’s rest? 

Rest means “cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength” 

Then, how do we “achieve” REST? 

There are three ways: 

1. Daydream

What? Successful people don’t daydream. We take actions, fast. 

I understand your concerns.

A psychological study indicates that daydreaming can help you remember information better. It enhances memory. Do you at times forget about things, such as — where you park your car? That might sound a little extreme. What about forgetting where you put your car keys? That may indicate that your working memory is full [working memory is a type of memory responsible for the temporary storage of information].

Try this visualization process by Jason Walmack —

Sit quietly for five minutes. Imagine the details of your day. Then as things come up throughout the day, reflect on what you want to happen and make real-time decisions to stay focused. 

You may visualize yourself happy finishing your important projects. You may visualize yourself having a harmonious relationship at work and at home. You may visualize yourself healthy, happy, and fulfilled. 

2. Take more breaks

Recent studies show that taking a break once an hour increases productivity. 

Dr. Lleras said, "From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that, when faced with long tasks [such as studying before a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task!"

You may also break a big project into small chunks. You may take brief breaks every 50 minutes or switch to different tasks in between. 

What about taking a short break now? What about taking a sip of water and looking out of the window. You may notice the sky is blue and the sunlight is beautiful. How could you miss that? 

3. Strive for progress, not perfection

Perfectionism is highly valued across cultures, therefore, perfectionism is very difficult to let go of. I used to be a perfectionist. Not only that, I also sought to please everyone —  my clients, bosses, significant others, or even strangers! It turned out, the only person who was not happy — that was me. I missed the big picture. I was miserable. 

“As a culture, we tend to reward perfectionists for their insistence on setting high standards and relentless drive to meet those standards. And perfectionists frequently are high achievers — but the price they pay for success can be chronic unhappiness and dissatisfaction”. Carolyn Gregoire on HuffPost

I learn it the hard way… 

I realize, being perfect is the enemy of achieving happiness. 

That’s the solution — 

Focus on taking actions without excessive planning. 

Perfectionists like to plan excessively. 

You may say, “Good planning is such a positive thing, how could I let go of that? Experts also told me — we fail to plan then we plan to fail”!

However, sometimes… or most of the times… actions trump excessive planning! You can have the most elegant plan in the world and you still fail. Why? Because you fail to execute your plan! 

Stop beating yourself up for not to be perfect. Instead, you can take deliberate actions to achieve your dreams and happiness. 

To sum up —

Rest from perfectionism. Dream big. Take deliberate actions to achieve your dreams and happiness.

Tonight, DO THIS:

Take the time to reflect on your day/week. Ask yourself these two questions: 

1. What would I like to stop doing NOW to achieve more happiness? 
2. What would I like to do differently tomorrow so I won’t get burned out? 

Have a good night’s sleep. Cheer on. 

© 2021 Corinna Kong. All Rights Reserved.