It’s rare for anyone to experience intense periods of productivity amid low mood, boredom, or frustration. It’s a vicious cycle — low mood can lead to decreased productivity and a lack of productivity often sinks a low mood even further. That’s why successful organizations don’t just aspire to have their employees maintain productivity because there’s more to a thriving workforce than that. It’s about Productivity AND Happiness.
The AND is especially important for two reasons! If you only focus on productivity, employees will quickly burn out. But if you only focus on happiness, employees will socialize, chat, and nothing will be achieved. High performance happens when both Productivity AND Happiness are balanced, with happiness driving productivity, and the rewards of productivity driving happiness.
But how do we achieve this? These 4 simple tips can help:
Small steps, repeated daily
When it comes to forming habits, it’s about consistency, not intensity. Even just 2×2 minutes per day can take your productivity to another level. You don’t have to achieve everything all at once, but chip away, little and often, and you’ll soon find you’ve made more progress than you ever imagined you could. Seeing your efforts accumulate is both a mood boost and highly rewarding.
Self-reflection
In the long run, Productivity AND Happiness just aren’t possible without an element of self-reflection along the way. By looking inwards, individuals gain the self-awareness and insight they need to continue growing in the right direction. But not only can self-reflection keep you on track, it can also be used as a tool for individual empowerment. By acknowledging both what we’ve learned and what needs to be worked on going forwards, we take the future into our own hands.
Invest time in personal development
Everyone has their own unique set of individual talents and resources. These might be characteristics you nurture or perhaps potential you’ve not even tapped into yet. By investing the time to better understand and activate these qualities, you’ll gain a new appreciation for your skills plus the self-confidence needed to put them into practice. Take time to remind yourself why you’re an asset to your organization!
Be a Doer
Enough talking, it’s time to DO! Doers are leaders who take initiative and translate everything they learn into immediate, decisive action. It’s no surprise that this kind of productivity leads to satisfaction as goals are met and boxes are continually ticked off. A sense of working fulfilment is another kind of repeating cycle — with happiness comes further productivity; creative ideas, new inspiration, and the kind of energy that fuels an individual to go the extra mile.
