HAVING A HEALTHY MINDSET AROUND PRODUCTIVITY
Hi everyone, welcome back to another blog post from The Dairy Free Diaries. Hope you all are doing well and are excited for this week’s topic of productivity. Specifically, cultivating a healthy mindset around productivity. In this read, I give so many tips and tricks as to what you can do to cultivate a good mindset in your head and in your actions. Enjoy!
WHAT DO HEALTHY MINDSETS LOOK LIKE?
We live in a world where our worthiness and identity are often attached to what we have achieved and how much we can get done in a day, week, year, etc.
And when we grow up learning that our primary focus is to get stuff done and be “successful”, it has a tendency to shift the way you live and how you think. And for someone who lives in their head as much as I do, my thoughts were my biggest obstacle.
Unhealthy mindsets around productivity and successfulness can come in so many shapes and sizes. For me, it looked like planning and scheduling every minute of every day.
This honestly isn’t bad as is. It’s important to schedule your time in order to manage it to the best of your ability. But the unhealthy mindset I had was that if my day didn’t go exactly as my calendar had planned it or if I didn’t get done as much as planned, I had a bad day.
And I would feel so guilty for taking that relaxation time because that’s what kept me off my schedule of tasks for the day. It was this constant cycle of over-working myself for a few days, then doing absolutely nothing because I was so burnt out.
Meanwhile, being an emotional rollercoaster of feeling good about myself on those days that went according to schedule, followed by getting down on myself for doing nothing.
I think that this is something that a lot of people, including myself struggle with on a day-to-day basis, but is never talked about. And this mindset around productivity was a huge aspect of my life for a very long time.
It was the main contributor to my anxiety and stress levels, but I didn’t know any different. For a long time, I thought this was just how I was supposed to be living my life, when in fact I had it all wrong.
I do want to point out that there is nothing wrong with striving for productive days and getting work done, but when it starts to take a toll on your mental health is where the line is crossed.
The first step is realizing when you have an unhealthy mindset, which is hard as is because of the societal ideals regarding success. But I am here to show anyone struggling that there is a way of being productive without the added stress; all it takes is a little adjusting.
ADJUSTING YOUR MINDSET
With any change or adjustment, 3 aspects are always involved: planning, motivation, and awareness. Planning is so important because change makes you venture into the unknown, so having a guide map of some sort is so vital to know what steps you have to take and when.
Motivation is necessary with any change in order to be able to make it a reality. It is about figuring out “why” you want to make this change and use that to execute the changes you have planned. The last step is having awareness.
We all have experienced at one point or another the process of just going through the motions. But when it comes to making adjustments, it is so important to be aware of what actionable steps you are taking, how it makes you feel, and how it is impacting your life.
All of these things allow us to make note of the progress we are making and if we need to tweak certain things, such as switching something in the plan or focusing on a much bigger and better “why”. When I make any changes, I like to take time at the end of each day to write out my thoughts regarding where I am with this change.
Now, these are just general ideas to keep in mind that have truly helped me in the process of changing my mindset around productivity, but now I will go into the actionable steps taken to make this adjustment.
For me, the biggest thing was changing the thoughts that have been engrained over the years in my mind. Most of which were negative or guilty thoughts when I wasn’t working as much as other days or “should” statements regarding what to get done in X amount of time.
Something that really helped me to work on these thoughts was writing them down and challenging them. I would write down what was going on in my head and then challenge those thoughts.
For example, if I started to get down on myself for taking a nap instead of doing an assignment, I would write that situation down.
Then, I would write down different ways to view that situation. Maybe my body was telling me that I needed to rest and listening to my body is a positive thing.
Or maybe if I hadn’t taken that nap, I wouldn’t have completed that assignment to the best of my ability, which could result in a lower grade. It’s just things like that; just going through your thoughts and wading through the facts and lies.
And from what I have learned over the years, majority of the negative thoughts you have aren’t true; they just seem that way because you’re the one thinking them.
And once I got into the habit of challenging my thoughts on paper, I started doing it in my mind. Challenging your thoughts is like a muscle; the more you work it, the stronger it gets.
And that’s what happened; challenging my thoughts became second nature to me. The thoughts would come, I would poke holes to show it was false and move forward with a positive mindset.
I do want to note that the point of this isn’t to make these kinds of thoughts disappear, but to be better able to deal with them in a way that benefits you.
I honestly believe this is the hardest part of this process because you are challenging thoughts that have been engrained in you for so long, but once you reach this point, you can now incorporate this new mindset into your way of living.
INCORPORATING THIS MINDSET INTO YOUR LIFESTYLE
So, if you’re like me and don’t think you can live without your various methods of planning (google calendar, notes app, paper planner, task notepad, etc.), it can be scary to change the way you keep yourself accountable for being productive.
But there is a way to stay organized and plan your days while still keeping a positive mindset around productivity. I think a good place to start is at the most minimal amount of planning as possible, because at least for me, excessive planning went hand in hand with unhealthy productivity.
So, I started off with only using the notes app in my phone, but only writing a checklist of things I would like to get done, but with no time assignments.
When you assign a task or set of tasks to a time, it can put a lot of excess pressure on you to not only get it done, but also get it done during that specific time period.
Therefore, its vital to first get comfortable with just completing the tasks with a good mindset around productivity. And once you are able to have this balance between productivity and a healthy mindset, you can slowly start to assign times for certain projects, meanwhile keep challenging those unhealthy thoughts.
I started off by creating a morning routine that was enjoyable for me, but also was according to a set of times. It’s important to start off small and continue adding as you feel more comfortable.
And once I felt I was ready to move forward, I created a might routine with time assignments that was enjoyable. How much of your life you want assigned to a specific time is up to you, but for me this is where I stopped.
As of right now, I don’t feel the need to make more of my life planned according to time. I have found a lifestyle that allows me to be productive without necessarily using an excessive amount of planning.
I am happy with my morning and night routines, leaving the rest of my day to do what I need to do that day, at whatever time fits best for me.
I enjoy playing a part of my day by ear, with that little bit of structure in the morning and at night. It is so important to find what works for you and what makes you feel good. I found my healthy balance and I hope this blog post helps you find yours!
