Ever get lost spending hours on a project, in your work, or with a hobby, and lose track of time? That’s because what you focus on expands in your mind creating an experience of relaxed productivity, timelessness and flow. It feels great to be in that flow of accomplishment. Stuff gets done and you don’t know how it happened!
I think most people would agree that you get more of what you focus on and that includes the feelings attached to your focus.
So why do people spend so much time focusing on their problems, their tasks, their to-do lists, stressing and overwhelming themselves, when what they simply want is to be more productive, satisfied and successful?
What if the best solutions don’t always come from staring deeply into your problems after wrestling with your never ending list of tasks? What if there’s another easier way with the higher quality experience and results you want?
We are all wired with the same basic equipment, the same elemental design. How we understand that design and use that equipment produces different results—hard won and stressed, or relaxed and satisfyingly productive. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in the hours and you will get results either way, but consider the quality and the mental cost of those results.
If you want higher quality productivity, then what you focus on becomes critical. If your attention is on your to-do list you’ll watch it grow, maybe even multiply. If your attention is on your engagement, like it is when reading a book, making music or playing a video game, you’re way more likely to watch the satisfyingly productive results happen with ease and enjoyment.
Whether something is hard or easy, or whether you’re stressed or in the flow, it’s a reflection of your state of mind, your perception of the world at any given moment.
Want to see what I’m talking about directly in your life? Here are a few reflective questions to consider. See what you notice.
- When did you experience your effort disproportionate to your results, either you put in a lot of effort and received little return, or hardly did anything and got a big return? What do you make of that? Was it random, or might there be something at work you hadn’t noticed before?
- Think of a time when you were fully engaged in something, work or otherwise, and you were happy with both the experience and the results. If you remember how good your engagement felt could you cultivate that experience of engagement more frequently? If you could, how?
- If you started noticing the state of mind you had when your results came more easily, what might you change about how you are doing things? How might you cultivate the state of mind and focus that would be conducive to easy productivity?
You’ll see that with consideration for your state of mind at work and the value that has, you can cultivate and achieve the higher quality experience and results you want without the extra layers of effort and struggle.
Artwork: Untitled. 1938. by Ad Reinhardt