Productivity explained: What´s in for you
“People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be. If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all.” - Idries Shah
Many people are living their life without goals or serious ambitions. They let themselves flow through the river that forms life without a self-determined destination and often even without a paddle to steer. Instead, they let external influences distract their mind for way too many hours. Each day passes like the day before without any progress towards any desireable future state.
I was in this kind of state myself several years ago. When I finished my bachelors degree in mechatronics my education was finished in my eyes. The goal I set myself for so many years was reached. I started working and the days passed while I had no sense of how the next years of my life should look like. I had nothing to strive for.
Another problem I think many people have is that it's easy to get stressed by this fast paced world and feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities. At the same time social media forms the narrative that everbody else is living their best life but you.
According to the “2021 global burnout study”, more and more people are having burnout. I strongly believe a lack of personal organisation skills for handling information plays a significant role for this trend. People consume way more input than ever before. Consequently the skills for handling this amount of information have to increase aswell or the burnout rate rises. Similarly if cars become faster and faster, safety measures need to increase or mortality rate rises as well.
To summarize I see two major reasons why people get lost in this fast paced age of information:
- Having no goal thus just living every day as the day before
- Not improving their information handling skills, thus information overload and increased pressure
If you can relate to at least one of those statements and want to learn how to handle those, I aim to help you with this blog-series.
So what am I talking about? What could help you reach your goals efficiently and keep you from burning out at the same time? My magic word for a more conscious and better life is: “productivity”.
I think most people misunderstand this word, which is sad because it holds the power to create endless opportunities. I am writing this blog because I would like people to realize that productivity is not about “hustle or die” or getting as much stuff done as possible in the shortest amount of time. Productivity is about spending your time well and doing the things that matter most to you: efficient, but with a low stress level.
If you get up on a Sunday and decide to play Fortnite all day because that’s what you want to do in that moment, go for it. The thing you don’t want to do is just mindlessly scrolling through Tik Tok for hours every evening because you don’t know what else to do.
What makes all the difference is that you decide what to do.
Productivity is about setting goals and working actively on your goals to achieve your desired future state someday. To be clear: this doesn’t mean that you need to hustle 24/7 but to develop the mindset to pay attention to what is important in your life.
I want to show you how to set goals as well as how to handle more information without letting yourself stress out from all the “to-dos” that need your attention. The goal is to rewire your brain into a more focused and less stressfull thinking which will help you see that life is full of possibilities and it's your own choice which path you take. And the best part with all of that is that it doesn’t matter in which state of life you are in right now or what has happened in your past.
All that matters is what you make out of today - every today - starting today.
This blog will be a series of posts because I would like to go into more detail about my understanding of productivity. Also I will show you which concepts I implemented in my life and what I learned from my experiences so far. The series will be structured as follows: (including this post)
- Producitvity explained: What's in for you
- Goal-setting: Get on track
- Journaling & Reviews: Stay on track
- Habits and Systems: Supercharge efficiency and consistency
- Task management: Stay on top of your world
- Second brain: Your Database for everything
- Productivity: Everything you need to know
Additionally, I will share some of the systems that helped me implement those concepts into my life. I mainly use Notion - a free all in one workspace tool* - for productivity and personal development. Therefore I will make systems as I use them available as templates in Notion. That way I hope to give you enough input so you can start improving your lifestyle right away.
How do you think people without goals and information overload can improve their life? I will be publishing posts for this series every two weeks so if you want to stay posted on my releases subscribe to my E-Mail Newsletter and follow me on social media and tell me your thoughts!
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I want to close with a short disclaimer: Productivity is a way of life fueled by intrinsic motivation. This skyrockets the number of paths you will be able to choose from, because your mind won’t be overwhelmed from daily doings. You will regain your focus and be able to purposefully pursue your goals. Keep in mind that this won’t be possible by reading this blog series without deriving actions from it.
The most important thing is adapting the concepts into your life. Otherwise those concepts will remain theory and your life will remain the same.
Another important thing I want you to know is that implementing those concepts won’t work perfectly from the start and it won’t turn your life around within one week. Gradually iterating over a longer amount of time and adapt those systems to your personality and lifestyle is what will be key for success. That's why you shouldn’t discourage yourself when something takes more time to implement into your life than anticipated. Some tweeks here and there to make a system fit smoothly will be needed sometimes. Recognize potential for improvement if something doesn’t work out quite as well and adapt. See my concepts as a guidance to get started and then adjust them how it works best for yourself.
Just like a musician who gets taught guitar and learns the basics from a teacher or the internet but finds her own style as she gets better and better because she lets her own likings flow in.
Don’t be too hard to yourself if something doesn’t work out. Focus on improving and remind yourself how far you have progressed.
“The time for action is now. Its never too late to do something”- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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