What Are The Benefits Of Being Productive?

Being productive is the key to a successful, healthy, and happy life. 

When you are productive:

• You’ll complete tasks faster and better, and enhance your reputation.
• You’ll have less stress and have more time for self-care and self-development.
• You’ll be happy, motivated to do more, and inspire others around you.

Everyone wants to be the best they can be, and they can achieve this only by being productive.

Many people erroneously think that being productive helps only their employers. 

But this post will explore the benefits of being productive to show that the main beneficiary is you. 

Read on to find out how being productive can help you live a healthier, happier, and more successful life.

1. Being productive helps you get more done

The very definition of productivity is doing things faster or doing more in less time.

Sometimes, many people feel that there is so much to do but so little time to get them done. 

Fortunately, what is often needed is not more time to do the work. Rather, it is to be more productive to do more in the available time.

It doesn’t matter what the task is. When you are productive, you will achieve more in less time.

It could be tasks in your 9-5 job, such as sorting parcels, coupling machinery, writing a report, etc. It could be household chores like decluttering a space or cleaning. It could even be reading or doing school assignments.

2. Being productive helps you to do things better

When you are productive, not only do you do more in the time you have, but you do them well.

You probably have heard the saying, “it is not how far but how well.” This timeless saying means that speeding through tasks to get more done is meaningless if it’ll produce bad results.

For example, it is meaningless to speed through materials to read more only to end up not comprehending or remembering what you read. You’ll need a better speed reading strategy.

The same goes with your 9-5 job. Speeding through tasks is meaningless if you’ll end up making mistakes.

However, speeding up and getting more done does not always come with mistakes or bad results.

Being productive will improve both the “quantity” and “quality” of what you do. 

In other words, productivity can be redefined as getting things done faster and better.

3. You will have an easier time

Being productive helps you stay on top of things. You’ll have an overview of all that you need to do, where to focus, as well as when and how you’ll do what.

Being productive makes life easy. The link between being productive and having an easier time becomes clear if you understand how to improve personal productivity.

One way to improve productivity is planning your workday. 

Doing this requires:

• Identifying all the tasks you need to do
• Prioritizing the tasks in terms of their relative importance
• Scheduling the work. Set the order you’ll complete tasks and how much time you’ll spend in each.

Thus, when you are productive, you’ll be in control at all times. Your schedule will be organized. So, you’re less likely to miss tasks. 

You’ll also be more fluid when moving from task to task.

You’ll know and focus more on important tasks. So, you’re less likely to waste time on less important tasks and be short of time for critical tasks.

4. Being productive saves time for you

When you get things done faster because you are productive, you’ll have more time for yourself.

Being productive is one way to buy time. If you can complete a 5-hour task in 4 hours, you’ll have bought yourself one full hour.

Parkinson’s Law comes to mind here. It states that “work expands to fill available time“. So if you allocate 5 hours to do a 2-hours work, the work will take 5 hours to complete.

Stretching work like that and working almost endlessly can cause fatigue. 

When you are productive, you avoid Parkinson’s Law by not spending more time on tasks.

You’ll do things faster, and this gives you enough time to rest and relax. 

Such time for self-care is necessary to:

• Prevent burnout
• Get refreshed to focus and pay more attention to other tasks.
• Get new perspectives on tasks to be more creative when completing tasks.

5. Productivity reduces stress

Being productive eliminates or reduces many work-related stress-causing factors. By so doing, being productive reduces stress. 

Stress comes from any situation that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. 

Some of these situations come from work, such as:

• not having much control over tasks
• having responsibilities that you find overwhelming
• worrying about things like deadlines

Being productive eliminates these stressors. 

For example, being productive helps you stay on top of things. This gives you control over tasks, and you’ll not find things overwhelming. 

Also, by getting things done faster and better, productivity helps you meet your job’s demands. This will save you worries about missing deadlines or poor results.

6. Productivity opens the door for more opportunity

Being productive gives you more time for other pursuits and to develop yourself, which will open the door for more opportunities.

When you complete tasks in less time, you’ll have more time in your hand. Investing this free time wisely can open the doors to more opportunities.  

For example, you use your free time to take special courses and acquire specialized skills to increase your marketability in what you do.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, being productive is your way out because it gives you time to pursue the things you love. 

You can use the free time to pursue your passions. These could be hobbies simply for fun or even those you can earn a living from.

7. Being productive enhances your reputation

By being productive, you’ll have high ratings among your peers. You’ll be known as someone who can be trusted to get things done.

Will you want to be known as sloppy or someone who struggles to do things well? 

That’s highly unlikely. 

You’d rather want to be known as someone who can do things efficiently. 

Only by being productive over time can you build such a reputation.

Know that your reputation (what others think of you) is very important. 

This is because a good reputation helps in the following ways.

• Improve your earning power. If you are known as productive, you are likely to earn a promotion and pay raise in the workspace. A solid reputation can also attract better opportunities for you.
• Attract loyal supporters/ subordinates. If you occupy a leadership position, being productive earns you the respect of your subordinates/followers. People are less likely to question your decisions when they know you’re capable. 
• Promote good relationships. If you are known as capable, people will more readily identify with you. This will lead to more meaningful relationships both at work and in your personal life.

That said, one piece of advice that you should discard now is “It doesn’t matter what others think of you,” because it matters in society.

8. Productivity brings happiness

When you are productive, you’ll easily meet the demands of the job at hand. The brain reward system will release feel-good hormones that’ll bring feelings of accomplishment and happiness.

When you achieve a goal, the brain releases the hormone dopamine. This is a “feel-good” hormone – a neurotransmitter that boosts the mood and makes you feel good.

Whenever you achieve what you set out to achieve, you’ll get a rush of dopamine, which brings a good feeling.

You probably can attest to this. 

When you reach a goal, and you look back at what it took you to get there, and especially at the obstacles on the way that you overcame, you’ll be proud of yourself. That feeling of accomplishment brings immeasurable joy.

9. Being productive helps you stay motivated

When you’re productive, you’ll see positive results in what you do, and that’ll motivate you to do more.

A lot has been written about how “motivation improves productivity“. What is also true is that being productive causes one to be motivated.

This is because being productive brings results, and there’s a direct relationship between results and motivation.

When you see results, your brain releases dopamine to make you feel good. 

But it doesn’t stop there. 

The brain will want you to repeat what triggered the feel-good feeling.

Thus, seeing positive results excites and will motivate you to do more. Conversely, it’s difficult to stay motivated if you don’t see results.

In fact, one of the strategies of improving productivity is designed specifically to reap more of this benefit of productivity. 

This is the strategy of breaking down large tasks into smaller tasks that are quicker and easier to complete.

Each small task you complete represents a big success for the whole. You’ll see success as you go, and each small success will motivate you to achieve more.

10. Being productive will motivate others around you

When you are productive, you will inspire others around you to improve their productivity, creating a highly productive workforce.

Ever heard the saying “when you lift yourself, you lift others“? 

It means that our actions have a ripple effect. If it’s positive, it challenges others to reach the same levels.

Virtually everyone wants to attain a high level of productivity. However, sometimes, there can be feelings that the desired high level of productivity is beyond reach. 

But if they see you do it, they immediately know that it can be done. Then, they’ll more readily commit to achieving the same heights. Such commitment will see their own productivity improve. 

Conclusion

Being productive helps you more than you may realize. It’s the key to becoming more.

• Successful. When you’re productive, you get more things done, you get things done better, and this enhances your reputation and open doors for more opportunities.
• Healthy. When you get more things done, you have less stress, and you have more time for self-care
• Happy. When you achieve more, you get feel-good hormones, making you happy and motivated to do more.

If you want a more successful, healthier, and happier life, be more productive. 

The good news is that with Iris Reading, being productive is not a difficult task. 

We have a Personal Productivity course designed to help you become more productive and accomplish more with your time.

Our programs have been hosted by Ivy League universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley. 

Register today for this Personal Productivity course and grab the key that unlocks a more successful, healthy, and happy life.