What does it mean to be Productive? 

We use the word Productive so often, but how often do we stop and think about what it means? The world seems to spin on “productivity:” often a key indicator of a country’s rank is in terms of Gross Domestic Product, meaning the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year. At work, our performance reviews are based largely on what we were able to “produce,” albeit what a person “produces” at work varies greatly. People often associate their bank account with their worth, and that worth is often based on the value they bring to a company… that value is based on the employee’s contribution to the company’s “production.”

 Webster Dictionary defines Productive as:

1. Having the quality or power of producing especially in abundance
2. Effective in bringing about
3. a. Yielding results, benefits, or profits

b. Yielding or devoted to the satisfaction of wants or the creation of utilities

What’s the Importance?

Why is being productive important? Depends who you ask. For many, self-confidence is often tied to the result of “being productive,” such as one’s bank account, car, home, raise, or project done. Productivity can also impact one’s perception of their self-worth. There are some of us who, when we aren’t feeling as though we are productive, we get lazy and don’t want to do anything… which ironically makes us less productive. Based on our experience, when people walk around feeling as though they are only collecting losses in life, they usually don’t describe themselves as happy.

The reality is though, most people ARE productive… they just don’t see it as so. We often don’t give ourselves enough credit for the things we do, even when those things don’t end up resulting in what the outcome was we desired.  Let us help you rethink what it means to be productive. Many times when people don’t achieve that final thing they chalk it up as an “L” and feel as though all is lost, and it was all for nothing.

The StaySmilinLife way of looking at Production is a little different. Instead of only focusing on the result, we focus more on the process – the many steps it takes to get to the finish line, and not just in the areas of work, business, or school. And when we focus on the process we find it easier to adjust and discover more about ourselves, and oftentimes, better paths to get where we are trying to go. Most importantly, when you take action and get stuff done, it has a great chance of improving your well-being, sense of purpose, and happiness. 

We want you to think about productivity as: what are you doing that contribute to achieving your life goals? When you are working towards your life goals that means progress is being made. And how can anyone make progress, without having first been productive? 

Go Beyond Traditional Productivity

As mentioned before, StaySmilinLife is about “being productive” beyond accomplishing assignments and tasks related to work, business, and school. 

We at StaySmilinLife think the real question is, how does productivity play into being there for your loved ones, taking personal time for self-care, and helping others? 

Self-confidence and self-worth can’t just be measured by looks, work, money, and material possessions. There are more aspects of life which are also important and play a critical role in achieving happiness. If you have an end goal of losing weight, getting that run in or meal prepping counts as being productive. For your personal well-being, scheduling self-care, such as a massage, time by yourself, a vacation, can all be considered productive. So long as they are in moderation, of course. If you have a loved one you care about, or family and friends, and you take time to make them something nice, or take time out of your day to hang out with them and strengthen and/or deepen your relationship… that too is being productive.

The various areas of life that StaySmilinLife focuses on each have a component of productivity associated with them… as varying amounts of work is necessary to be put in, in order to find happiness in each area. Below are a few examples of what productivity can look like in each of the core StaySmilinLife areas:

• Purpose – Trying new things, chasing dreams, doing anything that contributes to achieving one’s purpose(s)
• Health – Exercising, planning meals, eating healthy, meditation, quitting the consumption of unhealthy things
• Self (Self-Esteem/Image and Personal Stories) – Using time to reflect, saying affirmations, complimenting one’s self and others, self-care activities
• Finance – Make money, check in on your spending and savings, actively budget, pay bills, find ways to save money, finding ways to invest
• Mental Diet – Reading good stuff, watching educational shows, intentionally watching something to decompress, learning something new
• Environment – Doing chores, keeping your home clean and organized, taking in nature, decorating with purpose
• Hobbies – Buying necessary equipment, using the equipment, finding others to participate in hobbies with, trying new hobbies
• Human Connection (Family, Friends, Love, Boundaries, and Community) – Maintaining relationships by scheduling games, coffee, lunch, drinks, or time to spend with friends and loved ones, actively connecting with your family, friends, community and loved ones, setting healthy boundaries 

Even things that we would normally not consider to be productive, like watching a movie on Netflix, could serve a purpose, and thus be productive. Maybe that action movie really makes you check out for an hour and a half and lets your brain stop spinning, helping your mind decompress. Or if you’re watching something, or playing a game, with your significant other, perhaps it allows you to just be in the moment with your loved one. Of course, moderation is the key. That’s where the Productivity Barometer comes in…

The Productivity Barometer

Pretty much anything you DO in life can be viewed as productive, but there’s a barometer and scale to be aware of, and it is different for everyone. If you watch one show, perhaps, it is fulfilling a need. However, when that one show turns into a 10 show Saturday binge, is it still fulfilling that need? Or has this one activity tipped into the realm of unproductivity? After your show watching marathon, are you feeling blah and bleh at the end of the day? You look around and realize you didn’t make time to knock out any of your other plans, such as cleaning up, running errands, doing laundry, or spending time with family, friends, or your partner? Did it derail your diet because not only did you order delivery, twice, you never got around to meal prepping for the week? Only you can answer those questions because every person’s productivity barometer is different. You have to be honest with yourself though.

This productivity barometer also applies to getting stuff done. Make sure that you are aware of how much you “need” to get done, how much you “want” to get done, and how much time you are scheduling for yourself. Like many of the other topics we cover at StaySmilinLife, it is essential we manage our expectations (not to be confused with lowering them) and ensure we are setting goals we can actually achieve in the amount of time we have to achieve them. Are your expectations that you have of yourself within reason? We don’t mean this in a, “what’s your dream” sense (we believe in having big audacious goals), rather, is your schedule day after day packed with a to-do list a mile long, but you literally don’t have enough time to get them all done? How does it make you feel if you don’t get to everything? If that leaves you feeling dissatisfied, perhaps it’s time to re-prioritize your list and reevaluate how many things need to be on that list.

Co-Founder Thoughts

Kristina’s Truth: Historically, my ability to be productive was bad. I kept second-guessing things I did, thought too much, went around in circles – basically tried to make everything perfect. I was second-guessing so many things that I would sometimes be in the middle of drafting an email and realized that I didn’t know one of the facts, and postpone sending out all of the other information. One of the things that changed my life was reading Mel Robbins’ book the 5 Second Rule. The 5-second rule is Mel’s concept of counting backward from 5. Mel explains that our brains are wired to talk ourselves out of doing things – a self-preservation tool. The purpose of counting backward is to drown out the thoughts when your brain is talking you out of doing something. This in turn helps you take action and it has helped me take action. I don’t actually count backward nowadays, but I learned to just move. I even have a mantra on a board in my office that says, “Strive for progress, not perfection” and a countdown 5-4-3-2-1 after to remind me to move forward. The more I took action, the more I realized I got stuff done and felt better about myself, more confident. I started keeping a lot of promises to myself and that’s helped me become the person I am today: excelling at my day job with a couple of side hustles.

The other major tool I learned that helps out a lot is building habits. I’ve found that I have one cornerstone habit and that’s exercising, specifically running or some sort of cardio. If I can run in the morning, I’ll drink enough water that day, make better eating choices, focus more on my work, and get more stuff done in general. I’m not consistent 100% of the time with running and it is something I’m constantly working on. I’ve also learned I easily get thrown off my schedule when my routine changes. Before COVID19 hit, my weekday routine was to go to my work gym before my day job started, run on the treadmill, and then head to work. Since I’ve been quarantined, creating a new consistent routine has been a challenge. I’ve been able to get up and run on many days, but not as many as I would like. What I’m shifting in my mindset and practice is making the time to exercise more sacred, or something that I can’t put off because I have more work. More work is always there. When I go down the road of putting it off, I find myself a few days later, or even weeks later, not having gone on a run or exercised, I don’t keep as many promising to myself, I am procrastinating on more tasks, and I feel guilty and crappy for all of it.

It’s me Yoichi, and a wise man once said to me, “There is one thing in this world you cannot take for granted nor get back. You know what that is?” It’s not money… You can work and save money.  It’s not your friends…. You can make new friends. It’s not the air we breathe… Nature makes new air for us (for now)… If you still haven’t figured it out, the one thing you cannot get back is “Time.”  Since the beginning of time, time has moved at a constant with or without you. We can never go back in time to change the past (for now… but would you?). This means you should not take time for granted and need to become productive to live your life to the fullest by paying to play, or should I say business before pleasure. So I learned that you need to work and make a living to have a great time with your friends and enjoy the life in which you breathe air every second of every day and stay happy. 

Carlos’ Thinky Thinky… It took me a long time to realize that I am a productive person, which I especially am when thinking about it in the Stay Smilin Life way. I’ve always been super busy and as a kid with ADHD in a house of relaxers, my mom had a never-ending list of things I could do around the house. I’m extremely grateful she also did whatever she could to involve me in as many extracurricular activities as possible. After I graduated from college I worked two jobs and played in as many sports leagues as I could, didn’t matter the sport, and I made sure I hung out with friends as much as possible. When I decided to live on my own for a year I found a new kind of happiness in not surrounding myself with others 24/7. I started getting back into art and hobbies and thoroughly enjoyed the peace. After a year I felt recharged, developed a new appreciation and relationship with myself, and was ready to get back to being social. 

Random side note, I was a monk for 9 days at a Buddhist temple in Arizona… while I was there I had no access to technology and was only responsible for four things each day: morning meditation and recite chants, eat breakfast and lunch (no food after Noon), take part in cleaning the temple, and study their philosophy. What is interesting to me is that the most important thing I learned while I was there, was that I could be still, and that being still is productive. I never had been still before my time as a monk, unless I had strep throat or something of the likes. Yet as a monk I learned how to be still, appreciate the moment, and recharge my energizer batteries, which I had previously thought only could be recharged during sleep. Better yet, being still energized me in a whole new way, and helped me focus my ADHD energy into something I could use with intention.

Fast forward to now, I find ways to make all of my waking hours productive. I keep a calendar for appointments, but anytime I don’t have an appointment and am not working, I find a balance between being active or still, with or without friends. I find that I feel best in life when my days consist of:

1. Something that makes me sweat
2. At least two great conversations
3. 5-60 minutes to myself (varies based on how I feel and what’s going on)
4. Time to clean (I clean as I go rather than wait a week for a mess to form)
5. Eat 3-4 times (Don’t care what as long as it’s healthy)
6. Hobby time (art, music, tinkering, working on my car, gardening) 
7. Time to work on my dreams
8. 6 hours of sleep

Surprisingly, almost all of my days include these 8 things. I stay present in the moment with whatever I am doing at the time which also helps me feel productive. Being mindful of being present in all that I do also makes it feel as though I have been awake for several days or weeks sometimes, and it has only been one day. Thankfully I enjoy most of what I do, and the things I “don’t” enjoy doing so much I assign a valuable meaning to them so I feel good about getting them done. 

Tayari’s Two Cents: Productivity to me is a constant balancing act that requires constant tuning. Productivity when I was working & going to college looked different than it did when I was defense contracting and Fire Fighting. Time constraints were different and progress was measured differently. On one hand, I needed to pass a test, on the other, I needed to acclimate my running miles above 6000ft as to not use my air tanks up so quickly when/if fighting a fire: studying/passing vs. cardio vs. physical exertion vs air consumption. The balancing act between work schedules, dedicated time to studying/training, and self-care/recharging was extremely important. Good enough balance between all variables at those times made for the progress I wanted. 

At times, the balancing act of productivity may need to shift due to temporary life events. Knowing/learning/seeking help in navigating said shifts are important and essential. Most recently, I needed to shift to working longer hours for hiring efforts at my day job. The bi-product was being burnt out after 13-hour shifts and needing to be able to write for Stay Smilin Life. The balance I needed was self-care and time to recharge my batteries. Taking inventory of what I could do was important so that I could still be productive. The problem was solved – I moved my schedule around so I could maintain working out, our conference call, and still be able to rest, recharge, and write. 

One of the things that really helped was having an amazing friend to know my baseline operating Tayari vs my “is that tired-looking guy Tayari?” Having good positive people in your circle as you continue to work towards goals, whatever they might be, should not be underestimated. Life can throw all kinds of curveballs, bowling balls, and wrecking balls your way. Having a good support system can help you get the footing you need so that you have the best chances to be productive, and ultimately successful.

Wrap Up

Based on our experiences, we find each of our productivity barometers at a sweet spot when there is a balance between work/money productivity and productive personal time. Each of our ratios are different, and it is up to us to monitor this never-ending balancing act. One thing that we have found super helpful is that we each can sense when another’s productivity barometer is out of balance. We hold each other accountable and let them know that, well, it’s usually the person is doing too much and needs to take some time for themselves and/or family. Sometimes that means find a few hours in the next day or two to marinate, and other times it can mean a vacation. The most important thing is to pay attention to the signals your body gives you, such as being tired, irritable, a longing for/missing of (insert person/place/activity), and restlessness, to give a few examples. Managing your productivity barometer is a constant work-in-progress. Go on now, get out there, become a do-er, be mindful of your barometer, and make small adjustments as you go along. We will catch up with you later.