Priscilla Xu

Reading time: 6 minutes

I am a psychology student. But why is it almost impossible to change my behaviors from applying concepts that I have learned from behavior analysis class to increase productivity?

Trash your willpower and motivation.

If you still rely on your motivation and willpower, you will lead to burnout. And nobody likes the dreading feeling of burnout. I indeed have experienced a fair share of mental breakdowns and burnouts. In a book called “Motivation is a myth” by Jeff Haden, he states that successful people do not rely on motivation to get themselves to work.

You feel motivated because you took action. Motivation is a result, not a precondition. You don’t need motivation to break a sweat. Break a sweat and you’ll feel motivated.

Jeff Haden, Motivation is a Myth

Psychologist Roy Baumeister theorized that willpower and self-control are like a mental muscles, meaning that mental energy is limited each day. He coined the turn “ego depletion.”

Research by Baumeister in 2012 revealed that controlling your desires is mentally effortful. In a nutshell, 7827 people were given a beeper for a week for recording their desired intensity and whether or not they had successfully withstood their desire. The results showed that people who use more willpower to control their passion will more likely the subject will not resist other temptations throughout the day. So what do you rely on to complete your homework and lectures every day?

What is mindful productivity?

I am a nerd, psychology student who is also obsessed with productivity. As a result, I catch myself running on the hamster wheel of chasing unrealistic standards I set for myself. I find myself paying in my mental health to overcommitment.

Through years of trial and error, the answer is mindful productivity.

So what is mindfulness? The founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy, Jon Kabat-Zinn, defines

 Midnfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally.

John Kabat-Ziin.

Productivity stems from the industrial revolution era to measure economic output. So what is productivity?

Productivity is the outputs divided by the amount of input.

Investopedia

The productivity equation and sentence above seem to take humans’ emotional and mental portions out. Humans are not robots. We are creatures with emotions. “Mindfulness” and “Productivity” appear to be very contradicting concepts. However, they can be merged to produce synergistic effects.

What do they mean when they are combined?

Mindful productivity is awareness of where and what you pay attention to in the present moment while taking care of your mind and body.

If this sounds a bit woo-woo, let’s put this into a concrete example.

• I just got out of bed. If I was mindful, I would be aware that my actions might be to scroll on my phone. Instead of scrolling, I will choose to get out of bed, open the curtains, and get some sunshine. I know that viewing the sun in the morning will sync and anchor my biological clock.

• If I am not mindful, I will not be aware that I will pick up my phone and scroll on my phone for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, a “light bulb” will shine in my mind, and I realize that I have already spent 15 minutes scrolling and feel regretful for doing it.

You see where the productivity part comes into play when you are mindful of your choices?

How to be more mindful when you work?

We have learned that willpower is a finite resource. Just like will power, the amount of focused attention is limited. You need to “pay attention” to learn and engage with the task.

Even when something looks like free there is a cost to pay. Google searches are not free because they collect search data to enhance the service’s user experience, such as finding better restaurants for you and prices customised advertisement with data.

The internet has evolved into an attention economy. As a result, tech companies have spent billions of dollars trying to set up the user interface to stay on the platform for money from advertising.

A study in 2010 suggests that humans really like to hate doing nothing, and they will find a reason to justify their business. So most people opt for the tiny machine in their pockets — smartphones. But, unfortunately, mindless scrolling is also significantly associated with an increase in depression. Ironically, Apple’s CEO Tim book is also against mindless scrolling.

So, what to do about it?

An abundance of choices of social media apps and news to read leads to choice paralysis. Attention and willpower are finite resources. The new version of time management is attention management with mindful productivity.

Attention maangemnt is focusing on your internal state and your intentions. Here’s an example of time management vs. attention management.

• Time management is scheduling my activities based on time blocking and where I have to go. 

• Since the pandemic, I have spent a lot of time at home. Therefore, I have not obligated to be at a location at a particular time.

• Attention is to manage my focus regardless of my location or time. When I am at home, my brain has the freedom to choose to scroll on my phone, do nothing to relax, or do homework. If my focus is to relax, I will emphasize staying open-minded and intentional to choose to do nothing to settle. 

Here is how you can start implementing mindful productivity to what truly matters for your studies.

1. Practice mindfulness meditation

The common perception of cultivating mindfulness is setting aside dedicated time to meditate. But, to be honest, I felt all my time was just wasted when I started mindfulness meditation. The benefits of mindfulness meditation 10 minutes every day come after meditating for around a month. And I am now 3 months into practicing meditation.

2. Set a daily highlight.

This concept came from the book Make Time. You start small by setting a critical task for yourself to complete in the day. Later, you can climb the productivity pyramid and use more advanced skills to ramp up your productivity.

3. Set minimal, realistic goal clear goals for each studying session.

If you have not planned and scheduled your days before, setting a daily highlight might seem daunting at first. You can also try putting a tiny goal for the day, such as opening your computer and typing two words for your new 1500 words essay. Then, increase two words to one sentence and so on. The activation energy of getting started for any work is the hardest part. The result of not creating a task leads to procrastination. If you get started just by typing two words, you prime your brain to be motivated for the rest of the work.

4. Ask yourself the question: what is the highest leverage concept to study this topic?.

This actionable tip came from a term called “threshold concept.” A threshold concept is a concept that will alter your perspective about the new topic. Think of it as the core building blocks of your understanding. For example, some threshold concepts in chemistry are redox reactions and Avogadro’s number.

5. Listen to your body and take breaks when you need

I tend to push myself too much and ignore self-care a lot of the time. While listening to your body for more pronounced hunger and thirst cues, emotional cues and cravings should not be overlooked. In the end, humans are not machines, so we should learn how to take good care of them.

Bringing Mindfulness Into Life

The internet is a double edge sword. It offers so much information to learn, but it comes with many costs. Mindful productivity tries to minimize the costs of using the internet.

If we can’t change the fast-paced world on the internet, it is time to leave the hustle culture behind and constantly feel stressed. Instead, we can choose to unplug regularly and cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness is not an isolated skill to be practiced in meditation. Choosing to manage your attention and being mindful are the first steps to feel refreshed again.