Ever heard of the term productivity? Every heard teachers, parents, even peers tell you to be more productive with your life/day? Ever felt productive? If you are student, it is likely that you agree with the previous three sentences! Productivity is universally deemed as an essential tool towards success, especially academic success, but actually, productivity is not just tied to studying, to homework, but instead, it is one of the main reasons why Man have come so far in our 4 million years of existence. Moving back to the status quo, it has been oft-cited by many top students, geniuses even that productivity is key to doing well as a student, which is what is known to be one of the ingredients which comprise a successful individual.
1. Productivity should never be the main goal
Now this may not make any sense, but productivity should never be the main goal, albeit for a student, or for any other individual with a rational mind! Making productivity the main goal makes us lose sight of our initial goal, and for students, that would be to do well in the exams, be a likeable student etc. Instead, productivity is actually only a means to and end, and that end would be the goal we are working towards. Productivity is just part of the system that constructs the path towards our eventual goals, and not the goal itself! To be able to effectively utilise productivity as a ‘strategy’ towards eventual success, one has to understand this sentiment. This means that one has to understand what leads them to their goals, what does not lead them to their goals.
2. Productivity is not eternal, it is not infinite
Many people, students especially, choose to give up on their goals when they encounter the first sign of possible failure, and in this case, that is usually procrastination. They expect perfection when they try to be productive, but do not consider the fact that productivity is not something that is sustainable over an infinite period of time. Just like every other thing on this planet, be it material or immaterial, productivity cannot last forever! We have to learn that we will not be able to sustain being productive forever, that we have to expect that at some points we will just be too tired to stay productive, that we are imperfect and we will procrastinate. Instead, we should accept this little imperfections about productivity and try to minimise our encounters with them, and not just give up productivity at the first sight of setback.
In conclusion, productivity is not a golden solution to our problems, it comes with its imperfections, it comes with its conditions for effective usage in our goal-setting and our goal-achieving processes. We should not take it to be the Holy Grail of solutions towards success, but instead think of it as an opportunity to do more, be more.
Do take note, I am by no means an expert in this field, but I believe strongly that it is not fair that I should not let my opinions on this matter be known, since it may be helpful to some individuals out there. Do follow me for more articles just like this as I project my thoughts and opinions out to the world!!
