Most discussions about productivity are focused on doing our work. The feelings we have about our work are often dismissed as irrelevant or superfluous:
What matters is what you do; not how you feel about it.
It’s time to shift this mindset, because it’s wrong.
In fact, how we feel while doing our work is not only relevant, it’s crucial to doing our best work.
One of the core tenets in my paradigm of Holistic Productivity is that productivity is not just about what you get done, but also how you feel in the process of doing the work.
How you feel about your work impacts the quality of your work.
What Mindset Do You Bring to Your Work?
I recently had an interaction during a virtual co-working session that illustrates this point well.
My co-working buddy described the task she was working on as:
I have to edit a document for a colleague.
At our first break, my buddy shared feeling disengaged from the work. She also shared that she will be leaving this job in a few weeks, and she was already feeling mentally checked out.
She expressed a desire to “get it over with” — both this particular task and the job itself — so she could turn to the work she really wanted to do; work that felt more “productive.”
I offered my buddy some coaching around this, during which I created awareness of her language pattern and invited her to reframe her work.
From Slogging Through to Feeling Focused
At our next break, my buddy reported a complete shift in her work.
Instead of “editing a document for a colleague” my buddy realized that she was “helping a colleague prepare for my exit” and “not leaving [my colleagues] high-and-dry.”
As a result of the reframe, my buddy felt better about doing the task.
She also reported better focus while doing the work.
Most important, my buddy shared:
Reframing the task helped me give better feedback [in the comments and edits for her colleague] because I wasn’t annoyed about doing it.
How you feel about your work impacts the quality of your work.
- Feeling better
- Better focused
- Higher quality work
Who wouldn’t want that?
3 Tips for Shifting How You Approach Your Work
In an ideal world, we would only work on the things we want to do and that give us joy. It’s helpful to keep notes about what you enjoy doing so that over time you can build your life around more of that type of work.
Until you get to that place, here are three tips for shifting how you approach your work.
Tip 1: Watch Your Language
Often we aren’t even aware of the mindset with which we approach our work. Creating awareness of our language can help us see the connection between how we think about our work and how we feel while we are doing our work.
We may have things to do each day that are on our “have to do” list and things that we want to do — if we even give ourselves permission to consider what we want to do. (That’s another topic for another time.)
When you sit down to tackle the things on your “have to do” list do you feel excited to work on these tasks? Or do you “just want to get it over with” so you can move on to what you really want to do?
When you approach something with a mindset of “getting it over with” how do you feel about the time you spend on that work?
I wasn’t surprised that my buddy was slogging through her task. I’ve found in myself and with clients that when we approach our work with a mindset of “getting this over with” we feel like everything we are doing is “in the way” of what we really want to be doing.
Take that mindset to your work for long enough and you might find yourself growing disillusioned with your work and resentful of your clients and colleagues. Doing your work will require a lot more willpower and energy to focus.
Tip 2: Notice Your Physiology
Notice the quality of their thoughts and emotions, as well as the physical sensations that arise when they think of what they “have to” do or when they want to “get it over with.”
- What is the feeling in your body when you “have to” do something, as opposed to when you “get to” do something or “want to” do something?
- How does it feel in your body when you want to “get it over with?”
Notice what recurring sensations arise when you sit down to do your work. Do you get headaches? Heartburn? An upset stomach? Do your shoulders ache?
What is the quality of your breath? Are you even breathing? Are you clenching your jaw?
Start to look for patterns in physical sensations. The body holds all the clues.
Tip 3: Reframe the Task
One way to engage more fully with the things you “have to do” and things you want to “get over with” is by reframing the task so that it aligns better with what you value.
When we imbue a task with a meaning that is aligned with our deepest values, we bring a different energy to our work that generally results in doing better quality work and achieving better results.
Even a small shift in meaning can create a big difference in how you feel about your work. And how you feel about your work matters — not just for you, but for your work.
From what I knew about my buddy, she is driven to serve others. As a starting point, I invited her to consider how this task was in service to her colleague. That made a big difference for her, and she started to see beyond the confines of the task into the bigger picture of what she was doing.
A simple reframe helped her feel better mentally, find more focus, and deliver higher quality work. That made her feel better about her contribution and how she spent her time.
TL;DR
Here’s what you need to know:
Feeling good about your work and feeling good while you’re doing your work is not just a “nice to have.” It is an essential component of doing your best work.
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