Celebrating is a Productivity Hack
I’m known for having a terrible sense of direction. One time I accidentally drove south from Richmond for 2 full hours until I saw a “Welcome to North Carolina” sign. I was trying to drive to Virginia Beach, which is due east from Richmond. I was very, very wrong. I had been talking on the phone and not paying attention to my surroundings to the point that I accidentally drove to a completely different state.
When life is busy and you’re in a cycle of responding and reacting instead of working on your actual todo list, you can forget what’s really important. It can be easy to lose track when you’re not paying attention, when your eyes are on your feet instead of the horizon and you’re not noticing the road signs along the way.
One way to break out of this cycle is to intentionally celebrate the small wins throughout your day. We tend to focus only on the fire drills or whirlwind and we forget the small achievements that contribute to our personal and professional progress. It’s like tracking the road signs on the highway to make sure you’re headed in the right direction. Taking the time to recognize how these small wins move us closer to our big picture goals incentivizes yourself to work on things that really matter and shows you that you’re on the right track.
To position ourselves to celebrate our daily achievements, we must first choose things we can celebrate later. This means only putting our hands to things that we can do with excellence or that move the needle for us in a good direction. It means positioning ourselves to be free to put our hearts and minds into everything we do, whether it's personal or professional.
When you choose to do things you can celebrate later, you’ll find yourself choosier in what tasks you add to your day. When you build a habit of doing things you can celebrate, you’ll recognize when you have wasted your energy on something that wasn’t valuable. You’ll catalogue it and know to avoid wasting your time and energy the next time around. You’ll train yourself to recognize the best and you’ll begin to exercise your no with confidence.
Being present and mindful is crucial in doing things worth celebrating. In order to recognize when your actions are worthwhile, you must be fully engaged in the task at hand, whether it's a simple task or a complex one. This increased self-awareness to what you’re doing means you’ll be able to pivot sooner, optimize your efforts, and deliver real results. It means focusing on the quality of the process rather than just the outcome.
So how can we start doing things worth celebrating?
Set clear goals: This gives you a sense of direction and purpose. It helps us focus our energy and resources on the things that matter most. In order to know if you’re winning, you must first define the win.
Prioritize: We need to prioritize our tasks and focus on the ones that will have the biggest impact on our lives. Be choosey and exercise your no.
Develop a growth mindset: A growth mindset means that we view challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and learning. It means being open to new ideas and experiences. When you recognize that you’ve wasted your time, don’t beat yourself up about it. Learn from it.
Celebrate: This could be as simple as verbalizing your win to someone else or giving yourself an actual gold star on a “win” tally tracker. Take a moment to recognize the small step forward and, maybe more importantly, why it was helpful.
Be grateful: Gratitude is a powerful tool that can help us stay motivated and positive. It means focusing on the things that we have, rather than the things we lack.
Doing things worth celebrating means doing things with excellence, being present and mindful, and celebrating even the smallest achievements in our lives. It's about setting clear goals, prioritizing, developing a growth mindset, and being grateful. Celebrate your progress and cultivate a more productive and satisfying lifestyle.