Do you strive to be as productive as you can, each and every day?

Does it feel as if you’ll never get the hang of this thing called productivity?

In this post, I shake things up and offer several reasons to reframe your view of productivity.

Whether you’ve felt as if you’ve accomplished a little today, or a lot, these observations will help put things into some much-needed perspective.

You’re constantly learning and growing as a person.

Many people view productivity as a final destination.

They think that once they reach “productivity,” they’ve succeeded.

Actually, being productive comes not from reaching that final endpoint, but rather utilizing all those little bits of knowledge, information, and skill that one has accumulated over time.

It is these valuable nuggets of experience that can help you do something faster, and easier, while still maintaining a high level of quality.

Learning new things allows you to beef up your productivity toolkit; you have more resources available to help you find the effective way to do something at a particular point in time.

So, if you’re feeling a bit of lag when it comes to being productive, try learning something new. That new keyboard shortcut, scheduling technique, or foreign language vocabulary may allow you to get more done in a shorter period of time.

Your work changes.

Now, this point can be taken in two ways. The first is that the actual tasks or work you do will change over time. For example, if you were recently promoted to a new position at work, you may have different responsibilities than you did before your promotion. That’s one type of change in work.

The second is that the work you do during the year will change. Some parts of the year are very busy and frantic, while others may be slow, crawling along at a snail’s pace. Your productivity levels in the busy part of the calendar year will be much different from those during the slower times.

As you can see, there will be a type of ebb and flow to your work. Once you’ve mastered getting things done during the busy season, you’ll have to switch gears for the less busy season. There’s no final level of productivity.

You work does not exist in a vacuum.

Even if you become amazingly productive at performing a series of tasks, it is pretty much guaranteed that other things will change in your world. We’re talking everything from your immediate work environment, to the people with whom you work, to the tools you use on a regular basis. You are part of a larger whole, so the work you do will constantly be shaped by these external forces.

Just as you’ve made changes and modifications in times past, you’ll still have to adapt to changing conditions and environments. Be open to, and learn to embrace change. After all, it is change itself that can help you be more productive!

How about you? What’s a recent productivity breakthrough you’ve made at home, work, or school? What steps did you take to get to that point? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!