Sometimes, you wait to get clarity and motivation. But other times, life forces you to wait. And there’s nothing you can do about it.When it happens, people take out their phones and give up on the scroll of doom. But if you know the power of waiting, you can use this time proactively.While waiting, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks or watch online courses. You can consume content instead of queueing at your doctor’s office or cleaning the hours.The more passive activities you find, the more productive you will be during your waiting time.

How to Use Productive Waiting

You are reading an excerpt from <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a>, a newsletter where I discuss self-improvement, goal-setting, habits, time management, and health tips and tricks.Every week, you will get the following:<ul><li>a challenge to pursue to improve your life</li><li>an infographic to track it.</li></ul><a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/subscribe">Subscribe now</a> to help me continue publishing this type of content.

The Challenge

Boredom is an underrated feeling. Everybody hates it, but its mastery could change your life.I couldn’t control boredom and waiting. I lived for new stimuli to fill up my days. And when I didn’t find them, I felt lonely and bored.But I learned that I can’t have something new every day. And you will never have the time to learn your lessons if you live a new experience every day.Yet, boredom has a hidden power – you can use it to improve excitement or become more productive.

2 – The Secret of Waiting

I often check out my X profile and answer people when I take a break. But that’s not an effective break because it’s part of my job.Your free time helps you unload all the stress and negative emotions you get from your tasks. So, don’t overload it with useless information. And don’t use it for less demanding tasks. Keep it free.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Leave your phone on the side and do some exercise. Go for a walk, for example.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don’t use breaks for low-priority tasks like answering e-mails or making phone calls. Call a friend or relative if you have to.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Use your breaks to build up motivation for your next task. </li></ul>

How to Take a Break

When I’m excited about something, waiting always boosts that experience. And I learned to use this mental trick in my everyday life.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">I always wait before starting any new project to understand if the initial excitement remains.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I wait before any experience to make it more enjoyable.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">And I wait <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/10-ways-how-not-to-become-a-millionaire/">before buying anything expensive </a>to be sure I need it.</li></ul>Waiting has the power to increase excitement and reduce insecurities or reckless decisions. Learn to use it, and you will improve your productivity.

How to Improve the Excitement

When do you feel motivated? What triggers that feeling?And what stops it? I started with these questions when I tried to become more motivated. And I found some interesting questions.<ul><li>I felt more motivated in the morning.</li><li>Working out or reading increased my mood and motivation.</li><li>And working or talking to people decreased it.</li></ul>So, I chose to work in the morning after a run or half hour of reading. And you can do the same by replying to the questions yourself.

How to Increase Motivation Frequency

Usually, people create strict systems and rules to limit all those variables and become more productive. But they rarely work because they don’t have experience in productivity.Nobody teaches us how to do our everyday tasks more efficiently. And nobody trained us to become faster in our execution. We had to do it all by ourselves.So, building a productive system requires a lot of trial and error. You can do it, but it will take time.Yet, in my experience, I found three secret keys that might help you accelerate the process. And I want to give them to you in exchange <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/subscribe">for a follow </a>(wink!)

The Secrets of Productivity (2)

I always used the Pareto Principle to take breaks:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">80% of work</li><li class="ql-align-justify">and 20% of a break at the end.</li></ul>But don’t work for too much, keeping all the free time at the end. As a rule of thumb, I would split my work session into 1-hour slots. Work for about 45-50 minutes, and take a break for 10-15.

When to Take a Break

Learn to control the three secrets of productivity:<ol><li class="ql-align-center">Use the zone to reach deep work and focus on your tasks.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Use boredom to consume content and generate new ideas.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Keep a safe relationship between work and breaks.</li></ol>

Productivity is one of the first challenges you fight when you start with personal growth. So, five years ago, I tried my best. But productivity depends on too many variables. If you want to be productive, you have to keep track of:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">The motivation that helps you start working.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The stress and anxiety you have to keep under control.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Your <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/20-sneaky-procrastination-traps-that-almost-ruined-my-life/">natural procrastination </a>tendencies.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">And the need to become more disciplined. </li></ul>

The Secrets of Productivity (1)

The duration increase is a mind trick you can use to feel motivated for longer, even if you are not. Start with a small, insignificant task, and your mind will do the trick. However, you must reach deep focus for at least a few minutes. So, avoid distractions, multi-tasking, interruptions, etc.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/deep-work-and-flow/">Deep work </a>is the ability to focus on a task and leave everything out until it’s finished.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Flow is the ability to carry over motivation from finishing a task to another related one.</li></ul>If you master these techniques, you will build a result-oriented mindset and maintain your motivation for longer.

How to Increase Motivation Duration

When I lost everything, I wanted to find a way to become more productive. I wanted to go beyond the usual self-help hype without giving up everything else.I wanted to find another self-improvement plan – a healthy one. So, I searched and experimented with a few things. But the results weren’t anything fancy or complex as I thought.On the contrary, I found the most effective systems in the simplest things. And today, I want to share the three secrets to unlock your productivity I found.But first, let’s talk a bit about productivity.

Beyond the Usual Self-Help Hype

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Before you Go

For most people, productivity comes with a price. But it shouldn’t be like that.When I started my online writing experiment three years ago, I gave up anything to become more productive. I stopped going out with friends. I didn’t have a relationship. And I wasn’t taking care of my physical and mental health.But being productive can lead to burnout and isolation. If you give up everything, you end up with nothing. And that’s an unhealthy way to stay productive because it’s not scalable.

The Pains of Productivity

I wanted to find a new way to become more productive. And I succeeded.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">I built a 1500+ subscribers newsletter in 8 months and <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/">a blog </a> in 2 years.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I built a healthy relationship with my lifetime love (almost four years).</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I had two 9-5 jobs and even got a promotion recently.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">And I’ve been taking care of my health ( even if it still needs improvement .)</li></ul>Here are three secrets I used to do it.

Healthy Productivity Results

You can’t always be motivated – that’s the first thing I learned in my experiments.Motivation changes fast. You may be motivated but lose focus in five minutes. And you can’t build your life and plans around that.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">You either become disciplined. But it’s something that comes with time and experience.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Or use those boost moments to finish most of your tasks.</li></ul>You must pick the second if you just started with self-improvement or can’t achieve discipline. In this case, you could try to work on two things: the frequency or duration of your motivational boosts.

1 – The Secret of The Zone

Nowadays, everybody focuses on productivity and goals. And that tendency can define the outcome of your success or failure.When I started my newsletter, I wrote ten issues without a break. But they all sucked. So, I had to start over and take it easy.If you learn to take frequent breaks, you will have an easy life. Your recovery time will be short. And you will never burn out.But you must understand when to take breaks and how to maximize their impact.

3 – The Secret of Break/Work Sessions

Cut Through the Noise & Boost Productivity Now! 3 Powerful Secrets You Won't Find in Typical Self-Help. Get More Done & Achieve Your Goals Faster!