Productivity is a part of every person’s life and is applicable in all aspects of life. People need to understand roadblocks that stand in the way of productivity, especially as college students with busy schedules. Productivity is described in the Cambridge Dictionary as “Resulting in or providing a large amount or supply of something,” “having positive results” and “relating to the ability to produce language, rather than just understand it.” The word productivity has so many meanings, but most share similar connotations. Being productive mainly involves making results, and is usually associated with gaining positive results. To achieve all those things, a person’s environment, outlook on productivity and adjustability matter.
When people think of someone who is productive, they usually think of a hard worker, but there are more traits that go into being a productive person. Productive people are problem solvers. They anticipate future problems that could slow down accomplishing a task and develop solutions to combat these problems. This way of thinking is called mental contrasting. Productive people set stretch goals, show consistency, have knowledge and technical expertise, drive for results, take the initiative and are collaborative. They have many traits that most people need to use on a daily basis, and consistently use these traits to make problems easier to solve. Productive people use the best communication and thinking process to make problems smaller than they are and to keep an intense consistency towards completing a goal or task.
Environment also matters. Working in different environments leads to different results. For example, working in a noisy environment is more likely to disturb someone than working in a quiet environment would. This might be why students on campus typically prefer studying outside of their dorms in places like the library, a random classroom or whatever favorite spot you may have. This same concept applies to working in a comfortable environment like a home since it is similar to dorm life. Most people feel comfortable in their house, which makes them a bit more relaxed because they are in a safe and controllable environment compared to campus, where there are rule enforcers and regulations to follow. This can contribute to people falling asleep or slacking off more in their homes. Although getting work done outside the dorm environment can be more strict, it can also be freeing because of the difference it can add to your daily routine. This could be the opposite for other people, who prefer being in a comfortable environment with a fixed routine. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference.
Another factor that affects productivity is sudden changes in circumstances. One example that all of us can relate to is COVID-19. There was an increase in anxiety and depression in people during the lockdown. This was very impactful at all ages because people were at different stages in their life, so they had different levels of maturity in responding to these changes. Some people were in transitional periods between grade levels or at major life events like marriage and funerals. Not being able to communicate and have shared experiences with friends and loved ones was very isolating for some people. This contributed to a rise in depression, partly having to do with being in an unsocial environment, having a bad home life or just having trouble with transitioning to a different way of life. This could have contributed to different outlooks on productivity with people having different mindsets, well-being, lifestyles and levels of importance put towards accomplishing something.Â
Productivity depends on situational factors such as a person’s environment, outlook on productivity and adjustability. Not everyone’s environment is the same and people learn differently. Many factors influence a person’s environment, but there are still ways that people can learn from these factors. Understanding that on an individual level is the first step to finding the best path to personal productivity and is something all of us can work up to and continue to improve upon, myself included.