Making Progress Makes Us Happy

As much as I enjoy summer, I am always frustrated with the lack of progress I make in my work when the kids are out of school. I try my best to keep up with my blog and I do get a lot of reading done, but it is hard to find the time to work on bigger projects.

So I have to admit I was quite excited this week when the kids returned to school. I can finally get back to business. I know that setting and achieving goals will increase my positivity. In his latest book Flourish, Martin Seligman includes “accomplishment” as one of the central elements of well-being. It makes us feel good to master something.

According to another theory described in The Progress Principle, people are most satisfied at work when they have the opportunity to experience achievement. We typically feel that our best days are those when we have made consistent, meaningful progress, while our worst days are when we have setbacks.

So now that I have more time to work, I want to make sure that I spend my time effectively in order to make real progress towards accomplishing my goals. I have identified 3 main goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the year and I have broken them down into specific action steps that I need to take in order to accomplish them.

Each day I will schedule 90 minute chunks of uninterrupted time to work on the activities necessary for achieving my goals. Darren Hardy, the editor of Success Magazine, suggests this as a way to ensure that you are being productive. It is so easy to waste time on email and social media! This way I will make sure that the important things get done.

We can all increase our happiness by making progress towards our goals. What advice do you have for being more productive?