The Secret to Productivity, Success, and Happiness

 What is the secret? This is an ambitious title for a 900-word article, with an equally ambitious opening question. But upon deeper reflection, we realize that the answer is simpler than what we may expect. Indeed, it seems fair to encapsulate the secret to productivity, success, and happiness in two words: minimal expectations.

To be sure, this is no one-size-fits-all secret. You may find some of the attitudes below counterproductive or incompatible with your lifestyles, and that is fine. As we know, most enduring questions have multiple answers and pretending that they don’t seem unfair to the millions of people who approach them differently from us. Nevertheless, what we’re about to explore comes up frequently in business podcasts, articles, and conferences. It is not universal, but it has universal elements. Let’s look at some examples.

Expect Less, Do More

When you’re getting ready to start a new project, you will probably be thinking of ways to be more productive so you can finish more quickly while still delivering something of quality. How can you manage your schedule so you can do an excellent job without sacrificing too much? How can you make sure you finish your task on time? What’s the secret to being productive?

Well, expect less from yourself.

If you have seven days to design a website, take it day by day. Don’t expect yourself to finish everything in one day or to work on three tasks simultaneously. Especially if you have yet to start. 

Instead, identify the items you need to complete first, and complete them one by one. Listing them might help. And forget about your deadline or about how awesome the outcome is going to be. Put low expectations on your daily performance, and you will likely end up with extra spare time by the end of your workday, which you can then use to complete additional tasks—to be more productive.

Some call it ‘micro scheduling,’ but it’s really about not getting ahead of yourself. In other words, forget about the overwhelming tomorrow so you can focus more on the manageable today. And if you focus more on today, you will probably get more things done. Repeat it tomorrow, the next day, and the one after, and eventually, you will get used to a routine that boosts your productivity.

Expect less, do more.

Expect Modestly, Reap Success

Expectations can also delay your success. If you create dozens of expectations about your company’s success, you will quickly lose track of what would make those expectations real. You might worry about how you’re going to dress at the award ceremony, instead of organizing the marketing campaign that would get you an award. Day and night, you might fantasize about becoming the most famous American businessperson, instead of focusing your efforts on scaling up your business. And when they don’t invite you to the gala, not only will you realize your failure, but you will also have deluded yourself with dangerous expectations.

You might think this is too harsh, but there are hundreds of thousands of people who keep failing because they confuse the salience of their reality with the fictitiousness of their expectations. To avoid this confusion, you might want to decrease your ambitions to a modest number. Instead of romancing a distant target, redirect your attention and energy to short-term, tangible goals. Paradoxically, success often—not always—comes to those who expect it the least because they are wholly invested in what is in front of them, what is real.

Expect modestly, reap success.

Do Not Expect, Be Happy 

Expectations are scheduled disappointments. You’ve probably heard that “expectations are the cause of unhappiness.” Buddhist sages have spoken this for ages, but we seem to have forgotten that it is true. And true it is for both serious and trivial matters. When you enter a movie theater with a long list of ideas about what a movie you’ve never heard about will look and sound like, you are almost certainly going to be unhappy when you come out. Spend hours convincing yourself that your relationship will go a certain way, and you will likely become sad and frustrated when your thoughts do not meet reality. And they often don’t.

In many ways, this is not a secret. It is public knowledge, accessible to virtually anyone, anywhere, at any time. But we fail to register it, for we are so busy cluttering our minds with information, leaving no room for such simple yet profound knowledge. Yet, expectations are the root cause of unhappiness and a central cause of unproductivity and failure.

If you’re planning on being productive, expecting too much of yourself will lower your productivity. If you’re aiming for success, expecting too many things will lead you astray. And if you wish to be happy, expecting will inevitably keep your wish at bay.

All this doesn’t mean that every time you fail at whatever pursuit, it’s because you expected too much. But it does mean that your expectations distract you from your objectives in most cases, making you less productive, delaying your success, and causing constant discontent.

With this in mind, remember that having some expectations is useful. Otherwise, you’ll be just as lost. That’s why the secret to productivity, success, and happiness is minimal expectations.

This article was written by Leonardo Salvatore, Blog Research and Writing Intern at Blue Sky Talk.