How Understanding Your Why Leads to Better Productivity

Most people want to be more productive and achieve more in life.

However, productivity can be very evasive for some people to achieve. They go through life not achieving their goals and wishing they had more time in the day. There are many reasons for this, but here we will focus on the value of understanding why you should do something as a pillar to boosting productivity.

When people say they want to improve their productivity, they usually have something they want to achieve that they are not working towards or not working towards as fast as they would like. For instance, a common one is that I want to be more productive in my day to find time to exercise. Everyone has said this at some time in their life, but most people do not do it or do not do it in a manner that builds it into being a consistent part of their life on an ongoing basis. Part of that is to understand the real reason they want to achieve that goal or the value of that why.

What is the Why?

The why is the fundamental reason behind doing something or working towards a goal. Often, people only think about their why on superficial terms, resulting in a reason for doing something that is not valuable to them. For example, I should exercise daily because it is good for me, which is a superficial reason why a person should exercise.

The Power of the Why

By taking the time to really understand why you are doing something or allocating mental space to it, you can provide yourself with purpose, which drives motivation and creates a clear reason to work towards tasks. If you flip that around, how can you be motivated to be productive and get things done if you do not understand why you should do it in the first place? Understanding why you should do those things and be more productive is key to having the motivation to do the things you need to work towards achieving that goal.

Why as a Basis for Persistence

If you truly understand your why and connect to it, this is a solid basis for working through the more challenging tasks. You can more easily see what you gain versus what you lose by being more productive and achieving your goals. Having that deeper sense of purpose gives you more resilience in the face of setbacks or challenges. This makes sustaining the increased productivity to achieve your goals easier.

How to Find Your Why

To get to the root cause of a why, you must pretend a two-year-old is in front of you, asking the never-ending ‘but why’ questions. Picture this: ‘I want to exercise’ ‘But why?’ ‘Because it is good for me’ ‘But why?’ ‘Because it builds muscle and helps to keep my weight down.’ ‘But why?’ ‘So I can stay healthy for longer.’ ‘But why?’ ‘So that when I retire, I will be fit enough to spend a year seeing all the sites in Europe that are on my wish list.’ This last answer is more specific than ‘because it is good for me’ and, therefore, much more valuable. It means that when you think about being more productive and finding time to go to the gym, you can picture that trip to Europe and understand why you are going to the gym. This is far more motivating.

Assess Your Why

Understanding your why is also crucial because it allows you to evaluate it. If, at the end of all asking ‘but why?’ You need to assess that reason. Is it important to you? What will it give you? Does it make life better? What are the consequences of not doing the thing?

If it is not important to you, it will not improve your life, and there are no significant consequences for not doing the thing, then why are you doing it? Why are you punishing yourself, thinking you should be doing it? This is not a good use of your mental energy, and spending time on that thing is not a good use of your time. At this point, consider removing it from your life as being something to do. Then you have space to put something that does matter into that space.

Final Words

Understanding why you want to be more productive to work towards your goals gives you the power to assess if it is something you want and strengthen your motivation for productivity. This makes productivity easier to achieve.

So, what is your why?