5 Habits for a Productive, Happier and More Fulfilling Life

One of the benefits of working with an experienced mental health counselor is that they are constantly trying to get you to form new, positive habits and ways of thinking in order to break the old and negative ones that are currently keeping you from being fulfilled. While having this person in your corner is great, counseling services can only do so much on their own. You only spend so many hours a week with your counselor, right? Therefore, you must supplement your time outside of treatment with other productive habits.

With this central idea as our starting point, let’s take a look at 5 great habits you can form that will increase your productivity and leave you feeling more fulfilled and happy at the end of each and every day.

Spend Your First Hour of Work Time Sagely

Your first hour at work is when you are mentally and physically feeling most productive, so use it on the tasks that you find to be the most challenging or the most important each and every day. If you use it to just answer emails and other busy work, you will have wasted your energy on trivial matters.

Focus on One Task at a Time  

As a culture, we have never been more distractible than we are right now due to the number of digital devices we have access to at any given time. Try and get through one activity for 30 minutes without taking a break, and then give your brain 5 minutes to cool off.

Never Stop Being Curious About the World

Simply put, a curious brain is a healthy and engaged brain. We often become depressed or scared about things we don’t know enough about, so a great at home tool for depression help is to continuously educate yourself. When your brain feels stimulated because it is learning something new, it has less time to give into rumination.

Lateral Thinking Leapfrogs Over Problems

When you are having trouble solving a problem, doing the same thing over and over again will likely yield the same results. Try thinking outside of the box and looking at it from a new angle – your brain will make connections you didn’t previously realize were there before.

Expose Yourself to Different Points of View

Because of our political situation lately, we have spent a lot of time hearing about “thought bubbles†and the like on television. A great way to prevent getting stuck in one of those types of bubbles is to talk to people or read articles written by people who have different views and life experience than you do.

These small tips are a great place to start, but for those who may be interested in counselling services in the Chicago area, contact the dedicated team at Smith Psychotherapy Associates today for more information on how they can help you. They can be reached through their website or by phone and are always happy to hear from new clients.