How a Growth Mindset Can Boost Your Productivity

Growth mindset has been a buzzword in the business world for many years now. We all know we should have one...but what does that actually mean? And how can it help with productivity?

Well, let’s talk about it.

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

A person who has a fixed mindset believes that their talents and intelligence are innate. Their ability to do certain things has been locked in to who they are and cannot be changed. With a fixed mindset, you hear phrases like “I’m just not good at that” or “don’t even bother.” At some point--usually in childhood--they decide that if they struggle or make mistakes, they must not be very smart or talented. As a result, they avoid challenges, stop trying new things, or look for constant external validation. You’ll see deception and defensiveness to cover up for anything that they believe is beyond what they can do. Fixed mindset fosters an environment of cut-throat competition, winners and losers.

By contrast, someone with a growth mindset believes that talents, skills, and intelligence can be developed. They work hard and learn from others. They ask for feedback on ways to improve. They ask questions when they don’t know the answer. With a growth mindset, you hear phrases like “I haven’t found the answer...yet” or “here’s what I have learned for next time.” Those with a growth mindset tend to achieve more because they believe more is possible. People and organizations with growth mindsets are more innovative and collaborative. They know that all ideas and questions are valuable. There is no failure, only lessons for next time.

For more on growth mindset, check out this easy-to-follow video by Productivity Games.

Growth Mindset and Productivity

A growth mindset can have an amazing effect on your productivity. As mentioned earlier, a growth mindset is about learning, adapting, and asking questions. It’s about being willing to get it wrong in order to find the best way forward. 

Productivity is about doing the right things for you that will have the greatest impact. You know: working smarter, not harder. The way that you find those right things for you requires a bit of a growth mindset. You have to be willing to experiment, track, and reflect on performance so that you can improve for next time.

Here are a couple of ways that a growth mindset plays into improved productivity:

Goal Setting

One of my goal-setting paradigms is that goals are flexible and changeable. The best way to reach your long-term goal is to be willing to evaluate your progress along the way to make sure you’re still heading the direction you want to go. Life happens. Things change. We learn and grow along the way. It’s okay for short-term goals to change, too. In fact, they probably will. So, don’t waste your time staying on the original course just because you’re afraid to admit it was the wrong decision. Reevaluate, ask for help, and be willing to shift and change.

Time Blocking

Time blocking is all about creating time in your schedule dedicated to specific activities. This allows you to give conscious, dedicated time to your top priorities. It also lets you group small, similar tasks together in order to complete them more effectively. When you first set up a blocked schedule for yourself, it may look good on paper, but until you actually live it, you don’t know if it actually works for you. I always tell my clients to see their new time-blocked schedule as an experiment. Test it out. See what works and what doesn’t. This is where that growth mindset comes in. You have to be willing to get it wrong and adjust. That’s how you find the most effective schedule for you. If you call it quits after a couple days, you may be missing out on a key productivity strategy that can make a huge difference in your daily effectiveness.

Fixed-Mindset Triggers

Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, first introduced the idea of growth mindset in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In this Harvard Business Review article, she mentions an interesting point about adopting and developing a growth mindset for yourself: it’s a practice. There will be situations you face that will trigger a fixed mindset. Maybe you will be faced with a situation where you are criticized or treated unfairly. Maybe the people around you have a more fixed mindset and you tend to think similarly when you spend time with them. It can be easy to slip back into a defensive response or negative self-talk. The trick is to recognize what your triggers are so that you can anticipate when it may happen and have a plan for what you choose to do instead.

As you work on embracing a growth mindset, watch that you don’t simply tie the traits you associate with a growth mindset--flexibility, open-mindedness, etc.--back to something innate within you. I personally ran into this problem when I first learned about growth mindset. My boss at the time would compliment me on my go-with-the-flow attitude. The industry I was in was in constant flux, and to survive, you had to be willing to drop everything and go a completely different direction at a moment’s notice. I decided that I had nailed a growth mindset. After all, my boss said I was good at adapting. That doesn’t mean I saw mistakes as learning opportunities. In fact, quite the opposite was true. I wanted to project the image that I adapted with ease, so I pretended I had it all together. I didn’t ask for help. I didn’t learn or grow.

Some days it will be easy to embrace a growth mindset. You’ll see possibility everywhere. Other days, it will be more difficult to move past the “I can’t” toward the “not yet.” It’s a daily practice. As you build that growth-mindset muscle, you’ll find your productivity improving as well.