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How Self-Efficacy Can Help You Succeed!

Do you know what self-efficacy is and how to develop it? I made a visual guide in case you need some information about this topic. You will conquer your fears and get productive if you can develop your self-efficacy. Take this guide and start with it!

Click to enlarge the guide! You can print it out and/or share it.

Self-efficacy Guide

Self-efficacy is defined as people’s belief in their ability to achieve certain levels of performance that influence events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate, and behave.

In short, you are more likely to successfully climb a big mountain if you believe you can do it. If you doubt your ability to accomplish something, you are less likely to succeed.

This also applies to the creative life: If you think you can’t do something, you won’t be able to do it. This includes things like concentrating for an hour. So be confident in how you think!

How to develop self-efficacy

  1. Push through tough times and come out stronger! You will become more confident and build a solid belief in your efficacy. You will learn from your great successes. Don’t let setbacks derail your progress. Always get up after failure and keep going!
  2. Seeing people who are similar to you succeed will increase your belief that you can do it too. Try to find people to push you or find resources that give you that experience. This visual blog will be one of those resources.
  3. People who are verbally convinced that they have the ability to accomplish tasks are more likely to mobilize and sustain greater effort. Good people around you (or online) can help you with this. If you are alone, try telling yourself “I can do this”. If other people can help you, you can do it!
  4. Reduce your stress response and change your perception of your emotional state. Many people think negatively about certain emotional states when they are struggling with a difficult task. But sometimes it is necessary. Think of an athlete: They can’t do it if they don’t sweat and feel tired after a hard workout. It is part of the job! So when you feel a negative emotional feeling while working on something creative, say to yourself: “Maybe I need that feeling. It is something positive.”

Source: Bandura, A. (2010). Self-Efficacy. In The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology (pp. 1-3). American Cancer Society. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0836

STOP! Take a break!

Regular breaks contribute to recovery, well-being, and productivity and are necessary to work productively for a prolonged period. Many people demonize taking breaks as a loss of work time. But this is not true. If you take regular pauses, you have many advantages regarding your work.

Why breaks are important:

Break Illustration
  • A pause in your work is a source of regeneration, to stay physically and mentally healthy.
  • The better you have your breaks under your control, the healthier and more efficient you will remain.
  • Increases the subjective well-being and the ability to concentrate.
  • Increases learning and problem-solving performance.
  • You make fewer mistakes after a break.
  • Working is more fun with proper pauses.
  • And extremely important for creative people: breaks increase creativity!

My personal experience:

Personal story

How to do breaks and what to do while doing it:

How to take breaks illustration
  • Every 45 minutes to one hour take a 5 to 15-minute break. After two hours of work take at least a half-hour break. Throughout the day, all the breaks can be as long as one and a half hours. But this is not a big deal, because the pauses allow you to work more productively and with more concentration, so you can easily catch up on the time you “lose” with breaks.
  • Look away from the screen, if you are working on digital devices.
  • Stand up and move. Stretch a bit!
  • Drink water or eat something healthy.
  • Do a mindfulness exercise or meditate.
  • Take a walk or go out into the fresh air during a longer break.
  • You also can do anything!
  • Important: Do not think about your work! Detach from what you did before the break or intend to do after the break.
  • With the use of so-called micro-breaks, which last less than a minute, you can take a short break between the larger breaks. Look away from the screen or your work and get up for a moment, move around a bit, and then get back to work. Do this little micro-break whenever you feel like it. They can take only a few seconds.

How to remember to take breaks:

Breaks are often forgotten. You are too much in the flow or maybe you think that you have to stay productive at work.

How to remember to make breaks Illustration
  • Use a timer that rings after a certain time. I used “Brain Focus Productivity Timer” from the Google Play Store for a while.
  • Use time tracking that you always check from time to time to see how much work you still have to do till the break starts. By using this method you will automatically start to recognize when to take a break. I use the App Toggl Track for that right now!
  • Try to make a habit of taking breaks. If you get used to taking a pause every hour, you will start to feel when it is time for another one.
  • Are your eyes tired? Do you feel drained? Are you lacking concentration? Does your back hurt? Pay attention to your body and take a break when you need it.
  • If you work in a team or have people around you who work with you, you can appoint a “time master” who will ensure all breaks are taken.

What you can do now – A guideline:

Guideline for breaks

Do you have some tips for this topic? Did I miss something important to you? Write it in the comments section below!

References

Blasche, G., Pasalic, S., Bauböck, V.-M., Haluza, D., & Schoberberger, R. (2017). Effects of Rest-Break Intention on Rest-Break Frequency and Work-Related Fatigue. Human Factors, 59(2), 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720816671605

Hausmann-Thürig, D. (2019). Vermehrte Minipausen zur Stärkung der körperlichen und psychischen Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz. (Written thesis from CAS 2018 Gesundheitspsychologische Lebensstiländerung und Mind Body Medicine, University of Zurich)

Tucker, P. (2003). The impact of rest breaks upon accident risk, fatigue and performance: A review. Work & Stress, 17(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267837031000155949

Best of my productivity-themed Inktober

In 2019 I did my Inktober on Instagram about the topic of productivity. A lot of the tips I gave with those posts are helpful for artists and designers as well. Therefore I decided to post a best-of here too. I hope they can help you!

Don't wait till you can do it Illustration
Don’t put something off because you can’t do it. The “can-do” comes after you work on it for some time! Just start what you want to do and the ability to do it successfully comes with it.
Prevent the cycle of fear Illustration
The cycle of fear is “not doing enough => lack of results => fear” repeating. If you are not doing enough there is no result or progress. With no progress comes fear. Fear prevents you from doing work, therefore you lack results again. It is a loop you will have trouble breaking out again. Remember this and work against this cycle if it starts to happen.
write about it Illustration
It helps if you start writing about the problems you have. Keep a little journal or write directly into your sketchbook. If you begin to struggle start writing about what you think right now and how you feel. Do it for like 10 minutes. After that, it will be much easier for you, or you even found the solution to your problem while writing.
Have lazy days illustration
You are not a machine, you need to recharge sometimes, so plan lazy days when you do nothing. The key is not to make those days the norm. Plan them carefully. The best times are after you finish a project or start a new one. Or just in between when you are stuck.
Don't be perfect Illustration
Over the years I realized that I have more fun doing imperfect drawings. If I would try to do this Inktober flawless I probably wouldn’t finish it. Or I would be stressed as crazy about the whole challenge. So be imperfect and enjoy the ride. You will do more and have more fun!
Breaks are important Illustration
Take your breaks! You can work much more if you do them. Don’t see them as a waste of time because that’s not true. It is a part of your working day as long as you don’t take 15 min breaks every 10 minutes.