By Gwen Moran – Fast Company

Sometimes, the secret to being more productive lies in how you think and what you believe.

Getting more done effectively and efficiently is a challenge for both employees and employers. And it’s an expensive one. A March 2018 study by leadership training company VitalSmarts found that 70% of managers currently have at least one “high-potential” (HIPO) employee they are considering letting go for poor performance.

High-potential employees are those who have exceptional decision making, technical, and analytical skills, according to the study. However, these workers still have trouble staying focused on the right priorities, struggle to meet deadlines, and fail to communicate or avoid surprises in their workday or responsibilities.

And while ideas for boosting productivity often focus on actions, there is another component that contributes to helping people be more effective in their roles: their mind-set.

“We see a big connection between mind-set and productivity,” says productivity expert Justin Hale. And shifting those beliefs and thoughts can be a critical factor in helping employees be better at their jobs, he says. Here are four mind-set shifts that can boost productivity and effectiveness.

From chaos to choice
When it feels like you can’t take a minute to breathe at work, that’s exactly when you need to push the pause button, says Beth Linderbaum, managing consultant at Right Management, ManpowerGroup’s global career and talent development unit.

“Any part of wanting to do things differently starts with gaining awareness of how we currently are and how we’re showing up,” Linderbaum says. By being mindful about what you’re doing and why, you can often get a clearer picture of what is truly necessary and what can be discarded or delegated. You can also see that what you’re taking on is often a matter of choice instead of feeling like you have no control, she says. Simply acknowledging that you’re not at the mercy of someone else and that you do have choices about how you proceed can help you refocus, prioritize, and get more done. In the VitalSmarts study, 34% of managers said HIPO employees have strong technical skills but poor organizational and priority-management skills.

A familiar example of this in action is the delegation process, she says. Let’s say you have a goal to delegate more and focus on more high-priority tasks. But when a quick task or a tricky issue crops up, there is a tendency to just take care of it because it would take too long to delegate. “Maybe I tell myself things like, ‘Oh gosh, I’m the only one who can do that and it’s going to be much faster if I do it myself versus I explain it to someone else,’” she says. But when you stop and realize that you’re choosing to take on that task instead of building a system that will help your team get better at handling these tasks and free up your time, you can begin to make more conscious choices about how you’re spending your time.