ARE YOU BEING PRODUCTIVE OR JUST KEEPING BUSY?

PRODUCTIVE VS BUSY

Do you ever have one of those days where everything you check off of your to-do list gives you a great sense of accomplishment? Then there are those days when you check off a ton of things on your to-do list. However, you don’t really feel great about any of it. It is pretty likely that on the days you felt great about your accomplishments you had a productive day. The day where it didn’t feel good you probably had a very busy but not productive day. Often productivity and busyness are used interchangeably.

When we have a very busy day, we might think that we were being very productive. The thing is that being productive is not the same as being busy. Sometimes we keep ourselves doing things that don’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Keeping busy holds us back from being productive. So, it is important to think about our days in terms of being productive or just being busy.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE PRODUCTIVE?

When we are productive we see progress on things that are important to us. Those things don’t have to be earth-shattering. It can be anything from getting the dishes loaded into the dishwasher to planning an upcoming vacation or starting a new exercise routine. This is different from just being busy. You can be busy all day and not have been productive on anything that you really wanted to accomplish that day. When you are productive you work efficiently and effectively to accomplish your task in the least amount of time and the least amount of effort required to get the results you are looking for.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BUSY?

Busy just means doing things.  It does not mean doing things that help you accomplish anything. You could be busy scrolling on your phone when you really need to be busy getting your dishes done so that you can have half an hour to go do something that you value. You could be busy scrubbing a countertop that could have been done during one of your regular cleaning sessions when you really needed to schedule that doctor’s appointment. Being busy is not the same as being productive.

In order to make the most out of our time, we want to try to have the most of our time being productive on the things that are most important to us each day. Today the most important task might be getting caught up on laundry. Tomorrow the most important task might be going out for a walk in your local park. If you keep yourself busy with things that are not really important you will not have time for the things that you would really like to do.

DON’T WASTE YOUR BEST ENERGY ON THE EASIEST ITEMS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST

Do you ever look at your to-do list and pick some of the easy stuff because you know it will get you some quick checkmarks? It makes it look like you are getting so much done. Checking off things on your list feels great. But, when you have a day that you check off a bunch of very important and meaningful tasks you will feel a whole lot better than avoiding those items and checking off only the easy stuff. Try to focus on those items that require more effort when your energy is highest. Save the easier things to work on when your energy is starting to deplete.

Sometimes we think we should bang out some of the easy things first to get them out of the way. Then we will focus on the more important stuff. The problem is that we use up some of our best energy getting those easy things done and then might be too tired out to get to the important stuff. So, then we move it forward to the list for tomorrow and often start the whole cycle again. We end up writing down the same important thing over and over and often never getting to it. Seeing something important remain on your to-do list for much longer than you know it should cause you to feel anxious because you are not getting those important things done.

STEPHEN COVEY BIG ROCK EXAMPLE

I would imagine that many of you have seen the Big Rocks example made well-known by Stephen Covey. Basically, in the example, students are asked to arrange rocks into a jar. They have trouble getting all of the rocks to fit into the jar. Then they discover that if they put the big rocks into the jar first the little rocks can be poured into the jar after and they fill in the gaps. It is a great way to illustrate the idea that by prioritizing the most important things we can give them the attention they need. The other less important things will fall into place.

When we allow the less important things (the little rocks in the example) to take over our days it is very difficult if impossible to get the big rocks to fit. This is what happens when we let busyness take over our days, we don’t have the time or energy to do the things that matter most to us.

PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE TEND NOT TO BE SO BUSY

Productive people prioritize doing things in the most effective and efficient way possible. They are always looking for ways to improve the way they do things. Being productive is different from being busy. When you are just busy you are not necessarily doing what is most important. You are likely not doing things in the best way. When you are being productive you get your important tasks done and then move on.

WORK EXAMPLE OF BEING BUSY AND NOT-PRODUCTIVE

Part of considering if you are being productive depends on what you want to be getting out of your time. For example, say you are at a job and are assigned an important project that has a tight deadline. If you come in to work and spend all day responding to non-urgent emails and make no progress on your important project from your employer’s view your day will have been very non-productive. So, while you may have been busy all day and felt like you were being productive by answering all of those emails, you were not productive on the thing that really mattered that day. Say you have planned to do the dishes, wipe down the counters and then make some important phone calls.

After loading the dishes you notice that there are some fingerprints on the fronts of your cabinets. Maybe you wipe down those cabinets and then continue to wipe down all of the cabinets. While standing on a chair you notice that the top of the cabinets needs to be dusted. Oh and so does the ceiling fan. 2 hours later your kitchen is sparkling. However, the doctor’s office hours have since ended and you were not able to make an appointment which was one of those important phone calls that you needed to make. You were busy and maybe if your priority was to deep clean the kitchen you might have had a very productive day. But in this case, you kept yourself busy doing other things that were not urgent and were not the priorities you had intended on taking care of.

FOCUS IS IMPORTANT TO BEING PRODUCTIVE

In order to be productive it is important to maintain your focus on what you are trying to accomplish. In the example of getting carried away in the kitchen, had you remained focused your cabinets might still have fingerprints on them. But, you would have scheduled the doctor’s appointment that you really wanted to get taken care of. There is always so much to do. If we wanted to we can keep ourselves busy from early in the morning until late at night. It is important to stay focused on the things that are most important to you each day and don’t let yourself get distracted by the other things that are tempting you along the way.

KEEP A LIST OF THINGS TO DO AT A LATER TIME

We can get distracted from what we are doing because we think we will forget to get back to something else. Again using the kitchen example, we might think if we don’t wipe down the cabinets now we will forget. So, we go ahead and start doing it now when we really wanted to be making some important phone calls. When you are working have a place to jot down something that needs to be done later. You can use a notebook, a pad on the fridge, or the notes app on your phone.

It doesn’t matter the method you use. But it’s important to have somewhere to log the things you would like to do later. This helps us keep the focus on our priorities because we don’t have to worry about forgetting the task. Once it’s on a list somewhere we will know we won’t forget about it. We can keep it out of our minds for now.

ARE YOU REALLY TOO BUSY?

We often convince ourselves that we are too busy to do some things that we would like to do. Next time that happens think about what is keeping you busy. Are those things important enough to not allow you to do what you would really like to be doing?

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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