Being busy can be a trick even the best of us fall into. You might be running from sunrise to sundown to get all your tasks done, but chances are, you haven’t been terribly productive during the day. You’ve just been occupied with tons of work alias busy.
Instead of running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything on your list done every day without even get to finish one, take a few minutes to prioritize your tasks and manage when you need to accomplish each item on your list.
Sometimes it feels like you are working and working, but have little to show for it. This is a definite sign that you need to take time to reflect, reorganize and prioritize. Having a lot to do and being busy, does not imply that you are being productive.
One of the main culprits of being busy vs. being productive is your understanding of success. You are not successful because you have that sinking feeling due to so much commitments on your plate. Your success is measured by your ability to effectively carry out the tasks you have taken on.
The most productive people are not those who are super busy, but those who are super focused. Their ability to tune out the noise in order to concentrate on what is most important is significant and worthy.
People who are disciplined will make the time and space for important and urgent things. They schedule when to do the important yet not necessarily urgent work and they follow up on it. And they are people who eliminate tasks that are not important or urgent.
A person who complete one task well is more successful than someone who have five tasks, but only completes two of them. Multitasking is great for those that can do it effectively, but for most people, your best productivity will come about when you are fully focused on the task at hand.
Priotizing is the key of productivity. It might feel wrong to say ‘no’ to those who request your services, but overextend yourself will leave you unable to put your best effort into every task.
Perhaps being busy is just easier to view and appreciate. We tend to forget the underlying assumption we all make when we praise someone for their busy-ness: they must be very hard-working or super smart, otherwise they’ll just be doing what they was asked to do and nothing more.
Just because someone puts more hours a week doesn’t make him a better employee. Maybe it does if the amount of hours he was putting before was fairly low, but beyond a certain number of hours, these extra hours may not add any benefit at all.
Remember that being busy often leads to following the same routine over and over, almost like in a rat race, while being productive leads to the creation of fresh ideas on how to effectively solve a problem.
So let us stop being so busy but focus on what is urgent and important in order to be the most productive person.
Want to speak to us on how we can assist you to becoming more productive? Feel free to contact our BPO – Business Process Optimisation consultant at enquiry@datumcorp.com
