Differences Between Being Busy And Being Productive

Differences Between Being Busy And Being Productive

It’s psychologically attractive to appear busy but it's best to place productivity ahead of merely being busy.

Read on to find out what this difference is and get to discover if you are just busy or you are productively busy.

1). Busy people want to boast as if ike they have a mission. 

Productive people have a mission for their lives. Busy people hide their doubt about the destination of their lives by acting confident in their little steps.Productive people allow others to see the doubt in their little steps simply because they are clear on the destination.

2). Busy people have so many priorities.

Know that nobody is ever too busy, if they care they will definitely make time no matter how little. Life is a question of priorities. If you have little priorities maybe 2 or 3, you have priorities. If you have 100 priorities, you have a mess. The pareto priniciple is that 80% of your desired results come from 20% of your activity. Henry Ford built a fortune not by building better cars, but by building a better system for making cars. Busy people try to make better cars. productive people develop better systems for making cars.

3). Busy people say yes quickly. Productive people say yes bit by bit

Warren Buffet’s definition of integrity is: “You say no to most of things”. If you don’t say “no” to most things, you are diving your life up into millions of little pieces spread out amongst other people’s priorities. Integrity is that your values are clear and that your time is going to serve those values.

4). Busy people focus on action. Productive people focus on clarity before action

To focus on the top 15% of your activities, you must gain clarity about what that percentage of activities are for yourself. The greatest resource you will ever have to guide you to live a good life is your own personal experience. if well documented. Sadly, most people only document their life in facebook status updates. Keep a diary and take 5 minutes every day to reflect on the past day, on what worked, on what didn’t work; and some time on what inspires you.

5). Busy people keep all doors open. Productive people close many doors

As a young person it is good to open options. It is good to want to travel, to learn languages, to climb mountains, to go to university, to work in tech, to live in another country. However, there comes a point in life where one must let go of most options and focus. If my goal this year is to learn spanish – I will speak spanish at the end of the year. If my goal this year is to speak spanish, earn 30% more, travel to 10 countries, get fit, find a girlfriend, go to all the concerts. I will not speak spanish at the end of this year.

6. Busy people talk about how busy they are. Productive people let their results do the talking

Stephen King says: “A writer is a producer of words. Produce words: you are a writer. Don’t produce words: you are not a writer”.

It is a clear binary thing. Talking about writing is not writing. Published authors don’t talk about their next book – they are focussed on producing it. I have grown to have less and less interest in what people tell me that they are going to do – I ask them what they have already done. Past performance is the only good indicator of future performance.

Feeling productive is not the same as being productive. This is important. I can feel productive while I’m playing minecraft. I can feel unproductive while I’m producing an excellent blog post that will help others take better actions.

7). Busy people talk about how little time they have. Productive people make time for what is important

Any time at all we spend on excuses is time not spent on creation. If you allow yourself to practice excuses, you will get better and better at excuses. Productive people don’t use time as an excuse. An action either supports their highest values and mission, or it does not. If it does not, they don’t do it – even if they have a whole day off.

8). Busy people multitask. Productive people focus. Productive people know verily about focus.

Do you know about the Pomodoro technique? It is brutal, but it is effective. Identify a task to be done (for instance, write this blog post). Set a timer to 20 minutes. Work on the task until the time sounds. Any distraction (I must check email, I must get some water, I must go to the bathroom) and you reset the timer to 20. How many pomodoros can you complete in a day?

9). Busy people want other people to be busy. Productive people want others to be effective

Busy managers measure hours of activity, productive managers measure output. Busy managers are frustrated by others looking relaxed, looking like they have time, looking like they are enjoying their work. Productive managers love seeing others enjoy their work, love creating an environment in which others can excel.

There is a Hindu saying that: “We have a right to our labour, not to the fruits of our labour”. We have a right to enjoy being excellent at our work, not a right to enjoy the car, the house, the money that comes from doing good work. Productivity is about valuing the journey towards excellence, not any moment of activity.

10).  Busy people talk about how they will change. Productive people are making those changes.

Kilian Jornet doesn’t spend much time talking about what he will do. He talks about what he has done, what he has learnt, what inspires him.

Spend less time talking about what you will do and dedicate that time to creating the first step. What can you do now that requires the approval of nobody else? What can you do with the resources, knowledge and support that you have now? Do that. It is amazing how the universe rewards the person who stops talking and begins.

We are born with incredible potential. At the age of 20, the best compliment that can be paid is that you have a lot of potential. At the age of 30, it is still ok. At 40, you have a lot of potential is becoming an insult. At 60, telling someone that they have a lot of potential is probably the cruelest insult that can be made about their life.