There’s a difference between feeling busy and actually being productive. The question is how can you spot it so that you can take your productivity to new heights? Let’s dive right in and take a closer look…
How to Tell When You’re Busy
When you want to get stuff done it can be tempting to think that if you have every minute of your day booked up then you’re someone who is getting loads done. After all, with not so much as a spare second to waste you must be powering through ungodly amounts of work?
The issue is that this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re making the best use of your time, it just means all of it is spoken for. Being busy could mean that you’re dashing around from one task to the next, not leaving yourself enough time to do a satisfactory job of any of them.
When you want to figure out if you’re busy you only really need to ask yourself one question…
Do I Have Enough Time if the Schedule Changes?
If you’re too busy then you won’t have enough time to change your schedule as and when you need to. The smallest change or delay will have a knock on effect if you simply don’t have enough time in your day. A productive person on the other hand will approach things very differently…
Productivity is All About Output
When you want to really get stuff done and power through the day it’s not a badge of honour to spend a long time doing it. What really matters is that you have a lot to show for the time you have invested. This in short is what is meant by productivity.
Rather than working every minute of the day you want to be able to get as much done in as short a time as possible. This will ensure you have plenty of free time so that you can get a lot done outside of the sphere of work too. Spending time with friends and loved ones, getting on with some DIY, and taking up a new hobby are all things that a productive person will have plenty of time to do.
Finding the Balance
I don’t want you to go away having read this blog thinking that being productive is about spending as little time in work as possible. To be successful you’re still going to have to put in the hours, but the key difference is that you won’t be focusing primarily on spending a long time doing it under the guise of it being a useful thing to do.
What you want to do instead is decide which parts of your working day you could do without. Is it really necessary to check your email over breakfast and then an hour later as soon as you get to your desk? Do you really need to respond to messages whilst you’re busy writing a report. Or would engrossing yourself in it for an afternoon actually be a lot more productive?
Ask these kind of questions and you’ll notice the difference in your output in no time at all.