Are you busy or productive?

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Are you busy or productive?

We all have those days that pass like a whirlwind.

You don't get a free moment to catch your breath.

You might even skip (or forget) to eat.

At the end of the day, you feel like you have run a marathon.

However, while you might have done has things, were they the right ones?

Busy doesn' t mean productive

You were busy yesterday, but were you productive?

Even though you completed your tasks, today you still find the same important projects staring you in the face.

Why didn't you get to them?

Was it because you were too busy doing everything else?

"Getting has things done means you were busy. Getting the right things done makes you productive." (Tweet this quote)

But, how do you tell if you are being productive or just busy?

Separating busy tasks from the important ones is key to producing results versus simply running yourself ragged.

Here are 5 signs that you are busy but not productive:

1. Too processing meetings

If you spend your entire day in meetings, you probably aren't productive. meetings don't get the hard tasks done. they don't get creative work done. and they keep you from being able to spend time doing the work.

2. doing other people's work, instead of your own

If you spend all day doing other people's work, then you will never get to your own. take a hard look at whose work you are actually doing. make sure you get yours done before taking on additional work.

Some workplaces live for the fire drill. Make sure you separate the urgent from the important. You may have to say no to an urgent item in order to stay on track with an important task.

Small unimportant tasks often get done first... Because they are easy. While these tasks can be good for building producti?momentum, make sure that you don't spend all day doing the trivial.

If you don't get out of your inbox during your day, I can guarantee that you won't be productive. email isn' t your job. stop endlessly responding to emails and instead take action.

Busyness doesn' t get the job done

Doing should things doesn' t mean you are valid tive.

When evaluating your day, instead of asking yourself if you got a lot done, ask if you got the right things done.

Then you can answer... "Were you busy or productive yesterday ?"

• • Momentum [m Running U' ment ready m] video

    N. momentum; [thing] momentum; power; impulse

  • Productive [pr ə u 'd like ktiv] video

    Productive; productive

  • Endlessly ['endl enabled SLI] video

    Adv. Continuous; endless

  • Evaluate [I 'v audio ljueit] video

    Vt. Evaluation; valuation... Vi. Evaluation; Valuation

  • Urgent ['sequence: D sequence nt] video

    Adj. Urgent; urgent

  • Inbox ['inb effecks] video

    N. inbox

  • Trivial ['trivi rjl] video

    Adj. unimportant, trivial; Concise

  • Versus ['v ratio: s ə S] video

    Prep. Against;...

  • Productiti [, PR comment d comment K' Tiv comment Ti,
    , PR ə U-] video

    N. productivity; Production Capacity