Are You Busy or Productive?

轉自：http://xue.youdao.com/biarticle.a?articleId=-7109356361172425298&keyfrom=AllInOne&date=2013-08-20

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 many things, were they the right ones?

Busy Doesn’t Mean Productive

You were busy yesterday, but were you productive?

Even though you completed many 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 many 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 Many 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 productivity 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 many things doesn’t mean you are effective.

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 [məu'mentəm]video 

    n. 勢頭；[物] 動量；動力；衝力

  • productive [prəu'dʌktiv]video 

    adj. 能生產的；生產的，生產性的；多產的；富有成效的

  • endlessly ['endləsli]video 

    adv. 不斷地；無窮盡地

  • evaluate [i'væljueit]video 

    vt. 評價；估價；求…的值vi. 評價；估價

  • urgent ['ə:dʒənt]video 

    adj. 緊急的；急迫的

  • inbox ['inbɔks]video 

    n. 收件匣

  • trivial ['triviəl]video 

    adj. 不重要的，瑣碎的；瑣細的

  • versus ['və:səs]video 

    prep. 對；與...相對；對抗

  • productivity [,prɔdʌk'tivəti,
    ,prəu-]video 

    n. 生產力；生產率；生產能力