Am I Being Productive… Or Am I Just Busy?

I love creating to-do lists and filling out my multiple planners! I’m addicted to the sense of achievement I feel when I tick something off as done and this helps keep me focused.

Then, before I do or create anything for my business, I have to read and learn about whatever I am doing. I need to make sure I know exactly what I’m doing and have understood everything.

BUT… All I am doing is being BUSY! I feel like I am doing things but I’m not getting any closer to my goals.

The actual key to achieving SUCCESS is to be PRODUCTIVE, not just busy!

It can be hard to identify what is busy work and what is productive work, and it can be hard to break the routine.

Thinking back to the beginning of lock down and with a bit more time on my hands, I thought I was doing a great job of keeping on top of things! I did my spring cleaning and planned to start working out each day.

For my business, I started to plan masterclasses to complete and I planned my social media content for each month.

I also started to plan my launches for 2020. Podcast in July – Check! New mindset and business coaching program… in September! A new digital course… keep watching this space…

I thought I was doing an amazing job and nailing my time in lockdown!

Until I realised, I was being busy rather than productive. 

Whilst I love a good planning session, all my planning wasn’t helping me achieve any of my goals. I found myself getting stuck in this phase.

So, I had to go back to my coaching basics:

• Get clear and hyper focused on my goals
• Determine what inspired action I was going to take
• Actually take the action!

I know the last one sounds very obvious and simple, but it’s a step we all often miss, or shy away from.

From then on, I made sure to check in with myself and ask “am I being productive, or am I being busy?”

The result…

• I was able to focus on the 20% of action that lead to 80% results
• I had a clear road map linking my goals to results
• I experienced a true sense of achievement as I was finally moving closer to my goals

But this leads to the burning question – how do I know when I am being busy and when I am being productive?

This will vary for everyone based on your priorities, passions and business, and will continue to change over time.

I was recently listening to Carrie Green’s podcast, She Means Business Show, and she demonstrated a great example of this – the benefits of mediation!  

For some, this could be considered busy work, a luxury for when you have some extra time for yourself. It not often an action we take that can give us tangible results.

But, meditating can lead to increased productivity. With a clear, calm and focused mind, you are able to achieve so much more in your day!

This is just a little bit of food for thought for you for when you start breaking things down into busy or productive categories.

I’ll be the first to put my hand up – I still get caught in my busy work, it’s just who I need to be sometimes, but it’s become important to me to make sure I make more room for the productive work each day!

So, long story short… Being busy means doing stuff, being productive means getting stuff done – Unknown

Image by Styled Stock Society.