Busy or Productive

Are you busy or productive?

In today’s business world people wear the “I’m Busy Badge” like it is some great honor bestowed upon them. Anytime someone asks how they are the automatic response is “I’m Busy”.

I don’t think that any of us went into business to be busy all the time. Sacrificing time with friends, family, and our kids just to be busy. I see busy and productive as 2 very different things.

Productive means you are accomplishing things in your week the move your business and life forward towards your goals.

Busy means you are filling your hours and days with tasks that keep you doing things and keeping busy but may not be moving you forward. Maybe they are tasks that are not your strongest or would be done better by someone else. Or maybe just busy work like checking email 10 times a day, busy not productive.

One thing that I do is to set time blocks for specific tasks and I only work on that task during that time. As an example, I have a buffer block at the start and end of my day. This is the time when I check email and respond, listen to voice messages and return phone calls and other administrative tasks that I have to complete. This saves me a lot of time during my days.