Being Busy Vs. Being Productive

Wheel Spinning

Do you ever feel like you’re busily achieving not much at all? Like your results are not really a reflection of your effort? Like there’s some kind of imbalance? Like your wheels are spinning but you’re getting no traction? Do you often feel frustrated, overwhelmed or exhausted? Maybe all three? Welcome to the club.

It’s a whopper.

Well, if you’re tired of being tired, here are some suggestions to help you move from busy-ness to productivity:

1. Stop doing for the sake of doing. Some people do stuff a certain way because they’ve always done stuff a certain way. Depending on results, this can be a great idea or a stupid idea. Which is it for you?

2. Hit the pause button. Give yourself a little distance and space from your daily grind, habits and rituals. What does your situation look like when you step back a little? It’s hard to be objective about anything when you’re right in the middle of it.

3. Try new stuff. I know you like predictability, familiarity and security but maybe that’s part of the problem? If you want to create different, do different.

4. Ask yourself better questions. Here’s five to get you started: Is this the best use of my time? Is this the best use of my skills? Is this the best use of my energy? Is there a better way to do this? What’s not working in my life right now?

5. Learn from others. Is there someone (with similar objectives and responsibilities) who’s creating better results than you? What can you learn from them? Put your ego to one side and be a good student.

6. Get clear about your goals. What does success look like for you? If you can’t define it, you probably won’t create it. The more clarity and certainty you have (about what you want your future to look and function like), the more momentum you’ll create and the more productive you will be.

7. Do a few things well. Better to do a few things brilliantly than fifty things poorly. Over-commitment is a recipe for disaster. And exhaustion. Learn to prioritise.

8. Regular assessments. Take exercise for example. Some people train with no real rhyme, reason or accountability. Things like regular body-composition testing and fitness testing take some of the emotion out of the process and provide us with objective data. Data which tells us whether we have a busy training schedule or a productive one.

Ok, time for you to get busy.

Er, I mean productive.

PS. Free Fitness (for the last time). Call me crazy but this Sunday morning at 8.30 I will be running my last ‘freebie’ open-to-the-public fitness session at my gym (643 Nepean Hwy, Brighton East). For you interstate and international readers, hopefully I’ll get to you one day! Anyway, one free class turned into two and now two has become three because I’ve had numerous emails and phone calls (this week) from people who couldn’t make it to instalmet one or two. Hope to see you there….

* Don’t forget my new kid’s book (The Angry Ant) is out now! Love this article? Sign up for my FREE Email Newsletter today to receive more articles like this, and get my FREE Ebook!