Busy vs. Productive

 

Busy people want to look like they have a mission. Productive people have a mission for their lives.

Busy people hide their doubt about the end goal of their lives by acting confident in their little steps

Productive people allows people to see the doubt in their little steps because they are clear in the destination

 

Busy people have many priorities. Productive people have few priorities.

Nobody is ever too busy, It comes down to their priorities at the time and where you fit in

If you have 3 priorities then you have priorities

If you have 25 of them, you have a mess

The pareto principle states that 80% of your desired results come from 20% of activity

Henry Ford built a fortune not by building better cars but by building a better system for making cars

Busy people say yes quickly. Productive people say yes slowly

If you don’t say no to most things, you are diving your life up into thousands of little pieces spread amongst other peoples priorities

This is being a people pleaser

Can quickly become frustrated and depressing because you spend all your days focusing on others priorities instead of your own

Which is not productive

If a person is offended or upset that you said no to them its because they care more about their priorities and values than yours

 

Busy people focus on action. Productive people focus on clarity before action.

Refer back to the 80/20 rule

To focus on the top 20% you must gain clarity about what those activities mean to you

Personal experience is your greatest resource when figuring out how to live a good life

Keep a journal and take 5 days to reflect on the past day, what worked and what didn't

Take some time to think about what inspires you

 

Busy people keep all the doors open, Productive people close doors

In the beginning, its good to have options

It's good to want to travel, learn different languages, go to a college, work in tech and live in another country

But there comes a point where its time to let go of all those options and focus

Examples, let's say you pick up 5 books and plan on reading them all at the same time, how much of that info will you actually retain and what are the chances that you’ll actually read all 5 books?

 

Busy people talk about how busy they are, Productive people let their results do the talking

Talking about doing something is not the same as actually doing, People love to sell pipe dreams

I’ve learned to have less and less interest in what people are telling me they are going to do

I ask them what they have already done

Past performance is a good indicator of future performance

Feeling productive is not the same as actually being productive

 

Busy people talk about how little time they have. Productive people make time for what is important

Time spent on excuses is time not spent on creation

If you allow excuses, you will get better and better at making them

Productive people don’t use time as an excuse

An action either supports your values/mission or it doesn’t

If it doesn’t, productive people simply won't do it, even if they have the whole day off

 

Busy people multitask, Productive people focus

Productive people know about focus

There's something called the Pomodoro Technique

Set a time for 20 minutes and work on that task until the timer sounds

No emails, texts, bathroom breaks, water breaks

 

Busy people respond quickly to emails. Productive people take their time

Emails are a handy list of priorities, The problem is they are other peoples priorities, not yours

People rarely think about what you have going on when they need something

If you respond to every message then you are dividing up your live into a thousand tiny bits that serve other peoples priorities

Which is why they came to you in the first place, they see you as a problem solver, so they come to you to solve their problems which creates this codependency in the relationship

How are they supposed to reach your level of problem solving if they won’t take the time to develop their own skills in that area

Become resourceful, GOOGLE

 

Busy people want other people to be productive, Productive people want others to be effective

Busy manager focus on hours of activity

Productive managers focus on output

Busy managers get stressed when they see ..

Others looking relaxed

Looking like they have tone

Looking like they’re enjoying themselves

Productive managers love seeing people..

Enjoy their work

Creating an environment where others can excel

Busy people are frustrated, they want to be valued for their effort, not their results

Productivity is about enjoying the journey towards excellence, not any moment of activity

 

Busy people talk about how they will change, Productive people are making those changes

Busy people talk about what they will do

Productive people talk about what they’ve done, what they’ve learned and what inspires them

Spend less time talking about what you will do and spend that time creating the first step

What can you do now that requires no approval from anyone

What can you do with your current resources, knowledge and support system

The universe rewards this type of behavior