Busy Or Productive?

How many times do you get through the day or week feeling like you were incredibly busy – always working, trudging through the never-ending task list, retrieving and making calls, emails, texts, tweets and more – but not accomplishing anywhere near what you expected?  So much of society seems to equate a busy person with a successful one.  The ultimate question at the end of the day is whether or not you’ve moved closer to reaching your goal.  Were you busy or productive?   But knowing this is nebulous without clearly defined goals or benchmarks upon which progress can be measured.   Even deeper is defining the goals in such a way that they are suitable benchmarks on the pathway to achieving your ultimate vision.  A mentor once told me that efficiency is doing the job right; while effectiveness is doing the right job right.  So, before you engage in another busy week, consider planning ahead to ensure what you will be doing is a productive part (“the right job”) in reaching your goal.  If it isn’t, delegate or drop it; and if you feel you must do it, prioritize it to be done only after your most productive tasks have been completed.  This way, whether busy or not, you will be productive.  As Todd Duncan says in his book, High Trust Selling, “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up”.