Are you often busy, but you look back after a month and wonder where all the time has gone? Do you often feel that you are spending a lot of time on something, but not getting much done?
In our busy world today, many of us are good at being busy but not productive. Here are 3 differences between busy people and productive people. Which group are you in? 😀
1. Busy people work hard. Productive people work hard and work smart.
Busy people have great work ethics, which is why they are always busy. The problem is not that they don't work hard, but that they don't work smart. They work linearly without considering if there are better ways to do things.
On the other hand, productive people focus on being effective first, then efficient. They are constantly looking for better ways to achieve the same outcome.
- Efficiency = Doing the tiny steps of a larger task quickly
- Effectiveness = Finding the most optimal way to do something, perhaps even removing the need to do the task itself.
When you're efficient but ineffective, your upstream inefficiencies ripple downstream. For example, editing videos on a slow computer means you are limited by its slow processing power. Even if you can edit quickly, you are limited by its processing speed. The effective step here is to invest in a few PC, not to optimize your editing. Or better yet, hire someone so you don't have to edit at all.
Or say you run a coaching business, dealing with clients around the world. Part of your daily to-dos involves coordinating with clients on appointment times and time zones. This creates a lot of back and forth because you need to check their availability, confirm time zones, and check your calendar when they reschedule. Being effective is when you use an automated booking service like Calendly or Acuity Scheduling so that your clients can access a booking calendar and schedule the appointments themselves.
Here are my questions for you:
1. What tasks are you working on? Are these tasks necessary?
2. Can you find a better way to do things?
3. How can you improve your approach to 10X your productivity?
2. Busy people get drowned in the details. Productive people keep their eyes on the macro and micro.
Busy people often get drowned in the details. They are too concerned about the difference between details A and B when it's more important to pick one and go. For example,
- In an online business, it doesn't matter whether you pick template A or B if you are just starting out. Just pick one and go. Revise later when you get more insights. Until you test it, you don't know what people would like.
- Some for writing you first blog articles - it doesn't matter if your writing is not that great. Just write and learn as you go along! My work was not perfect when I started and it still isn't! But that hasn't stopped me from writing and publishing new posts, and growing my blog to what it is today.
Of course, details are important. Steve Jobs was details-obsessed - he agonized over the way MacIntosh windows title bars looked, going through 20 designs with his team before he was happy with the final output. He recognized that this is something the user would see every day, which was why he wanted it to be perfect.
The key is to focus on details that will affect your end outcome. Perfect the things that will make a big difference to your end goal. For everything else, delegate, outsource, get the 80/20 in place, or remove them. You don't need to do everything right - you just need to do the right things right.
3. Busy people let other people set their direction. Productive people set their direction and evaluate their progress against this direction.
Even though society may try to sell you certain paths as the "right" choice, this doesn't mean that they are right for you. Industries grow and shrink, and some industries become obsolete as technologies and markets evolve.
For example, the shipping industry used to be a hugely lucrative career path in Singapore in the 1990s and 2000s. People often spoke about the huge bonuses and job prospects in this field. Now, it has dwindled as the local marine industry is facing severe job cuts and many marine companies have relocated overseas. Home-grown shipping line Neptune Orient Lines, which used to be wholly government owned (in Singapore, being "government-backed/owned" has the connotation of being unshakeable), got sold in 2015 at only $1.30 a share, less than half of the $2.80 paid to raise its stake in 2004.
Instead of buying into what others try to sell you as the truth, think about what you want for yourself. What is your passion? What is your vision? Even if you can't do this right away, you can work towards it. It's more important to work towards what you want, even if slowly, rather than do something you hate for the rest of your life.
Productive people say yes very choicefully. Why?
- The know that each "yes" today will take up their time later on.
- They also know that many yeses to the wrong things, even if they are small, will eventually lead them to the wrong path.
Saying "no" is about protecting this limited resource called "time" so that you can use it for the things that matter. Do you say yes to everything? If you have a problem saying no, check out how to say no guides.
5. Busy people jump onto every trend. Productive people evaluate the pros/cons before doing something.
In Singapore, food craves are a national pastime. Every few months there is a new food in town, after which people go out of the way to try it, often queuing for hours, sometimes in the hot sun.
There's nothing wrong with following social trends if you're doing them for sport. But understand that societal trends are largely market movements. When one trend is over, another will take its place. It never ends. Just because everyone is doing X doesn't mean you need to follow suit. Consider it's value rather than diving headfirst into every trend.
The same applies to business trends.
- So every business has a mobile app today--so what? This doesn't mean that you need to have an app. Consider its value in your business before deciding whether to get one.
- So Kindle Store is now a big ebook distribution channel -- this doesn't mean you need to sell your ebooks there. There are other considerations like whether it is a fit with your pricing strategy, the costs of making your ebook compatible with those devices, and administrative overhead of dealing with another distribution channel.
- Everyone has a blog today and claims to make money from blogging. But so what? Out of the people who claim to make money blogging, how many are not in the "make money online" space? (Clue: it's less than 0.01% of the industry.) How many people really succeed with a blog? How would a blog fit into your career plans and life mission? These are hard questions to think about before jumping into a totally new field.
Many products and services today come with an endless list of features. But consider their value in the big scheme of things. This article by an ex-Google employee echoes what I feel regarding the illusion of the choice today. You may have endless options in an app, but what if all these options are noise? Are you really improving your life with the apps you're using, or are you just locked in their restricted menu of options?
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