Busy, But Not Productive
Busy and productive are not the same thing. Get-It-Done Guy highlights the things that will push your productivity forward, rather than just keeping you busy.
As you surely know, my day job is helping people make their dreams come true. Sometimes that means helping them strike out and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Other times, it means helping with careers or building a business. The most common thing that stops people isn’t fear, or toxic people, or not knowing how to do it. What stops people in their tracks is that they are doing everything except making their dreams come true.
Let’s take Stacy for example. Today was a very busy day for her. She spent two hours rewriting a web site, an hour arranging a trip, 90 minutes posting on Facebook to “build a personal brand,” and then some time writing an article to get lots of exposure. Stacy’s day has been very busy. And obviously, oh so productive!
Or was it?
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Busy Doesn’t Mean Productive
Here’s another example. Skyler is very productive worker, Chris isn’t. Give both the same assignment and they start working. There’s tons of activity. Skyler, being productive, finishes, grabs a copy of the Hunger Games, and starts reading. Chris keeps running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
You wander down the hall and see them. Skyler’s reading a book. Chris is zipping around like a busy little bee. Do you think “How productive Skyler is!” Of course not. You conclude the opposite: that Chris is productive and Skyler isn’t. And you’re wrong. Because “busyness” is visible, while “productivity” isn’t. It’s even true when we watch ourselves; if I were Skyler, I’d finish my work and then invent more, just to stay looking busy.
Productive action moves things forward. Unproductive action is everything else.
Let’s go back to Stacy, our first example. She is a self-employed marketing consultant. For her, “moving the business forward” means serving clients and prospecting. Nothing Stacy did this morning served existing clients, and it only very vaguely helped find new ones. Stacy needed a tune-up.
We reviewed her to-do list. For each task, we asked, “Does this item directly move the business forward?” Anything farther than one or two steps away from serving clients or signing new ones was considered “busyness.” In other words, pretty much the whole list.
Not Everything Is Equally Productive
One hour daily on Facebook and articles is 5 hours a week, or about one month each year. Could Stacy generate as much business in a month of prospecting as the Facebook and articles bring in? Probably.
“But, but,” Stacy cried, “Facebook posts and article-writing build my brand! They move the business forward!” Yes, some activities build brands or awareness. But brands or awareness don’t make sales, and Stacy needs sales.
One hour daily on Facebook and articles is 5 hours a week, or about one month each year. Could Stacy generate as much business in a month of prospecting as the Facebook and articles bring in? Probably. Stacy has substituted dubious, long-term-benefit busyness for the sales work that would be truly productive. By refocusing on activities that directly gets stuff done, Stacy can become much more productive.
Stacy’s job isn’t yours. But we all substitute busyness for real productivity in the same ways.
The Web Wastes Time
Unless you’re using a specific web application, like Salesforce.com, the web wastes time. Yes, your research on wombat sales in Southern Tennessee directly moves your marketing report forward. But the 45 minutes of email, cat pictures, news stories, and Lindsey Lohan scandals you read before you researched wombats more than makes up for the web’s usefulness.
And beware of ad-supported websites! Ads are distractions. The better the ad, the more the distraction. If your website is ad-supported, that means it’s distraction-supported. Surf at your own risk. The web is not your friend.
Social Media Definitely Wastes Time
Unless you can give me cold, hard numbers showing social media advances your job goals, it’s a waste of time. “But my Facebook page has 10,000 followers!” cries Stacy. Yes, and any one status update goes out to 4-6% of those. That means Stacy reaches at most 600 people with a post. Those 600 only see the update if they happen to be looking at their timeline when Stacy posts, and there’s no way to send a follow-up update to the same 600, making repeat impressions impossible.
Social media is a waste of time unless you’re Lady Gaga and can have a million people buy your songs by tweeting a single purchase link. (Or unless your job is doing social media, in which case doing social media is definitely not a waste of your time!)
PowerPoint Wastes Time, Too
I love PowerPoint decks! They have clip art, arrows, fonts, and sometimes even special effects. Before PowerPoint, presentations were hand drawn with markers on clear plastic. Back then, presenter spent their time on substance. Now, we spend hours nudging objects and tweaking fonts.
Don’t do that. PowerPoint has animations and sparklies because Microsoft needed to add features so you’d pay $100 for an upgrade. All that stuff just distracts you from actually knowing your material.
Do the minimum necessary formatting so your presentation gets taken seriously, but spend most of your time on the content.
Email Wastes Time Most of All
What do I need to say about email? Some people spend 2-3 hours a day on email. The Quick and Dirty Tips website is full of resources to help you minimize your email time. Just remember, you type slower than you talk. Never send an email when a phone call or voicemail would suffice.
Keep your job moving. Know which activities truly move your job forward, which are sorta-useful pleasant distractions, and which are downright time wasters. The web, email, and social media are almost never where the most job productivity lives. Keep the busyness at bay, and put your effort on what moves your business forward.
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
