Every era has its challenges. I will not ramble on about how our capitalistic society and modern technology keep us busy nowadays. Instead, I will dive straight into the main point.
A busy person is someone who has incessantly numerous tasks to do that keep them occupied with no actual accomplishments except a fair amount of stress.
On the other hand, a productive person produces important achievements and results without the excess stress of a busy person.
What about you? Are you busy or productive?
The “busy person” profile
Busy people are always in a rush and look, in fact, busy. One can see it in facial expressions and body posture. They look like having a mission, whereas they actually drown in stress and feel lost.
Countless tasks to do on this never-ending to-do list, which all look urgent and are a priority. A phone call for an appointment, a gift to buy, or a cupboard to declutter ends up cluttering this lengthy list. In most of these tasks, a lot of time is wrongly assigned for their completion. The full inbox that needs checking takes up a whole morning, whereas it requires no more than one hour of work.
The busy person often feels stressed, frustrated and disappointed. These negative feelings derive from the lack of real achievement as, in reality, there is little accomplished throughout the day.
The busy person tends to say yes to almost everything. They accept to take up yet another task at work or home without factoring in their available time and energy. Sure enough, one can realise countless tasks in one day if they don’t sleep, rest, or invest in their well-being.
In addition to saying yes to nearly everything, the busy person is a big multitasker who juggles numerous tasks simultaneously with poor results. This multitasker suffers from stress, lack of good sleep, low energy levels and feelings of inadequacy.
On top of that, busy people tend to ramble on about everything they need to do while grumbling about the lack of time.
The “productive person” profile
Productive people are action-oriented and result-driven. They are doers with a mission and are efficient; therefore, their stress levels are low, and energy levels high, for their achievements generate satisfaction.
They have a concise to-do list, which mainly focuses on the day’s tasks. This list’s tasks are categorised according to priority, and a specific time is allocated to each job.
Productive people can judge which tasks can be fulfilled effectively within a specific time instead of taking up more and more responsibilities with little capacity to accomplish them. They prioritise and estimate the “cost” of each task. Thus, a productive person will often say no to things to save time and energy for what really matters.
The productive person is driven by feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction produced by the practical completion of tasks.
The productive person carefully and thoughtfully plan each day by setting SMART goals with realistic deadlines. Additionally, they will focus on one thing at a time, which will carry out in full completion promptly, as opposed to multitasking, which is eventually energy and time-consuming. This is where having a good planner is of the utmost essence for productivity.
Last but not least, productive people do not complain about the lack of time for reaching goals and ticking off boxes in lengthy lists to do; they make time. They do not talk aimlessly about everything that needs to be done; they simply do.
In essence, the most powerful disparity between a busy and a productive person is that the first works hard, but the latter works hard and smart.
And you? Are you busy or productive?
