Are you busy or productive? This is one of the key questions that no one ever asks. And the catch is, we’ve confused these two so well that we think that spending more hours being busy is better.
I am Asad, a 15 years old entrepreneur. Apart from freelance and startups, I’ve spent most of my life watching Nat Geo, TED Talks and Discovery Channel. And thanks to Nat Geo documentaries, I soon realized that people don’t even know the different between busy and being productive.
At my first workplace, I was one of the few guys most socially active guys you’ll see. You’ll find me walking around, talking to people about random things & spending least time in-front a computer screen. And some people concluded that I don’t “work” hard enough. I seriously feel for them.
Here’s one thing I really like to do. Connect the dots. There’s always a science behind why people think what they think. And so I started taking notes, of people behavior and their “comments” about me. One of the funniest comment was “Asad, you are bad influence here”.
But that’s not her fault, because she’s so into the corporate environment that she cannot differentiate between busy and being productive. So I never really replied. But I did realize that there are a lot of people like her. So this is a attempt to help those who are busy.
Define: Productivity
A measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs. – Business Dictionary
Being productive is not about being busy… Not about working 8 hours a day, but it’s about getting more results. So, we need to improve it.. Right?. Here are some applicable productivity tricks.
Facebook – Don’t delete it, Change it.
What do you do on Facebook? Nothing productive eh. But as useless as it is, we still are having trouble abandoning it… We are just addicted to it. So typically, people end up deleting their account. And then restore it later because that’s not what they wanted.
But the solution is in the question: what do you do on Facebook? Scroll the timeline to kill boredom right? That’s what most people do. And the cure is very simple, make your timeline worthwhile, productive and informative. Unfollow all your cute friends who usually selfies or pictures of their cats (No kidding!). Instead, follow tech blogs, blogs and influencers. My timeline is filled with posts from Engadget, Mashable, TheNextWeb and other blogs. And I just read almost every 2nd post, because it’s so informative and relevant to what I do. (PS: I can provide you with a detailed list of people and pages I follow on Facebook, if that helps).
Do Nothing for a while.
Don’t keep working for a long while. Science has proved it, you always need breaks… Specially when you are doing some creative/logical thinking task. There are many mechanisms out there for taking a break, the most popular one’s being 50-10 Rule and Pomodoro Timer.
Trust me, it’s always useful to let your brain process stuff… And have a break.
Distractions – Don’t get distracted.
You know you can’t work when there’s a phone sitting right besides your laptop and it pings up every 2 minutes… right? The best thing people do is turn their phones off, and finally focus. But there’s a even better way, don’t turn it off, just train yourself NOT to get distracted.
I have my phone always with me, on general mode. But I’ve trained myself NOT to check it until the task that I am working on is completed.
Music – Listen to the right kind of ‘Music’
Science has it, Alpha waves help you focus. Don’t listen to songs while working, this will kill your productivity.
Here’s a detailed article on this topic: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/music-productivity/
To-Do list – Have a realistic list
It’s always helpful to have a to-do list with you. A realistic one will make sure that you achieve all your tasks and stay motivated. You should never have too much on your plate for a single day. However, don’t have too little to do too… Just stay upto your capacity.
Deadlines and Time-Limits on EVERY DAMN THING.
Including Lunch, you should always have a deadline/time limit if you want to achieve something. Otherwise, you’ll keep procrastinating stuff.
Here’s a great TED Talk by Tim Urban on this Topic.
Outsource stuff.
I know it’s important to water the plants… But anyone can do it… right? Outsource work that you don’t necessarily need to do, and there’s more stuff to do. Trust me, you are not needed in almost 50% of things you usually do everyday.
Save your time, do something productive.
Thank you very much, this is a short tentative list. I will be looking forward to your comments and suggestions! 🙂
