Busyness vs Productivity

I was listening to a podcast the other day (when am I not listening to a podcast?!) and heard a wonderful quote by Corrie ten Boom: “If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.”

Then I was reading in “Are you Fully Charged” by Tom Rath, and he had a whole section on busyness versus productivity.

The next day I read about being busy in another book (“The 12 Week Year” by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington).

Guess the universe is trying to tell me something.

If a mouse runs on a wheel all day, it will have been “busy”, but it will have gone nowhere and done nothing. Tom Rath points out that many of us confuse busyness with meaningful progress. We brag about emptying our inbox, responding to every Facebook or text notification, watching the last 3 episodes of our favorite show, cleaning the closet, or doing mundane administrative tasks. But those activities often don’t accomplish great results in our life. They are responses instead of actions that we initiate.

Tom Rath also says that “if you are busy throughout the day and bouncing from one thing to the next, you’re probably not focusing on constructive activity. You are also probably not giving your full attention to the things that matter most, from working to spending time with your family.” He suggests starting by writing down one thing you are doing that is not a good use of your time and commit to doing less of it. Then to help you overcome the most common distractions, turn off the alerts and set a time for when you can respond to emails or phone calls and check social media. He also teaches that you need to keep in mind why you are doing what you do. This keeps you motivated and productive.

Brian Moran and Michael Lennington say a similar thing. “Learn to prioritize your most important activities and do those things before you work on anything else.” They teach of the importance of blocking your time to take back control of your day. They suggest 3 different types of blocks: strategic, buffer, and breakout. Strategic blocks are 3 hour blocks scheduled at the beginning of a week and are for spending time in your vision and reviewing and planning. Buffer blocks are 30-60 minutes 1-2 times a day for lower-level activities like email and phone calls. Breakout blocks are scheduled “me time”. They are about 3 hours once a week. Then fill in the rest of your schedule with the other things that need to be done. This type of focus helps keep you from getting distracted by the unimportant items.

This morning I was watching a webinar about scheduling your time. The presenter didn’t call it “managing your time”, but rather “creating time”. She said you can’t just find time in your day to do the things you need/want; you need to make the time for those tasks. She spoke of the effect of planning out everything. Once a week, look at your calendar and schedule every task from meal planning and grocery shopping to time with family, from study time to project time.

Back to the original quote . . . “If the devil can’t make us bad, he will make us busy. Because being busy means we aren’t focusing on what is important. And when we aren’t focusing on what is important we aren’t fulfilling our purpose and we aren’t making a difference in the world.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on out there and create time for the important things. Find purpose in all that you do. Be productive and not busy.

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