Yes, You’re Busy, But Are You Productive?
Since leaving a regular, full-time role (I cannot bring myself to say “retired”), I’ve done a lot of self-reflection. Admittedly I am a self-reflective person anyway, but lately, I’ve dug into some of the things I’ve been avoiding coming to terms with for myself. Being busy is one of “those things”.
I’m a master at being busy; I am always busy doing something. I love checklists and ticking off the boxes as I go through my day. But after a lot of self-reflection, I realize that I’ve been busy doing many things, but have made little progress on the things that really matter most to me. I can spot this issue in my clients from a mile away, but I have been avoiding acknowledging this is an issue for me too.
Now that I’m clearly aware that I’ve been avoiding doing some things that are important to me, I’ve got to understand “why” I’m avoiding these things. I have been trying to protect my time so that I can do things just for fun. I’m not great at fun; it’s a chore for me to just “be”. I’ve made great strides in the last two years, but it’s still a challenge. I know that I can protect my personal time and do the work that’s important to me so it’s time for me to increase my discipline in my scheduling and work at it every week.
Here are a few things I’m doing that will help me increase my productivity:
- Documenting my highest priority projects for the week in my calendar.
- Building in time during the week to complete essential tasks. I’m a morning person so I have scheduled the time during my most productive hours of the day.
- Looking back at the week and being honest about whether I accomplished the highest priority items and assessing if I’ve missed anything.
Priorities are personal and you must define what is most important for you. If relaxing more is a priority, then make sure you consider what that will look like for you and schedule that time for yourself. If you’re striving to acquire some learning or you want to be a better partner, schedule that time and then assess whether you spent your time on that priority. Be honest with yourself and if you didn’t meet your goals, then consider where you lost your way and commit to staying on track next week.
I believe we’re all trying to attend to the important things in our lives, but often we don’t because we are too “busy”. This is what I meant by my post yesterday: “Manage Your List of Things to Do or It Will Manage You”.
My hope for you is that you will use your time and energy on the things that matter most to you and let go of some of the things that aren’t serving you well. This is my hope for myself as well.
Hope you all have a great week!