Contributed By:
VIP Contributor
Entrepreneur and Connector
Source: Entrepreneur
There’s a difference between being busy and
being productive. While it’s true that both are able to check items off of
their to-do-lists, productive check off the right items. Instead of just doing
things to get them done, productive people focus on the ways that are going to
have to biggest impact in both their personal and professional lives.
So, are you busy? Or, are you productive?
Here are 8 ways that you can find out:
1.
Do you have a purpose?
Every productive individual sets goals so
that they know exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing throughout the day.
They have long term goals planned. And, they’re created short-term goals to
support those long-term goals.
Having a purpose requires discipline to
reach the goals that you’ve set. If you feel that you don’t have a purpose,
start working on developing discipline by knowing your priorities,
learning to say “no,” taking care of your health, getting out of your comfort
zone and getting used to failures. They happen so learn to move through the
failure.
2.
Is there a system in place to support your goals?
As a business owner, your long-term goal is
to build and maintain a successful. However, it takes a system to support and
reach those goals. In this case, your system would include marketing, the sales
process, operation and being able to meet deadlines.
As Miranda
Marquit explained in a previous Due post, “While goals are
definitely helpful when it comes to hitting benchmarks and acknowledging
milestones, the reality is that they might not provide you with everything you
need for long-term staying power. You might be surprised to discover that
creating the right systems might help your business even more than
goal-setting.”
In order to build the right system, Miranda
suggests that you focus on performance measures and acknowledging your
continued progress so that you can continue to move forward.
3.
What’s your productive work time?
Just because you’re in the workplace from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. doesn’t mean that you’re productive because we all have
productivity slumps throughout the day. The first place to look when
determining your most productive work time is by answering, “Are you an early
bird or a night owl?”
“If there’s a clear answer, then schedule
your work hours based on this [if possible]. Regardless of starting time,
always be sure to prioritize your tasks based on importance and/or deadline. If
there’s a big, time-sensitive assignment on your to-do list, [work on it] when
you have the most energy,” said Kelly Allder, vice president of HR programs at human
capital management technology company Ceridian.
Once you’ve answered that question, you
next want to determine what’s holding you back getting your work done, such not
setting priorities, poor planning, distractions and waiting until the last
minute to complete a task. Knowing this information will allow you to adjust
your habits so that you can become more productive.
Finally, take note of your productivity
peaks. Jot down in a notebook what you’ve accomplished during a workday so that
you can identify patterns so that you can work around your most productive
patterns. Personally, the Pomodoro Technique, where you break your day into half-hour
segments, has done wonders for my productivity.
4.
Are you indecisive?
Do you struggle when it comes to making
decisions? If so, you may suffer from the dreaded indecisiveness.
Instead of making decisions and moving
forward, you spend more time worrying whether or not you’re making the right
decisions. Get out of your head and make decisions automatic by asking one
simple question, “Will this help me reach my goal?” If it does, then proceed.
As Jonathan Fields is a
serial-entrepreneur, business strategist, speaker and author, perfectly writes, “In the end, the only bad decision is indecision,
because it leads to inaction. And without action, there’s no data. With no
experience of life. No information to serve as fuel for evolution, connection,
joy, progress. No growth. Just gray.”
5.
Do you multitask?
Research
has proven time and time again that multitasking
doesn’t work. In fact, because you’re switching between various
tasks, you may lose 40 percent of your productivity.
Instead of toggling between multiple tasks
just to get them done, focus on doing thing at a time so that it’s done well
and has all of your attention. Once that has been completed, you can move onto
the next task.
6.
How quickly do you ask for help?
Instead of waiting until it’s too late and
now they’re back into a corner, productive ask for help immediately. For
example, if I need 10 new blog posts for Due by the end of the week, I’m going
to ask my team to crank them out as quickly as possible, as opposed to me
scrambling to get them written and published myself. This not only keeps me
productive, it also shows that I trust and respect my team enough that they’ll
deliver quality blog posts when I need them.
7.
Have you used productivity measures?
“Productivity measures are a series of
inputs calculated against a series of outputs,” writes Sue-Lynn Carty for Chron.com. “Using productivity measures for can help you
determine how to maximize the use of your company’s resources.”
·
Overall sales and
productivity. Divide your net sales by the number
of employees that you have. “For example, if your net sales are $10,000 and you
have 10 employees, than $10,000/10=$1,000. This means your sales need to
increase by $1,000 to justify the cost hiring one new staff member.”
·
Individual employee sales
productivity. Here you would take an individual’s
net sales and divide it by the number of hours they worked.
·
Employee labor
productivity. “If you manufacture a
product to sell, you can measure the productivity of the entire plant dividing
number of products manufactured by the total number of hours worked for a
specific period.”
·
Individual employee labor
productivity. Here you would take “employee labor
hours divided by number of products produced by that employee during a given
time period.”
8.
Do you track your time?
Tracking your
time can boost your productivity since it can help you
determine all of the activities that you waste your time. You can start by
tracking all of your activities for two weeks. As you review this information
you may realize that you spend too much time watching TV, responding to
emails or updating your social channels. If so, then you can start working
on ways to eliminate those time-wasters.
I would also suggest using time tracking
software in order to gain insights that you may have overlooked. Thankfully,
there’s no shortage of powerful and innovative time tracking
companies that can be used to help you boost your productivity.
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