business strategies

Are You Busy Or Productive?

A couple of years ago at a business event, I was having lunch with other entrepreneurs.  We were chatting about our businesses and the lady across from me said, “Wow, you are productive-busy.  I’m just busy-busy.”  I’ve thought about that phrase many times to help me analyze what type of busy I am.

Let’s face it, we live in a very over scheduled society.  We fill up our time.  I finish a project just to start another one.  I wake up every day with a to-do list longer than I can accomplish.  I’m definitely busy.  And I’m sure you are too.  But there is a big difference between just being busy and being truly productive in reaching your goals.

Busy people spend the majority of their time on “squeaky wheel” tasks.  Those are the things that have to do with the short term.  Things like emails, phone calls, text messages, social media, current appointments, grocery shopping, house cleaning etc.  They also tend to be tasks that will need to be re-done over and over again.  These taks are important, but if you let them take over your day, you will get stuck in BUSY!

I love to work.  I am always willing to work as hard as the next girl.  And it is SOOOOOO important to me that the hard work I am putting in creates long term payoff.  Long term payoff requires being productive, not just busy.

Productive people spend the majority of their time on tasks that will create future growth.  They balance out the squeaky wheel tasks with the forward momentum tasks.  They are good at saying no to opportunities that won’t serve them well over the course of their business.  They are okay to let go of unimportant tasks.  They are good at prioritizing.

Let me give you a couple of client examples.

One of my clients is a high level network marketer.  She was spending large amounts of time answering calls, emails and text messages.  She felt like so much of her time was spent responding to the needs of her team.  She was busy.  Her business was growing, but not as quickly as she wanted and she felt like she was losing sight of her life goals because of the business.  To move past the busy and into the productive, she first had to put some boundaries on her time.  She continued to be accessible, but during less of the day.  The time that she freed up was used to create training materials and a website for her team so that they could have more of her over the long haul.  That was a very productive use of her time!

Another one of my clients was traveling around the country teaching small classes to increase company wide sales.  She had the knowledge that was required to boost the sales, but she was gone a lot.  And the demand for her travel was becoming too high. She is, after all, one person.  In this case, she slowed down her travel a little bit, increased her work hours for a few months and wrote a book. The book covered a lot of the material she was training on.  She also created a workshop to certify others to train on what she had been training on.  Now she is on her way to having multiple people who can do what she did.

The third example is one of my Insurance Agent clients.  This client was spending large amounts of time writing policies, answering questions and managing the current flow of people.  An opportunity came up to network with some Mortgage offices. The opportunity was taken and lasting relationships were built.  This company now has a new partnership relationship that could potentially double the current clientele.

Where are you busy in your business?  What are the tasks you KNOW you need to do to move your business forward that you have been putting on the back burner?  It’s time to bring them to the fore front!  Today, rather than being busy, go for Productive. For More Details: business leaders you can also visit here: business development strategies