Being busy doesn’t equal to being productive. There is a difference between being busy and being productive. Being busy means doing a lot of things while being productive means getting the right things done.
You can be busy all day but still behind on accomplishing your goal for the day. Being busy is about working hard and ticking-off to-do lists. Imagine when you are more than halfway to your to-do list but weren’t able to do the most important thing on the list. Therefore we were not productive. You were just busy.
Being productive is seeing the progress in all the tasks that you have ticked off. It’s like moving the ball a few inches closer to the goal every single task done.
A brief and concise comparison of being busy and being productive by John Spencer.
| Being Busy | Being Productive |
| frantic work | Focused work |
| Short-term priorities | Long-term priorities |
| Working harder | Working smarter |
| Fueled by perfectionism | Fueled by purpose |
| Good at everything | Great at a few things |
| Multi-tasking and shallow work | Single task and deep work |
| Always rushed | relaxed |
We can’t always avoid being busy. It is important to recognize it and for what it is and move forward with the appropriate action. But when we focus on the things that really matter to us, we are more likely to be productive rather than busy.
Highly productive people always push themselves to be less busy and more productive every single day. Try our LP system and be productive as you want to be.
Want to hear more…
