There is a difference between people who are busy and those who are productive. You know those people you see sprinting across the office like a crazy person saying things like, “I can’t deal with that right now, you have to wait.” A busy person tends to put off meetings or double book themselves and always cancelling on someone, or has a tenancy to not return calls. A busy person puts off large projects by working on their small “to-do” list thinking it will save them time in the long run. We have all been there, it’s the old saying of work smarter, not harder.

Productive people view productivity different. A productive person is someone who has an actual checklist and doesn’t focus on mental checklists. Busy people concentrate on the completion aspect of duties while a productive person will embrace the perceptive of measurably contributions. Example to this is a Busy person is worried about checking off as many items on the list as possible, while a productive person is handling business in the sense of “what’s going to provide the biggest bang for the buck.”

Productive people focus on tasks that matter. If you find yourself multi-tasking through a conference call, this isn’t being productive, this just means you shouldn’t be on the call. Don’t spend your time on time suckers. Some of the biggest time suckers in business are Interruptions, unproductive meetings, and conference calls. Have the courage to stop wasting time on behaviors that get no return investments. You won’t find productive people sitting through conference calls that don’t add value to their day.

Productive people don’t let email dictate their day. It’s important to remind yourself that email is a tool of communication. It is not a checklist of what needs to be done throughout the day. If you have the ability set yourself specific times throughout the day to sit down and check your emails. Doing this all day throughout the day is eating up your time. Consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to go in and you’re your emails, so at first glance you know what emails are requesting a reply or a task.

Productive people don’t over schedule and know how to say no. Ask yourself is it urgent? Can it wait another day? Is there someone who can sit in on a meeting for you? Is the meeting necessary to you and your business? Don’t feel guilty for saying “No”. Your time is money and you are the only one responsible for it. Do you get calendar requests for meetings all the time? Utilize a Virtual Assistant to manage these. They can reschedule just as well as you can. Learn to delegate these types of tasks. Allow others to help you shine.

So, would you say you are you a Busy person or a Productive person? Here are a couple small tips to help you become a productive person or help you improve your productivity.

1)Hire a Virtual Assistant to triage your emails and flag by importance.
2)Set up an additional calendar called “do”. This will hold your tasks that need to be done and by when. This is just for you, not for you to invite or share. On this calendar, you want to include blocks in your day to check and respond to emails, also include time to review the next day’s schedule so you’re ready.
3)Set up Calendly Calendar. This links to your calendars and shows others when they can book time with you without them seeing your calendar. Add the link to your signature footer in your email. Calendly provides a conference number for you and the other party to use and you can do screen sharing as well.
4)Set up an instant messenger account so you can quickly communicate with your team and staff on the go. Yes, it’s like text messaging, but simpler and you can keep your team together and your messages don’t get lost with others. I recommend Slack for this.

Remember measure twice, and cut once. Examine what is being accomplished and what you are wanting to achieve.