(White) mayweed and common marrow.
11 Differences
Between Busy People And Productive People
Conor Neill
I spent a day with the world’s number one ultraman Kilian Jornet back
in 2010.
He told me about the difference between his life in the
mountains and the life he sees in the city.
Kilian spends most of his life in the mountains. He will
run up and down Everest next year.
He has already run up and down Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua,
Montblanc and Cervino
(setting the record for the fastest ascent on each). He
says that he knows his destination,
but is often doubtful about the exact path – he is very
aware of surroundings,
of changes in the weather, of loose rocks. He is
constantly adjusting his path.
He told me that a few times a year he arrives into the
city of Barcelona in his campervan.
He parks. He gets out. He sees people walking confidently
up and down the street.
Everyone is walking with such confidence. They look so
sure in their intention.
They are sure of their steps… but they have no idea where
they are going.
This is one of the differences between busy people and
productive people.
Read on to find out what this difference is and to get to
know 10 more differences.
1. Busy people
want to look like they have a mission.
Productive people
have a mission for their lives.
Busy people hide their doubt about the destination of
their lives
by acting confident in their little steps.
Productive people allow others to see the doubt in their
little steps
because they are clear on the destination.
2. Busy people
have many priorities. Productive people have few priorities
Nobody is ever too busy; if they care they will make
time. Life is a question of priorities.
If you have 3 priorities, you have priorities. If you
have 25 priorities, you have a mess.
The pare to principle is that 80% of your desired results
come from 20% of your activity.
Henry Ford built a fortune not by building better cars,
but by building a better system
for making cars. Busy people try to make better
cars,
productive people develop better systems for making cars.
3. Busy people say
yes quickly. Productive people say yes slowly
Warren Buffet’s definition of
integrity is: “You say no to most things”.
If you don’t say “no” to most things, you are diving your
life up into millions of little pieces
spread out amongst other people’s priorities.
Integrity is that your values are clear and that your
time is going to serve those values.
4. Busy people
focus on action. Productive people focus on clarity before action
To focus on the top 20% of activities, you must gain
clarity about what those activities
are for yourself. The greatest resource you will ever have to
guide you to live a good life
is your own personal experience – if well documented.
Sadly, most people only document their life in facebook status updates.
Keep a
diary and take 5 minutes every day to reflect on the past day, on what worked,
on what didn’t work; and some time on
what inspires you.
5. Busy people
keep all doors open. Productive people close doors
As a young person it is good to open options. It is good
to want to travel, to learn languages,
to climb mountains, to go to university, to work in tech,
to live in another country.
However, there comes a point in life where one must let
go of most options and focus.
If my goal this year is to learn Spanish – I will speak Spanish
at the end of the year.
If my goal this year is to speak Spanish, earn 30% more,
travel to 10 countries, get fit,
find a girlfriend, go to all the concerts… I will not
speak Spanish at the end of this year.
6. Busy people
talk about how busy they are.
Productive people let their results do the
talking
Stephen King says: “A writer is a producer of words.
Produce words: you are a writer.
Don’t produce words: you are not a writer”.
It is a clear binary thing. Talking about writing is not
writing.
Published authors don’t talk about their next book – they are focussed on producing
it.
I have grown to have less and less interest in what people tell me that
they are going to do –
I ask them what they have already done.
Past performance is the only good indicator of future
performance.
Feeling productive is not the same as being productive.
This is important.
I can feel productive while I’m playing minecraft. I can
feel unproductive
while I’m producing an excellent blog post that will help others take better
actions.
7. Busy people
talk about how little time they have.
Productive people
make time for what is important
Any time we spend on excuses is time not spent on
creation.
If you allow yourself to practice excuses, you will get
better and better at excuses.
Productive people don’t use time as an excuse. An action
either supports their highest values
and mission, or it does not. If it does not, they don’t
do it – even if they have a whole day off.
There is an Irish saying: “It is better to do something
than nothing”.
This is a lie! It is better to do nothing than to do an
action
that doesn’t connect with your highest values. Sit still.
8. Busy people
multitask. Productive people focus
Productive people know about focus.
Do you know about the
Pomodoro technique? It is brutal, but it is effective.
Identify a task to be done (for instance, write this blog
post). Set a timer to 20 minutes.
Work on the task until the time sounds. Any distraction
(I must check email,
I must get some water, I must go to the bathroom) and you reset the timer to 20.
How many pomodoros can you complete in a day?
9. Busy people
respond quickly to emails. Productive people take their time
Email is a handy list of priorities. The problem: they
are other people’s priorities, not yours.
If you respond to every email, you are dividing up your
life into a thousand tiny bits
that serve other people’s priorities.
There are 3 choices when you first review your email
inbox: Delete, Do, Defer.
This is not a post on email management, here are a
few on managing email overload from Gigaom, Harvard
Business Review,Entrepreneur.
10. Busy people
want other people to be busy.
Productive people want others to be effective
Busy managers measure hours of activity, productive
managers measure output.
Busy managers are frustrated by others looking relaxed,
looking like they have time,
looking like they are enjoying their work. Productive
managers love seeing others enjoy
their work, love creating an environment in
which others can excel.
Busy people are frustrated. They want to be valued for
their effort, not for their results.
There is a Hindu saying: “We have a right to our labour,
not to the fruits of our labour”.
We have a right to enjoy being excellent at our work, not
a right to enjoy the car, the house,
the money that comes from doing good work.
Productivity is about valuing the journey towards
excellence, not any moment of activity.
11. Busy people
talk about how they will change.
Productive people are making those changes.
Kilian Jornet doesn’t spend much time talking about what
he will do.
He talks about what he has done, what he has learnt, what
inspires him.
Spend less time talking about what you will do and
dedicate that time to creating the first step. What can you do now that
requires the approval of nobody else?
What can you do with the resources, knowledge and support
that you have now?
Do that. It is amazing how the universe rewards the
person who stops talking and begins.
We are born with incredible potential. At the age of 20,
the best compliment that can be paid
is that you have a lot of potential. At the age of 30, it is
still ok. At 40, you have a lot of potential
is becoming an insult. At 60, telling someone that they
have a lot of potential is probably
the cruellest insult that can be made about their life.
Don’t let your potential go to waste. Create something
amazing. This is its own reward.
You
can TCR specialist and
language dictionaries that are spontaneously
accessed.
I
can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times
faster and remember what I’ve read.
I
can TCR an
instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve
read.
Perhaps
you’d like to check out my sister blogs:
All
aspects of regular, each-word down-each-line reading and education.
Turbo
Charged Reading uses these skills significantly faster
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com many ways for you to
work with the stresses of life
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com just for fun.
To quote the
Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more
that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
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