Being busy is something lots of people aspire to be these days. How often do you answer the question “How are you” with “Busy”? Being busy means that you do not have time to accept dinner or movie invitations because you have something else to do. For example, controlling the food costs of your business.
However, being busy often means that you work overtime and have the illusion that you have less time than you actually have. This can prevent you from finishing your tasks and accepting the challenge of longer or extended tasks. Somehow, these days being busy means being successful, for some people. But, you are not going to be successful if you are busy, you are going to be successful if you are productive.
Yes, productivity and busyness are different, but most people think that they are the same, says Jennifer Manson, an essay writer at a professional writer service. I have come to realize the same after some years full of busyness and unaccomplished tasks. Here are some ways that can help you be more productive and, thus, more successful.
1. Prioritize your tasks
If we are fully honest with ourselves, we could admit that there will always be something that needs to be done. Especially if you are managing a business or a hotel, issues are constantly on the rise. All these tasks you need to do overwhelm you and make you think that you do not have enough time. The truth is you have time, you are only using it in the wrong way.
Time is something we cannot recover once we have lost it. And people invest a lot of time in tasks that are neither important nor urgent. If you have not heard about the Eisenhower Matrix, you can use it to prioritize your tasks soon.
There are four categories of tasks: urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent and important and neither urgent nor important. Try to organize your tasks according to this matrix and you will see that you handle a lot of them that are not so urgent and not so important. You should first take care of the most urgent and important of them and try to delegate the others.
Productivity means handling the right tasks in a given amount of time, so prioritization is an important part of being productive.
2. Organize your calendar
You are probably organizing everything you need to do in your calendar. And if you are not, you should start tracking your meetings and deadlines to improve your productivity. However, you will soon notice that your calendar is filling up with lots of meetings, events, and tasks. Your calendar is slowly becoming busier and busier, leaving no time for thinking about your tasks or immersing yourself in flow sessions.
One tip would be to try to organize your calendar to have enough time to finish your tasks. Leave yourself time before and after a meeting to prepare for the next thing in your calendar.
Give yourself time and space to think about what you have to do without being in a rush. Stress is of no help. While it is good sometimes as it helps you mobilize resources, it proves to cause more damage. You are in control of your calendar, so you have absolute power over it.
3. Stop spending time on your email
This does not mean that you should not use your email at all. Instead, it encourages you to limit your time spent refreshing your inbox or composing and answering emails. You can hardly feel that you were productive if all you did was to write emails. Track your time when you embark on this task and you will be flabbergasted by how much time you invest in it.
One tip that can help you limit your time spent on the email is to think ahead if you can communicate the issues easier. Maybe you have some internal chat app you are using, like Slack or Skype for business. Maybe you can discuss the topic in a meeting and be more efficient.
However, some information is better written than discussed, so you cannot avoid sending emails. Limit your time spent on your email. You can even set an automatic response to inform the senders that you are checking your email only two times per day. If it is something urgent, they will reach you via phone or come to your office.
4. Change your perspective on busyness
People often feel some kind of pride when they say they are busy. The downside is that this busyness makes us think that some activities are not productive and helpful at all. And the fact is, they are among the most productive and helpful of all.
Let’s think about the lunch break. Most people skip it, because they do not have time, and even delay it to the point that it becomes dinner. But breaks are useful because they help you relax and they have a positive effect on your mental well-being, performance, and productivity.
Taking a proper break can give you a fresh perspective on your tasks, thus improving your creativity too. This means that you can find new solutions to problems and manage to accomplish all your tasks until the deadline.
Final thoughts
Busyness has become like a badge people are using with honor. But there is no link between being busy and being successful and productive. According to thesis help, having a crowded calendar makes you think that you do not have enough time and you fail to finish the tasks in time.
Start using the Eisenhower matrix and prioritize your tasks. You have the power over your time, so start deciding what you have time for. Do not let busyness decide what you cannot do.
