{"id":6050,"date":"2015-12-16T12:57:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T12:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6050"},"modified":"2015-12-16T12:57:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T12:57:11","slug":"the-battle-between-busy-and-productive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/the-battle-between-busy-and-productive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battle Between \u201cBusy\u201d and \u201cProductive\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"busy\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Today we have unprecedented access to information anywhere and anytime. We can multitask using multiple screens, and we can connect and converse on the fly\u2014yet there are still only 24 hours in a day. Do you think that our increased level of \u201cconnectedness\u201d today has anything to do with being busier, yet less productive? You bet it does, and I fall victim to this just as much as anyone else. In fact, I notice more and more these days that I need to \u201cunplug\u201d on a regular basis in order to regain some equilibrium. Do you notice that in your life as well? Here are a few tips I\u2019ve gleaned from personal experience that can help you stay productive without being overwhelmed with busy-ness:<\/p>\n

Keep Track of Your Priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing down your goals and keeping them uppermost in your mind as you plan your schedule for the day, week, month or year is important. It\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed with everything that ends up on your plate\u2014whether you put it there or someone else does. So when I start feeling that things are falling off the edge and I can\u2019t keep track of it all, I have to take a step back and look at those priorities again.<\/p>\n

Does this activity or that one serve my goals or detract from them? Should I take on this assignment now or politely decline (or postpone)? When should I just say \u201cno thanks\u201d?<\/p>\n

Ask yourself these questions as a filter as you go over your schedule. Make sure your assistant(s) have those priorities in front of them as well, so they can be proactive in protecting your time and keeping you on track.<\/p>\n

Keep Your To-Do List Short (and give yourself a break)<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many things do you put on your daily \u201cto-do\u201d list? If you\u2019re like many of us, it can be easy to pile things on as you go, and then beat yourself up because you didn\u2019t get it all done in a day. Life happens. Interruptions happen. Take those things into account and prioritize your to-do list into A, B and C activities. A = Must Get Done Today (or I\u2019ll lose business), B = Should Get Done Today (but can wait) and C = Would be Nice (but not necessary).<\/p>\n

Then cull your list to one or two As (and maybe a B), but not more than three items total<\/strong>. Everything else can move to the next day and re-prioritized. Be honest with yourself on what\u2019s an A, B or C and match them to your priorities list.<\/p>\n

Why only three items? Putting ten or more items on a daily to-do list sets you up for failure. It\u2019s almost impossible to get that many things done in the average work day, so you stress yourself out before you even start, and the tension builds throughout the day as you get further and further behind. Trust me, it\u2019s a lot easier to work from a short list. It keeps you more focused, and instead of beating yourself up because you only got one or two things done, you can celebrate instead! Those one or two things moved you toward your prioritized goals instead of keeping you spinning in a hamster wheel of busy-but-not-productive activities. It takes a little practice to get in a groove with this, but I\u2019ve found it\u2019s well worth the effort.<\/p>\n

Unplug to Recharge<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prioritizing your activities and keeping your to-do list short are important, but so is taking time for yourself to unplug and unwind. Today we\u2019re bombarded by more external stimuli than ever before. Multiple screens mean that multiple things vie for our limited attention spans. Our days are full to bursting. We get less sleep. All of that tends to pack on the stress, which has a direct effect on mental and physical health.<\/p>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve learned to listen to my body\u2019s physical cues that it\u2019s time to unplug. One of those cues is when I have nothing on my plate the next day, but I wake up feeling stressed and drained. I might have even accomplished a lot the previous day (or week). When I get that feeling, I know it\u2019s time to take a few days to head to my favorite quiet beach and relax, take it down a notch (or two sometimes) and recharge my mental batteries.<\/p>\n

Learn to pay attention to your own inner cues. It\u2019s important to find that balance for yourself, and to carve out time and space where you can get away even for a short while, even for \u201cmoments\u201d at a time, to just \u201cbe\u201d in an environment that makes you happy and gives you peace.<\/p>\n

Rinse and Repeat<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s important to unplug when necessary, it\u2019s also important not to lose your productivity momentum when getting back into your work routine. That\u2019s why I always re-start by revisiting and tweaking my written goals and making a concerted effort to keep my to-do lists short and prioritized. However, we\u2019re not robots, and life is not something that can be relegated to lists. Give yourself room to move, be flexible, and recognize moments of opportunity that give our lives meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n

Is this outline a magic formula that works for everyone? Nope. I know that it works for me, but there might be other things that work for you. We\u2019re all busy\u2014and each of us copes with that in different ways. But we\u2019re also human, which means we benefit from being on both the receiving and giving end of sharing what helps us live healthy, productive lives. Hopefully you can benefit in some way from the tips I\u2019ve shared here.<\/p>\n

Remember I say all the time that there is #NoLetUp\u2026 but that also means #NoLetUp finding a few moments here and there for yourself.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we have unprecedented access to information anywhere and anytime. We can multitask using multiple screens, and we can connect and converse on the fly\u2014yet there are still only 24 hours in a day. Do you think that our increased level of \u201cconnectedness\u201d today has anything to do with being busier, yet less productive? You … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1965],"class_list":["post-6050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr-noletup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6051,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050\/revisions\/6051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}