Episode 14: Busy vs. Productive

Lunch With The Garzas

Busy vs. Productive

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 end goal of their lives by acting confident in their little steps Productive people allows people to see the doubt in their little steps because they are clear in the destination

Busy people have many priorities. Productive people have few priorities.

Nobody is ever too busy, It comes down to their priorities at the time and where you fit in If you have 3 priorities then you have priorities If you have 25 of them, you have a mess The pareto principle states that 80% of your desired results come from 20% of activity Henry Ford built a fortune not by building better cars but by building a better system for making cars

Busy people say yes quickly. Productive people say yes slowly

If you don’t say no to most things, you are diving your life up into thousands of little pieces spread amongst other peoples priorities This is being a people pleaser Can quickly become frustrated and depressing because you spend all your days focusing on others priorities instead of your own Which is not productive If a person is offended or upset that you said no to them its because they care more about their priorities and values than yours

Busy people focus on action. Productive people focus on clarity before action.

Refer back to the 80/20 rule To focus on the top 20% you must gain clarity about what those activities mean to you Personal experience is your greatest resource when figuring out how to live a good life Keep a journal and take 5 days to reflect on the past day, what worked and what didn't Take some time to think about what inspires you

Busy people keep all the doors open, Productive people close doors

In the beginning, its good to have options It's good to want to travel, learn different languages, go to a college, work in tech and live in another country But there comes a point where its time to let go of all those options and focus Examples, let's say you pick up 5 books and plan on reading them all at the same time, how much of that info will you actually retain and what are the chances that you’ll actually read all 5 books?

Busy people talk about how busy they are, Productive people let their results do the talking

Talking about doing something is not the same as actually doing, People love to sell pipe dreams I’ve learned to have less and less interest in what people are telling me they are going to do I ask them what they have already done Past performance is a good indicator of future performance Feeling productive is not the same as actually being productive

Busy people talk about how little time they have. Productive people make time for what is important

Time spent on excuses is time not spent on creation If you allow excuses, you will get better and better at making them Productive people don’t use time as an excuse An action either supports your values/mission or it doesn’t If it doesn’t, productive people simply won't do it, even if they have the whole day off

Busy people multitask, Productive people focus

Productive people know about focus There's something called the Pomodoro Technique
Set a time for 20 minutes and work on that task until the timer sounds No emails, texts, bathroom breaks, water breaks

Busy people respond quickly to emails. Productive people take their time

Emails are a handy list of priorities, The problem is they are other peoples priorities, not yours People rarely think about what you have going on when they need something If you respond to every message then you are dividing up your live into a thousand tiny bits that serve other peoples priorities Which is why they came to you in the first place, they see you as a problem solver, so they come to you to solve their problems which creates this codependency in the relationship How are they supposed to reach your level of problem solving if they won’t take the time to develop their own skills in that area Become resourceful, GOOGLE

Busy people want other people to be productive, Productive people want others to be effective

Busy manager focus on hours of activity Productive managers focus on output Busy managers get stressed when they see ..
Others looking relaxed Looking like they have tone Looking like they’re enjoying themselves
Productive managers love seeing people..
Enjoy their work Creating an environment where others can excel
Busy people are frustrated, they want to be valued for their effort, not their results Productivity is about enjoying the journey towards excellence, not any moment of activity

Busy people talk about how they will change, Productive people are making those changes

Busy people talk about what they will do Productive people talk about what they’ve done, what they’ve learned and what inspires them Spend less time talking about what you will do and spend that time creating the first step
What can you do now that requires no approval from anyone What can you do with your current resources, knowledge and support system The universe rewards this type of behavior