Are You Busy Being Productive, or Just Plain Busy?

Do you bill a client for a service that you estimated would take 2 hours yet you spend an additional 4 hours or more procrastinating or “thinking about working” on it? At the end of the day you feel like you were “busy” but was it really productive work and was the task efficiently executed?

We can overthink and therefore “overwork” in areas of our business and on client work than is necessary. We play what’s on our to-do list over and over in our minds – even if we’ve scheduled it on our calendars. Let’s just call it what it is… Overthinking and overworking are time and energy not well spent! Being busy does NOT always mean being productive!

Here are four simple steps to support you in becoming more efficient and more productive.

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Ask yourself how you feel about your business life. Do you think it’s possible for things to be done differently but you just don’t see how or don’t know where to start?

If you have a sense that things need to change, then declare it! Decide. Declare that you want more time and energy in your business and in your life and decide that NOW is the time to start making changes!

With your current declaration and decision from step 1, keep this thought and energy with you at the beginning of every day. You are a powerful entrepreneur! You created your business with a specific mission in mind. Creating helpful reminders on your phone or making sticky notes on your bathroom mirror are great ways to remind you of your intention/decision to move forward with this process.

• I am a trusted and successful entrepreneur.
• I operate an efficient and productive business.
• I work flexible hours that support my lifestyle.
• I trust myself. I plan and execute with confidence. I follow-through.

You can’t make changes to things that you don’t know about. To get a sense of where you are truly spending your time in your business, you can create a simple time tracker on paper.

1. Create one page for each day
2. Establish your start and end time for each day. Ex: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
3. Have each line represent 30 minute increments

To support you in logging this time throughout the day, you could set a reminder on your phone or computer for every 1 hour that reminds you to log your activity for the past hour.

After you have collected a fair amount of data from step 3, make intentional adjustments to areas you can focus on first. Where can you begin to work more efficiently? As an example, if you start your day checking personal email and Facebook, set a timer. If from your information gathering from step 3, you had been spending 2 hours at the start of your day on personal emails and Facebook “getting caught up”, allow yourself 30 minutes instead.

Now, it’s possible your monkey mind is barking at your new intention of 30 minutes for emails and Facebook in the morning. You may be thinking that would be impossible to commit to this on a regular basis! If that’s the case, I’d challenge you to do it for a week. And every morning that the timer goes off after 30 minutes, write down how you’re feeling. Perhaps you’re feeling that 30 minutes IS all it really takes to catch up on email and Facebook.

With over 20 years of experience as a Process Management, End User Support and Systems coaching expert, Janina now strategizes with female entrepreneurs get clear on the “It’s all in my head” processes and mind chatter using her unique ‘white board’ method and partners with you to declutter, clarify, and co-create goals and steps towards bringing your best self and achieving more in your business.

Connect with Janina during her Hera Hub GURU hours and on her website at www.JaninaGoldberg.com.

Photo credits HMM Creative and author’s own