8 Ways Productive People Are Different From Busy People

At least a decade ago, corporate world didn’t distinguish between productive people and busy people. The terms were interchangeably used to denote about an employee’s working pattern. But as we have stepped into a world where fast changes in technology is hard to catch up with, we also have segregated many of the official terms to symbolise the working style of employees.

You may find a person too busy in his life and work and he hardly finds time for himself or for his family as he has engrossed himself completely in work. You may also find a person who has a relaxed approach towards life and he seems to work in his work place with poise and he seems to have time for himself and his family too. The former is a person who is always busy and when it comes to measuring his efficiency, he may fail in many aspects. But the latter one is a person who has managed his work and life in a manner that he is highly productive.

We might get busy in our lives so much just because we are unable to understand what is the mantra of productive people. Rather than following the same routine like a robot, we must endeavour to find out how we can manage our life while enjoying mental peace. It is certainly not rocket science. It is very simple if we understand that basic difference between busy people and productive people. To know what can make you productive without being over engaged, you must read this 8 ways productive people are different from busy people and gauge the points where you need to improve:

1. Productive People Prioritise Their Tasks

Busy people are so much engaged in performing multiple tasks that they hardly have time for listing out their priorities. In case they have 20 tasks in hand, then for them they have 20 priorities and this actually is nothing but a messed up attitude. But for productive people, they have clearly defined tasks. They know that 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the total activity so they focus on finishing the 20 percent activity. Thereby they have their priorities, priorly decided.

2. Productive People Know How To Say No

If you are always saying yes to people and piling up tasks, then you mix other’s priorities with yours then you are one among the busy people. You must have a thorough vision of how much tasks you have and how effectively they can be done in the order of priority within the stipulated time. This is what productive people do. When they know that their schedule is tight, they start saying no to further activities and in the process, they don’t project themselves as a person with low self esteem and to whom anyone can allot tasks at any time.

3. Productive People Have A Mission

Busy people make sure that they act confident in front of people and that people find them doing something always. They tend to hide their doubts on themselves to show that they have a mission. But productive people plan their tasks and don’t feel shy in hiding their doubts because they just want to have a clear set of plan for their mission to be successful. They take little steps rather than leaping in a haste to reach their goals.

4. Productive People Know What They Want To Do

Busy people are uncertain about what they want to do in life. They keep on working in a robotic manner and their minds are stuck in their unfulfilled desires. They don’t have their goals ascertained and thereby, they make their mind filled with clutter. Productive people believe in keeping their mind free from stress and from roaming into different places. They hate distractions. They too have their goals and dreams. But when they know that some of dreams are not feasible to realise in current situation, then they divert their attention on setting goals for the near future and take action for their attainment.

5. Productive People Think Before They Act

Before you embark upon taking action to complete your major share of tasks, you must have clarity about the kind of approach required. While busy people are like those people participating in the marathon where after the whistle, they push themselves to a great extent and before they reach the end, they lose their energy levels. This is due to lack of planning. On the other hand, productive people plan how to use their energy and focus in the beginning to enjoy a grand victory at the end.

6. Productive People Know How To Manage Time

The worst thing of people who are busy is that they speak of time as an excuse for any undone task. For them, they have excuses to cover up for the time spent on getting entangled in tasks that did not generate results. They more they give excuses, the more they become expert in throwing fake excuses and in the process, they tend to procrastinate their work as they have excuses ready. All this indicates that they don’t have a proper schedule for work prepared beforehand and they just have kept on piling up work without segregating them by setting deadlines.

But productive people are extremely serious for their work as they have high work ethics. They don’t waste their time in finding excuses as they keep their mind focused on thinking creatively. Their high work culture drives them to work hard and smart by utilising time effectively as they keep updating their to do list for the day and they challenge themselves to accomplish the task within the stipulated time line.

7. Productive People Multi-Task Effectively

Busy people have the habit of showcasing that they are too busy but they still accept more and more work as they are unable to say no. They think that they can manage completing all the tasks by multi-tasking. In the process of multi-tasking, they forget to ensure efficacy and they even find themselves in jeopardy when it comes to work within deadlines. On the other side, with proper practise, productive people become experts in the art of multi-tasking. They know how to club activities so that even efficiency of the work does not get hampered. They don’t combine more than two activities at any time and also ensure that both the work are of different nature such as one activity requires them to be physically involved while other requires them to be mentally involved.

8. Productive People’s Results Speak

Busy people do a lot of talking or rather boasting about themselves. Rather than thinking what they have already done, they speak more about what will do next. Productive people differ in this point too. They prefer not to talk about what they will do so that they can focus more on the task they are supposed to do. They think that the result they produce will speak for their credibility. They are less interested in people who always speak about themselves as they think that past performances are a better parameter to gauge a person’s performance in future. They keep a low profile when it comes to speaking about themselves and their work.

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