Be more productive NOT just busy

[Chris Jackson]

Saw this link on TechInsider 

http://www.techinsider.io/expert-charles-duhigg-ex...

Everyone struggles with breaking through the inefficient busyness and becoming truly productive.  The above article is a helpful reminder to step away from the busyness and ultra speed multitasking to give your mind some time to think strategically.  Thinking strategically allows you to filter through the 100 items that all feel like they are on the A list and distill them down to the "what is the most important items I need to complete today"

The manic pace of email, social media, phone calls, follow up, text messaging. One can feel very busy and in fact your are busy.  At the end of the day I know I have felt sometimes like I am exhausted only have a very self-aware and disappointing moment that I realize I didn't really do anything truly important.

I've also been a tech exec for 15 years and the email space invaders "don't let an email hit the ground" where you just see emails coming in all day long is extreme.  Couple that with in tech there are extremely complex problems you have to solve that really the hope of a solution is only visible about 15-20 minutes deep into the analysis of the problem, and many times more.  Even if you come back to the problem 3 hours later you need 20 mins just to get back to where you were mentally in the problem you are trying to solve.

In real estate I can tell you there are more emails that come in than tech.  The ability to decipher, assign priority and categorization of emails is critical and very difficult.  You CAN spend your entire day just getting organized.

After watching the video in the link above I must remind myself to carve out those 15 minutes to become clear and wash away the distraction to focus on the bigger game.  When I become clear I can decide, "whats next" "what are THE most important items I must complete today to get me to my greater goal"  When that does occur and you accomplish your tasks on the super A list you feel empowered. 

The point of my post here is to allow yourself to give yourself a break. We all need this reminder in today's economy, work-life style. You're brain needs a rest.  Take a walk.  Sit down with a piece of paper and write down your thoughts, isolate, focus, execute and win.

[Aaron McKeehan]

Thanks for the Post. You make a good point.

It is important to take some time every day to try and think deeply about what you are working on, and why. 

I have personally started to take some time to think about this sort of stuff every morning for about an hour or two. I have found that it has really helped me work on the stuff that's important, and assign busy, non-value added, work to VAs, or automation utilities. 

Rather than getting buried in my emails, I started using the Outlook app on the iPhone, which helps filter our important email from non-important email, so I basically don't have to read all my emails anymore. Then I move emails that I have to work on into  Asana. 

That sort of workflow has really helped manage priorities.