If you’re anything like me, you’re more busy than you’ve ever been in your life.
I’m talking back-to-back meetings with no time to take lunch.
You’re doing more than you ever thought you can do, but at the same time, you’re feeling less productive.
Your team and organization are demanding more productivity.
You’ve got to get more output and you’re wondering how.
How do you become more productive at work?
First you must understand the difference between busyness and productivity.
Busyness allows you to be easily distracted from big projects that you need to get done.
You end up what I call chasing shiny object syndrome.
Every time someone sends you an email or walks by your door to ask you to do something, you go do it.
You get called in to every meeting.
Everyone wants a piece of you.
That’s, busy-ness, that’s not productivity.
It’s not effective leadership.
Here is how you can become more productive at work.
- Press decline.
Decline that calendar invite.
You heard me, decline the meeting and make everyone else understand that you’re not coming.
Or hit the maybe button and let people know you may be there or you may not.
The more you cancel those meetings to use that time to gather your thoughts and finish existing projects, the better you will be as a leader.
If you say yes to every calendar invite, you’re going to stay busy and you’re not going to be productive.
Sometimes being in meetings is disempowering.
You’re sitting there for an hour listening to other people talk about their challenges and they don’t even come to you until the end of the meeting for your input.
It’s a waste of your time.
So just decline it.
- Don’t answer immediately
Don’t answer emails immediately.
Answer them between 10AM and 11AM, then don’t check them again until 3PM.
Have a designated hour or two to answer emails, not all day every day.
You need to get less busy and more productive by canceling meetings, canceling calendar invites, and not checking your email so frequently.
