Isn’t it strange how time has such an odd habit of totally disappearing? Yes, you might start the day with all good intentions, and maybe you’ve even got a bit of a plan in your head about what you’re going to do, and then by late afternoon you’re not entirely sure what happened. You were definitely busy, but whether you were productive is another question altogether.
The problem is that being busy and using your time well aren’t the same thing, and most of us actually blur the two ideas because it feels better to say we’ve been busy rather than admit we’ve been distracted. So are you actually using your time well?
The Illusion Of Productivity
Answering emails feels really productive, and so does attending meetings, and clearing a load of small tasks off your to do list, and so on. And sometimes those things actually are productive and they’ll help you move forward with your day, your project, your career, and so on.
But one thing to watch out for is if your bigger goals never actually seem to move forward, it’s worth asking whether you’re spending your time reacting to things you have to work on rather than choosing the things it makes sense to work on. If you’re always reacting, you’re busy, but you’re not moving forward, and that’s the difference.
Small Delays Add Up
Ten minutes of scrolling here, five minutes looking for a document that got lost, another ten minutes adjusting something that didn’t really need adjusting… It won’t seem like it at the time, but these kinds of things are not productive, especially when you add up how much time you spend doing them across a week. The answer might actually shock you.
And the same applies in business – repeating tasks manually, guessing figures instead of checking them properly, or estimating costs without double-checking can all waste time without you ever noticing it’s happening. Tools like free online calculators might seem simple, but they remove guesswork, and that’s massively important, and whether you’re working out budgets, margins, interest, or timelines, quick and accurate numbers mean you don’t have to worry about mistakes (or coming back to fix them later).
Planning Versus Doing
There’s also a good balance to get right between planning and actually doing the things you’re planning to do. Planning always feels safe, and it feels as though you’re in control, but the problem is as much as it’s necessary, when you’re doing too much of it, it’s more like you’re using it to avoid the other things you’ve got to do.
Of course, jumping into tasks without any planning at all is just going to lead to chaos and more problems, and that’s why the balance is so important.
Using your time well usually means deciding in advance what matters most that particular day, and it’s never going to be everything. It’s always going to be just a few things that genuinely move you forward, and knowing what they are is going to be the difference between success and failure.
