74: Are You Busy or Productive?

Have you ever sat down and tracked where all of your time goes in a week?

How much time you’re spending on…

Tasks at work
Chores at home
Being interrupted
Tasks that aren’t getting you closer to your goals

Today on The Bold Life, I’ll explain why not everything on your to-do list is productive work. Some things are just busy work which can make you feel overwhelmed and stressed to the max.

I’ll walk you through the first step to getting more done in your day – A productivity audit! (Don’t worry, no tax knowledge required.)

My Experience With A Time Audit

A while back I was taking a business course where the instructor challenged us to do a time audit for a week.

The goal was to keep track of what we were doing in every minute of the day. Things like

Projects you’re working on
Times you’re interrupted by phone calls or a colleague
Time spent walking around the office, or staring out the window, or spinning in your office chair
Eating, sleeping, showering
ALL of it was recorded and tracked

Then we looked at the results.

On my most productive days…

I had energy left over at the end of the day
I was excited to come home and tell my family about my day
I felt like I had made progress towards my goals

On those days, I focused on one task at a time. I dedicated chunks of the day to specific tasks so I could dive deep. My phone was on do not disturb. I ignored my email. And it was just me in my office doing my work.

My unproductive days looked a little different. I felt like..

I worked all day but didn’t get anything done
I was busy with no progress
I was tired, stressed, and cranky
I was distracted by phone calls and emails

On those days, I felt like I checked nothing off my to-do list.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all had good days and bad days when it comes to productivity at work. And they usually follow a pretty similar pattern.

On the good days…

You feel motivated, energized, and excited
You’re dedicating real time to projects that inspire you, and
By the end of the day, you feel like you’ve been productive and successfully crossed tasks off your to-do list

On the bad days…

You feel unmotivated, stressed, exhausted, and overwhelmed,
You’re constantly procrastinating,
Interrupted a ton, and
By the end of the day, you realize you were so busy but didn’t actually get anything done

In a culture where busy is the new norm, if you’re frustrated at work chances are most of your days are busy days – not productive days!

We get into this habit of being busy because we tell ourselves lies about what productive work really is. We tell ourselves that if we’re working all day we must be getting stuff done, right? We feel guilty if we don’t feel busy!

But what if that work isn’t getting you any closer to your goals and it’s just burning you out?

Here’s how to know if the work you’re doing might be busy work

1. Is this work something I want to do or something I feel like I should do?

I get it! Sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to. We all have parts of our job that we don’t love, but we have to get it done. (Like me and bookkeeping!)

But if your whole day is filled with work that you feel like you should do, how much value are you really getting from that work? Is that work really filling you with excitement and passion? I’m guessing not.

Finding work in your day that you actually want to do is key for getting more productive work done. It helps to stay motivated and continue working towards your goals.

2. Is this work that can be done by someone else?

You have your strengths and so do other members on your team.

For me, scheduling is not my strength. I actually double booked myself today… twice. This was my reminder to leave my scheduling to my team members who are way better at it than me.

Often when you find yourself buried in busy work, it’s because you’re attempting something that’s not in your wheelhouse and that you’re not awesome at doing.

Be honest with yourself if you’re feeling overwhelmed at work. Could any of the work you’re doing be done by someone else?

If this is true – delegate!

3. Am I doing this just to avoid something else that I don’t want to do?

This is a common mental trap: Doing other things to avoid the work that you know needs to get done.

This busy work is a form of procrastination that comes from fear and discomfort. Usually the busy work you’re doing is easier and more fun.

And that other work you’re avoiding is probably hard to do. It’s usually a task where your inner critic jumps in and fills our head with thoughts of everything that could go wrong, so you avoid it altogether.

How To Do A Productivity and Time Audit

Start giving your brain some perspective on how much work is busy work and how much is productive work that’s helping you towards your goals.

How are you going to do it? A productivity and time audit.

Step 1: Find a piece of paper (or an electronic chart) and make yourself a calendar broken down into 15-minute chunks

Step 2: For one week keep track of everything you do in a day

Tasks you work on
Breaks you take
Times you checked your email
Sat in a meeting
Scrolled through your phone aimlessly…

Step 3: At the end of the week go through your calendar with some highlighters and categorize your time

Your productive work - Tasks that fill you with energy and bring you closer to your goals
Your busy work - Tasks that drain your energy and help you procrastinate

This will give your brain a realistic look at where you’re spending your time – I bet you’ll be surprised at how much time you’re wasting.

Breaking Up With Bad Mental Habits

Remember – your brain is great at doing things without you noticing and developing mental habits that make you feel like you’re getting work done, but really you’re just procrastinating on the important stuff!

Bringing these bad habits into the open is the first step in changing any habit.

Need a little more help? Try my free workbook! Your Daily Productivity Checklist.

I walk you through how to use neuroscience-based strategies to set your day up for success. You’ll learn how to get more done, get out of the habit of busy work, and feel less overwhelmed!

Show Highlights

[01:34] My first experience with a time audit

[02:23] Focusing on one task gives you the best productivity outcome.

[03:55] Unproductive work can be tiring and zap our motivation.

[04:51] How to know if the work you’re doing is busy work.

[07:40] Why busy work is more fun and why it’s easy to fall into the busy work trap.

[09:59] Reviewing your data to see where you’re wasting time.

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