Remove the "busy" tag

- Occasionally, I get asked, what do you think is the biggest obstacle in the way of people becoming more productive? My answer is it has everything to do with how people perceive themselves. If you ask the average person, how you doing? Most people right now will say, I'm busy. Why do people do that? Why do they equate themselves with being busy? Well, busy implies that they are doing a lot of activity, and a lot of activity most people equate with professional success. In other words, if I'm busy, I have more self worth.

I want to change that perception. Busy is another word for ineffective. Your success is not determined by the amount of activity that you're performing, but what you're achieving with the time that you are spending, and how much free time you have to enjoy those results. Imagine for a moment you meet two people. Both make a high income. Come up with whatever number you equate with having a high income. Person A works 80 hours a week to get that income.

Person B works 30 hours a week. Which one is the greater success? The answer is obvious. If you can achieve a high level of success and get great results by working less hours that's much more favorable. So, how do we do that? First, you want to begin focusing on the results that you're achieving, not the activity. Think about yesterday. You did a lot of stuff, you were probably busy, but what did you accomplish during that time? Those results are more important than the activity.

Get your perspective focused on results first. Second, underspend time. Often people pack their day, back to back to back, with appointments or things to do for themselves. When you do that, you're creating a situation where you're more likely to switch tasks, and the more switches you make, the less productive you're going to be and the more mistakes are going to happen. Instead, give yourself space between appointments. This will help you get better results in a shorter amount of time.

Also, give yourself moments for quiet. Schedule time to do nothing. That may sound weird, but giving yourself time to do nothing will have a powerful effect on your mind. It will help you recondition yourself, and stop thinking about how busy you are, and more about what you're accomplishing with that activity. You can be more successful, and you can do it with less activity.

Your success is determined by the results that you achieve.