Often, we confuse being busy with being productive. Just because you spent your entire day doing one thing or the other doesn’t imply you did something meaningful. Being productive is not about frantically pacing from a task to another aimlessly; it’s about staying focused and working consciously. 

If you are just busy all the time, you might not achieve your goals. To accomplish your aims, you must turn yourself into a productive person. With absent productivity, you will find yourself flailing about every day without reaching anywhere. 

Here are a few tips you can follow to break up with the busy and be productive instead.

Have a mission
The key to being productive is planning. Take time to introspect on your objectives and plan accordingly. Don’t go around frantically completing one task after another. Have a roadmap in your head, make an action plan.

Don’t set unrealistically high goals that you can’t achieve. Productive people are clear on what their destination is. They move accordingly and adjust as and when needed. On the other hand, busy people go around doing the first thing they can get their hands on without any objective.

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Know what’s important
Every task that comes across to you might not be worth your time. Learn to delegate. For example, suppose you are a shop owner, you shouldn’t have your shop closed for 5 hours to do a petty task when you can pay someone else to do it. It is crucial to prioritize important work and say no to unimportant tasks that do not matter.

Work smart
There is no equivalence between working smarter and working harder. While everyone may have their definition of working smart and hard, productive people work smartly by investing just the right amount of effort in everything they do. 

This means that they are not putting unnecessary amounts of time into something to pursue unattainable perfectionism. Instead, they devote their time to personal wellbeing and try to achieve a work-life balance.

Follow a schedule
Have a clear mind and make a timetable consisting of all the essential chores of the day and stick to it. Having a pre-thought schedule will ensure that you don’t get lost midway through the day and get off track. 

It will help you oversee your progress and engage in better quality work. One should note that rest is as essential as work. Working for long hours on a stretch without taking breaks can lead to burnout which would defeat productivity.

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Focus > Multitasking
“Jack of all trades, master of none”, this saying applies to busy people. They put more on their plate than they can handle. They are proud of multitasking, but in reality, they are compromising the quality of their work. 

Contrarily, productive people only agree to tasks that they can handle and work on them with focus. It helps them reduce distractions and deliver better results. A productive person achieves way more than a busy person by being more self-aware. 

They know their potential and use it for the highest results. Instead of talking, they work, and instead of being fueled by perfectionism, they are fueled by purpose. Their attitude makes them stand out from the crowd.

They don’t rush through things; rather, they give every task their 100% focus and engage in ‘deep work.’ Instead of agreeing to do just anything, they employ their resources wisely and delegate shallow tasks. All these things yield exceptional results for them. 

Successful are those who know their priorities. Get on your way to success by choosing to be productive and not just busy.