How To Be Productive, Not Busy

It is so easy to be busy rather than productive in today's world. With so many notifications and things screaming for attention, oftentimes, we could simply spend an entire day being busy without getting anything done. So how can we focus on the impactful and make the most of our days? In this episode of The Personal Excellence Podcast, I share 6 tips to be productive, not busy Why you should not start your day with chat [1:25] How to separate communication between inner circle loved ones and others [4:50] Why I turn off alerts and notifications [8:21] How to deal with incoming emails, alerts that you need to respond to [10:59] Starting your day with a priority to-do list [12:44] Why you shouldn't beat yourself up when you go off task [14:49] Using batching to group similar tasks [17:07] How to create your 80/20 to-do list [20:32] Using a "Will do" list to defer incoming tasks [20:32] The importance of delegating [21:59] Why delegating was my Achilles heel in the past [22:42] 3 factors I used to determine when to delegate [25:05] 5 questions to ask yourself in a weekly/bi-weekly audit [29:16] Asking ourselves WHY, WHAT, and HOW as we live consciously [30:20] Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Overcast, Castbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. The Personal Excellence PodcastHow To Be Productive, Not BusyShow Podcast Information Read the transcript for this episode here. If you find The Personal Excellence Podcast helpful, please take a minute to leave a nice rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. Your rating makes a difference and will help spread the message of conscious living to more people out there. Thank you! :) How To Be Productive, Not Busy [Transcript] Welcome to The Personal Excellence Podcast. The show that's all about helping you be your best self and live your best life. Now, your host, Celestine Chua! Celestine Chua: Hey everyone. That is Celes from PersonalExcellence.co. Welcome back to the podcast! Today I want to talk about productivity -- specifically how to be productive, not busy. I feel that in today's world, it is so easy to be busy rather than to be productive. That's because we have so many notifications, alerts, to-dos, things screaming for attention. Oftentimes, when we are not aware, when we are not conscious of it, we could simply spend an entire day just doing things, rushing from place to place, clearing item after item. But these things may not be the most impactful things that help us move towards our goals. So today I want to share some simple tips, six tips in fact, on what we can do to focus on being productive rather than being busy. 1) Don't start your day with chat My first tip is don't start your day with chat. It is very instinctual to want to open your chat application in the morning and see who messaged you. Thinking, What do I have in my chat inbox? What messages do I have? It feels exciting because you are getting messages from people, people you care about, or new people you just met. Also, it is sometimes like a little gift, like each message is a little gift and someone has a special message for you and you want to see what's that. So I totally understand that. But unless it is an off day where you are not working, for your work days, I recommend not starting your day with chat because it can easily derail your day into a series of chat exchanges where chat is your main focus, as opposed to what you need to get done. This is especially true if you are an entrepreneur, you control your day, you control your routine, or if you are a freelancer. It is very easy to have your entire day derailed because of chat or even because you are looking at your social media news feed. You know, the social media platforms today. I shared in a previous episode on FOMO, the fear of missing out, about how social media applications and platforms t...