productivity

The 4 Core Beliefs Of Highly Productive People

February 29, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

This is my first video-based blog post. In this video, I discuss the four core beliefs of highly productive people. The video is based on the blog post The 4 Core Beliefs Of All Highly Productive People.

The methods I discuss in the video are as follows:

#1: Dreaming Big Is Better Than Dreaming Small. When you dream big, you expand the possibilities. Even if you don’t reach them all, your bigger goals will inspire you to put in more work. Dreaming small inspires mediocre work and mediocre results.

#2: Being Busy Does Not Mean You Are Productive. There is a huge difference. You can be getting distracted by non-priorities when you are busy, but you are always addressing your priorities when you are productive.

#3: The Vision Must Be Accompanied By A Series Of Micro-Visions. You need the stepping stones to get to the grand vision. The stepping stones will boost your confidence as you head towards that grand vision.

#4: There Is No Stopping. You do have to take the occasional breaks, but you must put in the work every single day. As Daymond John would say, “Keep Swimming!”

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you thought of the video, and if you like it, then don’t forget to subscribe. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

How To Leverage Pareto’s Principle For Your Business

February 24, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Pareto’s Principle is one of the most famous principles in business. Some entrepreneurs live by it.

You’ve heard it before, but maybe you haven’t heard of it referred to as Pareto’s Principle. Here’s what Pareto’s Principle is:

80% of your results come from 20% of your work.

That sounds much familiar. The concept is true, and if you look deep enough, you will discover what that 20% is for your business.

The work that leads to most of your results.

Most people stop there. They acknowledge Pareto’s Principle and acclaim that 20% of their work brings forth 80% of the results.

The people who stop at the acknowledgement only see one side of the coin. To every coin, there are two sides.

To Pareto’s Principle, there are two statements.

The first statement is the one that we know well. 80% of our results come from 20% of our work. The second statement?

20% of our results come from 80% of our work.

That’s a lot of work that only leads to one-fifth of your results. That particular small slice of work that you do leads to everything else.

The other side of the coin doesn’t get much attention because it is the disgusting side of the coin. Most of the work you do leads to little or no results.

Can you still work with that in your mind? Most of the work leads to little or no results.

80/20 Done The Right Way

This blog post isn’t meant to discourage anyone. It is designed to change the way we work.

The successful entrepreneurs understand the principle and look at both sides of the coin. They focus most of their time on the 20% of the work that leads to 80% of the results.

As for the 80% of the work that leads to only 20% of the results? That gets outsourced or eliminated.

Why do something when you know it won’t produce much results? The biggest mistake I see people make is they will look at every possible opportunity without honing in on one opportunity to maximize results.

If someone doesn’t produce much results, and you don’t overwhelmingly enjoy that work, then stop.

If it’s something that you still have to do but know it doesn’t bring in the results you are looking for, then outsource that work.

Since 80% of your work produces 20% of your results, you should look to outsource 80% of your business.

Then you can focus all of your time on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results.

Even if something seems vital for your business’ survival, try to outsource it. Scheduling tweets is essential for my business since that’s how I get most of my blog traffic.

Outsourcing that one task allows me to save hours of my time each week. Outsourcing my blog post pictures allows me to save even more time.

Opportunity Cost

For every minute you spend doing something, you can’t spend that same minute doing anything else. That’s the basic concept behind an opportunity cost.

If you procrastinate for one minute, you cannot be productive and get stuff done during that same minute.

If you find yourself not focusing on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results, then you are missing out on opportunities.

I will provide you with an example involving money just to highlight the importance of looking at Pareto’s Principle differently.

Let’s say an entrepreneur works for five hours a day and makes an average of $100 per day.

With Pareto’s Principle in play, one hour brings in $80 while the other four hours only result in an extra $20.

Let’s say the four hours that bring in $20 get outsourced and the same entrepreneur works for five hours each day.

Now those five hours get directed towards the work that brings forth the best results.

Instead of making $100 per day, that same entrepreneur is making $400 per day ($80 x 5 = 400)

Sure, outsourcing costs comes into play, but it won’t cost $300 per day at that rate.

Overall, a profit is made because the entrepreneur was able to focus more time on the work that brought forth the most results.

If you focus more of your time on what works, then don’t be shocked if you get better results.

Expansion

You’ve figured out Pareto’s Principle and focus most of your time on the work that yields most of your results.

But let’s say you have multiple passions and want to start multiple businesses. Maybe you want to write books or create training courses. Maybe, like me, you want to become a singer.

You can suddenly find that extra time to pursue more adventures by outsourcing most of your work. Inevitably, you will temporarily disrupt your groove.

If you can focus all of your time on the work that leads to the most results, you will have to introduce more work that doesn’t (in the beginning) bring in much results.

Then you discover what works in the new adventure you are taking and outsource everything else that doesn’t yield as much results.

The quicker you master something and the better you master your time, the easier it will be for you to master anything else that you want to master.

Twitter was the first social network I mastered. I only mastered Twitter because I gave up on every other social network.

Now I am on several social networks and have thousands of followers on most of the platforms.

Master one thing and then expand from there.

In Conclusion

There is a lot to learn from Pareto’s Principle. The two key lessons are that most of your work leads to little or no results while some of your work leads to most of your results.

You need to focus more of your time on that some of your work that leads to most of your results.

Success is not just a matter of hustling. It’s a matter of hustling in the right direction. You can have a work ethic, but if you get lost and go on the wrong trail, then it will take a lot longer for you to reach the finish line (while some people never reach it).

Hustling in the right direction means focusing most of your time on the work that brings forth most of your results. The busy work that stands in your way, although it may be important, needs to get outsourced.

What are your thoughts about Pareto’s Principle? Do you have any other advice for leveraging it for our businesses? How do you save time? Sound off in the comments section below.

The 4 Core Beliefs Of All Highly Productive People

February 17, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

What makes productive people so productive? It’s not that they get extra time to play with. In the end, we all have 24 hours in one day. Productive people don’t stop the clock. They push through it.

Productive people push through the clock by acquiring a strong mindset that sets them up for success. Your mindset makes or breaks you. If your mindset is breaking you, then you must do everything in your power to shift that mindset.

The mindset is critical. One fact about productive people is that they all share common beliefs that guide their productivity. These are the core beliefs, the beliefs that are required for productivity.

#1: Dreaming Big Is Better Than Dreaming Small

Every week, I give myself a new series of goals. I mark my progress by using tallies and checkmarks. This is the concept of the weekly scorecard.

I have kept all of my scorecards since March 2014. While it’s cool to see the stack of scorecards I have kept over the years, I also get to learn from my past scorecards.

I learn from my past scorecards to see what I can do to boost my productivity. I recently looked back at all of my scorecards to celebrate the beginning of 2016.

The shocking news: I almost NEVER accomplished everything I said I would accomplish on a single scorecard.

I usually accomplish about 70% of what I say I will accomplish on the scorecard.

Does that make me unproductive? No! I’ve written so many blog posts about productivity that I can’t possibly say I’m unproductive 🙂

But beyond that reasoning, I set a very high standard for myself with my scorecards.

In one week, I was able to write six blog posts that were just as lengthy as this one. But I didn’t accomplish my goal of writing 10 blog posts that week.

I wanted to create four training courses in one week. I only created two training courses.

Would you feel productive if you could write six 1,000+ word blog posts and create two training courses in the same week (each course was about an hour of video content that had to be planned out)?

I didn’t. I felt like I didn’t accomplish everything that I set out to do. The fact that I only scheduled five blog posts instead of the 10 I wanted to schedule that week didn’t make me feel any better.

College applications got a big percentage of my time during that week, but even then, I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be.

I did other things as well during that week for my business, but that’s not important.

What is important is that I set the bar so high that sometimes I don’t accomplish everything that I say I will.

If I came into the week with the goal of writing three blog posts, scheduling a blog post, and creating only one training course, then I would have gotten a perfect score on my scorecard.

I would prefer the scorecard in which I only accomplished 70% of my goals, but I was giving myself goals such as writing 10 blog posts, scheduling 10 blog posts, and creating four training courses.

Small goals produce small results. Big goals allow you to get big results.

#2: Being Busy Does Not Mean You Are Productive

This is a big one. Being busy does not mean being productive. Let that sink in.

For a long time, I was somewhat productive, but I was very busy. I was busy studying for the SAT, scheduling tweets, and growing my social media audience.

I was productive when I was writing my blog posts, sending email blasts, interacting with my audience, and completing videos.

The busywork was necessary. I needed to study for the SAT or else I wouldn’t get a good score. Scheduling tweets and growing my social media audience are two important parts of my business.

But then I crafted my ideal day.

I asked myself if I could outsource every part of my business, what would I still want to do.

Not much of the work I did made the list. Only writing content, doing videos, and interacting with my audience. That meant everything else should get outsourced.

I took my final SAT a few months ago and outsourced social media growth and scheduling the social media posts.

Now I am outsourcing more parts of my business so every day becomes the ideal day. Anything that does not fit within my ideal day is busywork that takes me away from what I really want to do.

Deep. Let’s move onto the next core belief.

#3: The Vision Must Be Accompanied By A Series Of Micro-Visions

I have so many visions that I could write a book listing my visions. Just like everyone else, I have the grand vision.

To some people, that grand vision can be found in the New Year’s resolutions. To other people, it’s the vision they have for themselves many years down the road.

I have one of those types of visions, and all productive people have that type of vision. However, productive people also have micro-visions.

Don’t stop at New Year’s resolutions. Ask yourself how you will get closer to accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions, quarter by quarter.

For my vision for the year, I will always break the work into four quarters. I calculate what type of work must be accomplished each quarter.

Since all goals start out as hypothetical (they may happen, but they haven’t happened yet), I only go deep into how I will accomplish my first quarter goals.

I plan it all out, week by week. Weekly scorecards reinforce my goals for the quarter. I always give myself less time than I have so I know I will accomplish what I set out to do.

All of these visions that lead up to the grand vision are what I like to call micro-visions. All of the micro-visions lead up to the grand vision.

Micro-visions have closer deadlines which gives you less time to do certain work. Having less time will encourage you to take more action.

Sometimes, I will even assign myself four day scorecards just so I have a shorter timeframe to get everything done. The shorter timeframe makes me hustle harder, and as a result, be more productive.

#4: There Is No Stopping

Productive people never stop. They do take small breaks to restore their productivity, but they never stop.

Every day presents a new achievement. Whether that achievement is as small as writing a blog post or as large as accomplishing the goal you’ve been wanting to accomplish for an entire year, productive people achieve something new every day.

The importance of not stopping is the fact that to not stop means putting in the work every single day. Putting in the work every single day turns that work into an effortless habit.

I used to struggle to write these types of blog posts. Now the ideas and content flow easily into the document that I type them in.

The most productive people turn productivity into a habit by working on it every day. If productivity could not become a habit, then no one would be productive.

The moment you turn productivity into a habit is the moment you will become super productive. You just need to be productive for 66 days straight, and then it becomes a habit.

Then you are productive by nature because that’s the type of person who you have become. So no stopping.

Daymond John would describe this as the need to keep swimming. In the acronym S.H.A.R.K., the “K” stands for “Keep Swimming.” You must continue putting in the work to get even better results.

The moment a shark in the ocean stops swimming, it dies. Don’t stop swimming.

In Conclusion

Productivity is not a gift granted to a few lucky people. It isn’t something you are born with. For a long time, I was very unproductive. I had to learn productivity and continue honing my skill in that area every day.

It’s something I continue doing to this day. I still read books and articles all about productivity because I want to be one of the most productive people in the world.

These core beliefs are where the magic happens. Once you turn these core beliefs into your lifestyle, you will see a big boost in your productivity. The only way to keep the increased productivity is by working on it every day.

Which of these core beliefs do you believe is the most important? Did any of them challenge the way you think of working? What are your tips for boosting productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Best Method For Boosting Productivity [CASE STUDY]

January 22, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

One goal I strive for is to be productive as possible. Since I still go to high school and usually get home after 5 pm, I must utilize any extra time that I have in the most efficient way possible. This has naturally led me to make certain decisions about what I pursue with my extra time and what I choose to ignore.

Some of the decisions I made were difficult. A long time ago, giving up my Yugioh Blog was a difficult decision. I had been updating it consistently for over two years. I gave up on that blog so I could devote more time to this one back when on a good day, this blog would have gotten 10 visitors.

The Yugioh Blog I gave up was getting anywhere from 200-500 visitors per day. At the time, it was a difficult decision, but in the long-term, my productivity skyrocketed.

Since that decision, I have probably written over 1 million words for this blog, and I have dozens of my own products. Each year, my productivity has increased.

Recently, my productivity got challenged again. I have been losing more time that I would have used in the evening to work on my business. I have even less time than I had before.

The funny thing is that I felt more productive at this time than during any other preceding time. Why with less time would I feel so much more productive?

The answer is that you take a deeper look at where your time is getting spent. You take a deeper look at when you can actually do your work. You ask yourself what work matters the most to you.

An earlier challenge to my productivity resulted in me hiring people to schedule my tweets and grow my social media audiences by following my instructions. Those two activities used to take a large percentage of my time.

I outsourced both of them in one giant swoop.

During the most recent challenge to my productivity, I looked for other parts of my business that could be outsourced. Before this new challenge arose, I would have never thought of outsourcing these parts of my business.

Now not only does outsourcing make sense, but it results in me being more productive than ever before.

Outsourced Work

What I have learned about productivity is that once you have a strong enough foundation, you must find obstacles that get in the way of your productivity.

I will say that again because it’s most likely contradictory to all other advice you have received to date. To increase your productivity, you must find obstacles that get in the way of your productivity.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may have heard me talk about a few things about my journey.

Maybe you’ve heard me talk about my junior year of high school. I had a lot of work that year, and even though I had less time for my business, I was surprisingly more productive from the business standpoint during my junior year than I was in my sophomore year.

Maybe you’ve heard me say that when I started running cross country in high school and getting home much later in the day than I was accustomed that I thought my business would sink. At the end of my cross country season, my business looked more like “We have lift off” than “Abandon ship.”

If you do not challenge your productivity, then you have no reason to become more productive. You will forever be satisfied with your level of productivity even when you know it’s not your best.

If you believe you are being productive to the best of your abilities, you’re not. No matter how productive I become, I will never believe that I am being productive to the best of my abilities.

The logic behind this quote parallels with a belief held by Navy Seals that if you feel like you are done for the count, then in reality you are only 40% done.

We’re talking about people who go through more physical activity than most of us can barely begin to imagine. And when they feel like they’ve had enough, they know that they are only 40% done.

That’s how I look at my productivity. Every time I feel like I am about to break, I realize that I am only 40% done. Even if I feel as if I am breaking more, I am still only 40% done.

Basically, I never feel more than 40% done. This mindset makes me feel as if I still have a lot left within me.

Anytime a challenge interferes with my productivity, I find a way around that challenge. Productivity in this sense is no longer work. Productivity has now become a game.

Very similar to navigating Pac-Man away from the ghosts (and then chasing after them).

Pac-Man

Yes, the lessons we learn from video games apply to real-life. I used to play video games every day, but then I decided to give them up.

A particular challenge to my productivity took up so much of my time that I was forced (important: self-forced) to give up video games. At first, I was skeptical. I had so much fun playing these games. Video games were my main form of downtime.

But again, this decision in the long-term gave me more time to play on the piano. And the amount of time I spent playing on the piano actually allowed my business to grow.

In Conclusion

The next time something challenges your productivity, look at the challenge for exactly what it is. All challenges you endure simply allow you to become better off than you were before.

I didn’t become more productive when everything was going my way. When life threw my challenges, I brushed through those challenges and emerged as a more productive individual.

Surprisingly, when I lose time to work on my business, that’s when I become more productive.

The best part about most challenges is that they are temporary. Once those challenges vanish, you keep the lessons you learned. You know how to be more productive.

Eventually you may get more time back in your schedule. Then you get to become more productive with that additional time.

Productivity is a game with its own set of challenges. To win the game, you must rise above every challenge and look at every challenge as an opportunity for growth.

What are your thoughts about productivity as a game? Do you have any tips for us to boost our productivity? How do you deal with challenges? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Surprising Ways To Be Completely UN-Productive

January 20, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

When was the last time you wanted to be unproductive? Chances are you never go into your day asking yourself, “How can I be as unproductive as possible?”

We strive to be productive and enlist certain habits and principles to guide us. However, some of the activities people do each day that they think are productive are actually unproductive.

The problem with productivity is that there is conflicting advice about what actions should be taken to bring forth a more productive you. Conflicting advice brings forth confusion, and ultimately, misconceptions.

We praise certain methods of doing work that actually hurt our productivity. Here are the most surprising methods that, although we often praise them, are the main culprits to being less productive.

#1: Being Available 24/7

Corporations have popularized the ability to be available 24/7. Whether you are calling your customers or responding to their questions, the belief is that you should be available 24/7.

However, if you are available for your customers 24/7, then you are not available for yourself 24/7. You won’t have as much time to create products, grow your social media audience, and do anything of the like.

I don’t answer my emails the moment I get them. Sometimes, it can take me several days for me to respond. I focus on writing my blog posts or doing videos for an upcoming product.

After all of that work is done and I want to take a break, I will then respond to the emails within my inbox.

I used to make it a policy to respond to emails less than 24 hours after they were sent. The amount of time I would spend responding to emails would cut into a majority of the time that I could have spent writing blog posts and creating products.

Being available 24/7 is a myth. The only reason corporations are able to pull it off is because they hire several employees to respond to emails and take phone calls.

If you call Apple Support right now, Tim Cook is not going to pick up the phone.

If you want to be available 24/7, then you need to hire several freelancers who you can trust. That way, you can focus more of your time towards productive activities.

#2: Multitask To Get More Done At Once

In our busy world, we are constantly looking for ways to feed two birds with one scone. Some of us are trying to use that one scone to feed three birds.

The result of our efforts is multitasking. The idea behind multitasking is that you get two things done at the same thing instead of doing them one at a time.

Behind our made-up definition of multitasking lies the real definition. Multitasking is simply the act of doing two things at the same time in a less efficient manner than if you were to approach one task at a time.

I can run and read a book at the same time. I might run really slow, not absorb any of the content, or crash into a lamppost. I can run and read at the same time, but I wouldn’t get much out of the run or the book.

Are you running and reading the same time with your business? Are you trying to write a blog post and schedule your tweets at the same time? Are you listening to music on your smartphone while trying to listen to a tutorial on your computer?

Multitasking in its most basic form is a productivity myth. The only thing multitasking does is makes you less productive. It can even kill your brain.

#3: Work Hard

If Person A worked for five hours today and Person B worked for three hours today, who worked longer. The answer to that one is Person A.

But who was more productive? Answering this questions requires that we explore each person’s work ethic and the work that was actually done.

An interesting thing I have noticed about my productivity is that as my time diminishes, I become more productive. When I have less time to spend on my business, that’s when I become very productive.

I am more productive when I work for 2-3 hours than some people are when they work for over eight hours every day. How does that happen? It’s based on a few factors.

The main factor is how you are working. There is a major distinction between working hard and working smart. You can work hard but not get anywhere. Working smart ensures that you are to make some type of progress each day.

Working smart is simply asking yourself which path is the right path for me, how can I get there faster, and where do I sign up to get started.

Once you work like that, you will be more productive than most of the people who simply work hard.

Another big factor is how much of the work you actually do. Most of my work time is exclusively spent writing blog posts or creating new videos. Those are my top priorities.

But what about everything else I do. What about scheduling over 100 tweets per day, growing my audience, creating slides, video editing and all of that fun stuff.

Outsourced to the last drop.

On a good weekday, I’ll put in three hours of work towards my business. However, I have freelancers who put in at least three hours of work for me every day.

By outsourcing several parts of your business, it is possible for work to be put towards your business for over 24 hours per day without you doing any of that work.

The big dream many entrepreneurs have is their businesses functioning on autopilot. The only way your business will ever function on autopilot is if you outsource the work to other people.

Might as well get started now. That way, you’ll work smarter and actually be more productive.

#4: Use A Productivity App*

If there is one method of productivity that receives a lot of praise, Productivity Apps are it. Under certain circumstances, Productivity Apps CAN make you more productive.

However, there is a danger with using productivity apps.

The danger is that you must use them on a device. More specifically, you must use the Productivity App on a device with millions of other options.

If you use a Productivity App on an iPhone, all you have to do is click on the menu button. Suddenly, the Productivity App disappears and you see all of your other apps.

Maybe the Angry Birds app distracts you. Maybe the ABC News app does the trick. Maybe it’s Safari. The moment you get out of that Productivity App for the slightest second, you are exposed to numerous distractions. And this is true regardless of which device you use.

What’s hot on YouTube? What’s trending on Twitter? Maybe, just maybe this time I’ll beat my high score in Flappy Bird.

Some Productivity Apps in their design are brilliant. But the nature of devices and the way we use those devices can sometimes undermine the power of Productivity Apps.

If you can find a Productivity App that locks your device into that one app for a certain amount of time, then that Productivity App will work. The apps themselves are not bad.

But since I don’t trust myself to not browse around on a device, I use a notebook to stay more productive. I write all of my goals with pen and paper. I use real sticky notes instead of the digital ones.

What I have observed with goal setting is this: There is truly a more potent feeling when you write a goal versus when you type it on your computer.

Typing produces the same font that anyone else can produce with a keyboard. Writing the goals on paper is like writing your own signature. Only you get to do that.

Plus, your notebook will never crash. If your device crashes, or the Productivity App isn’t functioning correctly, then you are going to lose valuable time.

Even if you find a Productivity App that keeps you locked in, never handicap your productivity to that one app alone. Sometimes the old ways work the best.

#5: Commit Yourself To Accomplishing Everything On Your Workload

For some people, accomplishing everything on their workload would be productive. Most people who find themselves committed to this goal could be more productive.

The simple reason is what the workload entails. Is the workload easy or is it challenging? What types of results would you get from accomplishing the work? Would you be better off, or does the workload consist of “Get-By” Work?

This misconception strongly applies to all of the lone-wolves who believe it is possible to be a successful solopreneur.

Just because all of the work you do is important for your business doesn’t mean you should be doing all of that work.

There are certain tasks within your workload that can easily be delegated to other people. Thus, the idea of outsourcing resurfaces. Think about all of the things you do and then ask yourself if any of those tasks could be given to someone else.

Then think about what all of that extra time would get you.

Outsourcing is the only reason I am able to create courses on Udemy. It’s also the only reason I am still able to write three blog posts every week.

The truth is I was considering going down to only writing two blog posts per week so I could focus more of my time towards Udemy. Outsourcing changed that. What can outsourcing parts of your business change for you?

In Conclusion

We all want to be productive. There’s no question about that. The confusion begins when we ask ourselves which methods of boosting productivity will actually boost our productivity.

Multitasking for instance does not work. Speaking of work, it is possible to be more productive than the person who puts in more hours than you.

In the end, the methods that work best for your productivity are the ones that you must be guided by. Certain methods work for me that don’t work as well for others and vice-versa.

However, these five methods need to be thrown out of your way of thinking because there are more efficient tactics out there.

Outsourcing alone will transform your productivity and what you achieve. And there are plenty of other ways to boost your productivity as well.

What are your thoughts about this list? Which one of these methods came to you as the biggest surprise? Do you know of any other surprising methods that would decrease productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Measure Your Productivity

January 11, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

We all have goals. Some of those goals require what would appear to be monumental leaps while other goals don’t require much of a jump.

Regardless of what goals we pursue, we all understand the need to be productive. Better to get the same work done in 30 minutes than get the same work done in an hour.

That is the typical focus of productivity. Most people focus on getting a lot of stuff done and then getting that stuff done as quickly as possible.

If only that was how productivity actually worked.

Productivity isn’t a matter of hours worked and how much stuff you can say you did. The central focus of productivity is what work you are actually doing. Then the traditional methods of viewing productivity come in.

Is The Work You Do Productive?

Let’s say that in a month, I can create a thousand outlines for different blog post ideas this month or I can create four training courses that are each two hours long.

Even if both of those activities took up the same amount of my time, I would feel more productive creating the four training courses than doing 1,000 blog post outlines.

The problem with creating too many outlines is that the niche I am in constantly changes (if a new social network comes out, I have to write about it. Maybe Facebook ads changed again). And quite frankly, I could look at an outline upon second glance and realize it’s not a good blog post for me to write.

And being presented with 1,000 blog post outlines and having to choose one of them would be overwhelming. I won’t feel any better when I have to choose one blog post outline out of the 999 outlines that would be left.

However, creating four training courses would make me feel productive. I would provide more videos for my Udemy students and generate more revenue at the same time.

On the surface, writing 1,000 blog post outlines may look more productive than creating four training courses. This is another example that emphasizes the battle between busy work and productive work.

Creating an outline before you write a blog post allows you to write that blog post faster. However, at a certain point, creating the outlines just becomes busy work.

It is no longer productive because you aren’t writing the actual blog posts when you create the outline. Eventually, you have to look at one of those outlines and decide to turn that outline into a blog post.

Just because you do something does not mean you are being productive. If you wanted me to tell you all of the productive things I did in a given day, I wouldn’t rattle off everything I did on that day. I wouldn’t mention the fact that I put my clothing away or that I washed my dishes.

I would mention the number of blog posts I wrote and the number of videos I created.

Give Yourself A Hyper-Specific Definition Of Productivity

I’m not going to lie. Hyper-specific sounds way better than plain old specific.

We know there is a difference between busy work and productive work. What you may not know is how that difference applies to your life. What is the busy work that takes you away from your productive work?

You may be surprised to hear two things. Most of the work you currently do is probably busy work. The second thing you’d be surprised to hear is that answering the previous question is one of the easier questions of productivity to answer.

To identify the difference between busy work and productive work, you have to envision yourself in the “entrepreneur’s perfect world”. For sake of argument, here’s what that world looks like:

You are a billionaire
You make money on autopilot
You have a team of 100,000 people working for you free of charge
This team can do anything you ask them to do

Basically, you could retire right now and still make more money in one day than everyone else makes in a year. You are that 1%.

So what work would you still do?

When I asked myself this question, I came up with a small list of tasks that I would actually do for my business. Writing blog posts and creating videos were the two tasks that were on the top of the list.

My definition of productivity got very specific very fast. A few other things made it on the list too. But all of the tasks that did not make the list were distractions.

Scheduling social media posts, creating pictures for my blog posts, scheduling my blog posts, and growing my social media audience are four of several tasks that I suddenly viewed as distractions.

Distractions sap away at our true productivity, even if those distractions may be necessary for the growth and survival of our businesses.

Rise And Grind

In his book Power Of Broke, Daymond John shares several of his core beliefs that played a large role in his entrepreneurial success. One of the first things he mentioned is that when he wakes up, the first thing that enters his mind is “Rise and Grind.”

It simply means putting in the work every single day with as much intensity as you can muster.

We have already established that hours worked and stuff done are not the most reliable places to look when measuring productivity. However, productivity is also about consistency.

Consistency turns the work into an effortless habit that you can then constantly improve upon. Writing these blog posts is effortless for me because I have written thousands of blog posts on various blogs to reach this point.

When you rise and grind every day, you will eventually find yourself comfortable with putting in more work each day than most people would want to do in a week. Combine that with doing work that matters, and you’ll be a productivity master in no time.

Soon enough you’ll have to write your own blog posts about productivity 🙂

In Conclusion

Productivity is not measured by hours worked and amount of stuff done. It is measured by the type of work that you do, how much meaningful work gets done, your time commitment towards the work, and your consistency.

This blog post was designed to challenge the traditional thinking of productivity. Being busy and being productive are two completely different things.

However, being productive and truly being productive are also two different things.

For a long time, I thought I was being productive when I scheduled my tweets. It turns out during that stretch I was productive, but I wasn’t truly productive.

For me, truly productive means writing blog posts and creating videos.

What does truly productive mean for you? How do you measure your productivity? Are there any other questions about productivity you want answered? Have a tip for us? Sound off in the comments section below.