Results Over Busyness
In the world we live in now, a lot of people are now looking beyond just being busy into being efficient. This is because, at the end, what matters is not the number of hours that you have been busy, but the results you have obtained. Constant activity is not the same thing as productivity. Some people wear the badge of "I have been so busy" like it is a badge of honour, but if you consider the results that they have been able to obtain within their supposed busyness, you will not see any. Being efficient and producing results are more important than just being busy. As a matter of fact, no one is interested to know how many hours you have put into the work, but what they are interested to know is the your level of productivity. Results always hold more value than efforts
Someone can spend the whole day on a task that would be more like progressing in futility or a would not make progress nor be productive, while someone else can use minutes to achieve a result. For example; if someone drives round a roundabout for hours, he will still remain at the same spot. It is true that he is busy, he is doing something, he is even burning fuel, yet he is not making progress and will not arrive at his destination. But someone else on the right road would get to their destination. This goes to prove that it is not just about what you do, but more importantly, how you do it matters a great deal. You also need to focus more on working smart instead of expending too much energy on working hard and achieving minimal result.
I am not saying that working hard is bad, but if there are smarter, easier, and better ways to do what you should have expended much energy with little result, then you should take that option of working smart. Trust me, the world does nor pay you based on how many hours you have attempted, but for the results you have delivered. This is why a skilled expert can earn in few hours what others may earn in a month. The value is in the outcome you have generated, not the number of hours you have spent. So you have to focus on the efficiency that comes with working smart, not the illusion of busyness.
One of the traps of busyness is that you see yourself doing something that feels urgent, but in the real sense, it may not even be important. Like attending unimportant meetings, replying endless mails, unnecessary multitasking, etc. These activities may create an illusion of being busy, and may even make you feel like you are in motion, but they may rarely create much meaningful progress. People caught in the trap of busyness may end their day feeling very tired and thinking that they have worked so well. But when they take a review of what they have achieved for the day, they will not be able to point out to something significant.
By working smart, there are questions you will ask yourself and answer: Firstly, you will ask yourself which task will make the most significant impact, so that you can face it first. Then you have to ask yourself if there is a better way to do what you want to do. That is, a more efficient way of doing it. Efficiency, obviously, is about doing a task in a lesser time, with lesser resources, and lesser efforts, but with more productivity. For example, if you want to know about a topic, instead of wasting time researching about it first-hand, you can interview an expert and get precise answers in a matter of minutes. In your company for example, instead of doing all the works by yourself, you can make use of automation or delegate duties to others too. This will make you achieve more with lesser time.
As a student, there are smarter ways to read that can give you an edge in your exams. For example, instead of spending the whole day reading books without structure, you can decide to study past exam questions and then read a few key points, summaries, and rely also on actively recalling lectures. You will be surprised that you will succeed more. Always know that at the end, no one will ask you how long you read, because they are only interested in your performance. After all, results will always speak better than efforts.
Thanks for reading
