How Productive Are You?

The areas listed in the High Value column below will help you be more productive and the areas listed in the Low Value column will get in the way of being productive. During any activity ask: “Is what I am doing right now leading me toward or away from my goals and helping me be more or less productive?”

High Value

Quality time with direct reports
Quality time with customers
Setting goals and planning
Personal development reading
Improving job knowledge
Listening to educational CD’s
Focusing on high payoff activities
Maintaining a positive attitude
Developing and practicing new skills
Making and keeping commitments
Being and staying organized
Keeping score on a daily basis
Giving quality feedback
Closing communication loops
Delegating appropriate tasks

Low Value

Criticizing employees
Frivolous conversations
Bustling around without planning
Responding to every interruption
Complaining
Making excuses
Unproductive or unnecessary meetings
Thinking unproductive thoughts
Blaming
Trying to remember unwritten commitments
Living with clutter
Embracing fear and associated emotions
Giving little or inappropriate feedback
Assuming communication has taken place
Trying to do everything yourself

Perfection is not the goal; excellence is. Improving how you use your time in order to be more productive will be crucial in your pursuit of excellence.
Invest a little time each day to assess how you are using your time. Then take action to eliminate low value activities and bolster the high value investments you make daily.

Things that matter most should not be at the mercy of things which matter least.

Johann Goethe

Doing the right thing is more important than doing things right.

Peter Drucker

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Theodore Roosevelt

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