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Ben Brooks is a productivity blogger at Productivity Hacks, striving to keep things meaningful, to the point and productive so that he can enjoy life.

“Productivity” for many is defined as ‘getting a lot of stuff done in an efficient manner.’  It is measured by how many things we have done in any given day, instead of exactly what we have done. To that end, many people try to finish as many tasks as possible during the day, thus fulfilling the need to feel productive and simultaneously make their bosses happy.

I argue that those of this mindset have been going about being productive incorrectly.  In thinking about being productive, you must realize that true productivity isn’t only about what you do, but about adding value to your work.  Doing things for the sake of doing them, rather than for the sake of adding value, will sap your energy and stifle your creativity. To be clear, I mean value here as meaningful and thoughtful work that, due to its nature, leads to personal growth, professional growth and development.

It is very rare that one ever stops to ask himself, “is there any value in doing this?” There will always be times when you must do something to appease someone, even though no value will come of the task (Googling something for your boss comes to mind). However, if you do something that has no value, then is completing that task truly a productive use of your time?

Reclaiming Time and Doing Less

In my productive endeavors, both personally and professionally, I seek to only do those tasks from which I gain and to which I contribute value. To determine this, I start by asking myself why I am doing something and what will happen if I don’t. I have learned that if not performing a certain task makes little to no difference in the outcome than actually performing that same task, that task is essentially meaningless. So, stop wasting time with the meaningless and start creating more free time.

(As a side note to this, there is an important distinction to be made between the aforementioned meaningless task and pure laziness or necessity.  You cannot classify the stuff that you simply do not want to do as “meaningless.”  Sometimes, you must complete a few monotonous tasks, but what I’m saying is your time shouldn’t be consumed with these.)

If you are in an office where having free time is frowned upon, consider taking more time to add even more value to your work.  Double check your work not for perfection, but to see if you might be able to add more value to it by making small changes ( e.g. making sure it gets to the point, making sure your research is complete, etc.).   Try to avoid as many of those meaningless tasks as possible that only rob you of your energy and time; those that aren’t giving back to you as far as your own development and to which you feel you have made no genuine contribution.

A Hard Worker vs. an Amazing Creator

I personally hate being labeled as a “hard worker.” I know I am not just a hard worker because instead I seek to amaze people with the quality of the work I produce.Perhaps what I mean to say is that I’m focusing on adding value to my work and taking up my time with only what’s valuable overall, instead of “getting a lot done.”  Because of this, I have more free time that used to be taken up by mundane tasks.  I use that time to pursue other things that add value to my life such as reading, writing and human interaction just to name a few.

I know that these are not always things that can be done in a typical office setting, but there are other things for which you can use this extra time as mentioned above. Doing a bunch of meaningless tasks throughout the day keep to myself employed is not a viable option for me. Creating amazing things of true value is what in the end will make me successful.

Photo credit: grantneufeld

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