Productivity Isn’t About Doing More: Do This Instead

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Being busy doesn’t always mean you’re productive. In this episode, I’m sharing the difference between being busy and being productive and how you can break free from the cycle of constant activity.

You’ll learn practical productivity tips for online entrepreneurs that will help you prioritize tasks for business growth and focus on what truly moves the needle. Tune in to stop feeling stuck and start achieving more with less hustle.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Productive Entrepreneurs Club

▶ Staying Focused When the World Feels Like Chaos

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So, let’s get started.

Hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast! Are you always busy but feel like you’re never actually making any progress? You might actually be checking things off the list, but you’re not getting ahead. You’re not getting anywhere. So, in this episode, I really want to talk about why productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the things that matter.

Let me just say that this episode is probably going to be a hot take on the idea of what it means to be productive, because let’s be honest, a lot of us—especially if you’re in my world, especially if you’re listening to my podcast—are not part of this hustle culture.

So, you already know that it’s not about doing more. It’s not about working more. You kind of already know this. But do you know what comes after that? If it’s not about doing more, then what is it? What do you actually have to do? What does it actually mean to be productive?

We’re going to dive deeper into why doing less can help you achieve more and break down how you can make that possible for yourself.

So, there’s this hustle myth, right? As I mentioned, you’ve likely ditched hustle culture. You’re not stuck in this cycle of trying to do everything—or at least, you know you shouldn’t be. However, a lot of us are still caught in this cycle of doing something all the time, this cycle of constant activity. You know you’re not supposed to be doing it, but you feel like time just gets away from you. You feel like there’s too much on your plate, and you feel like there’s no other choice. In order for it to get done, you have to do it.

Even though you know that you shouldn’t be hustling harder, working more, and doing more, you’re still doing it. And you might not realize that that’s what you’re doing, which means your productivity is definitely being affected. So, you have to take a close look at what it is that you’re doing in your day-to-day and see what’s just stuff. What are activities? What are tasks? What are the things that are actually productive?

Being busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive. I have a whole episode, one of the very first episodes I started this podcast with, where I talk about how being busy is not the same thing as being productive. Just because you’re busy, just because you feel like you’re doing a lot, it doesn’t mean that you’re achieving anything that actually contributes to the long-term growth of your business and personal life.

And if you’re constantly throwing out excuses for why certain things aren’t being done, it might be time to think about: Is this true? Is there a solution to whatever problem I’m having? Is there a solution to the thing that I’m not doing, or the thing that I want to do more of? If there is, then we’ve got to talk. There’s something that isn’t adding up. You can be more productive, and either you haven’t identified what that is yet, or you just haven’t done it for whatever reason. There are a lot of reasons, right?

But the whole point of this part is: You know that you shouldn’t be doing more. You know that you shouldn’t be working more, and you know that you shouldn’t be hustling harder, but you might be doing it anyway. We have to look at that and make sure that’s not what we’re doing, because if it is, you’re not going to be productive, even though you really, really want to be. Productivity is actually what’s going to help you keep your business growing without burning out.

Let’s talk about being intentional with your productivity and why this is crucial. Okay? Listen, I know you have a lot going on. I know that you have so much on your plate. I know that it feels like time just keeps escaping from you, and you can’t possibly get it all done.

And it’s true. You do have a lot on your plate. Your time does escape from you. It’s true that you can’t do it all. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other solutions. You really want to be intentional with your tasks to ensure that you’re not wasting your time. Everything on your plate might not need to be done by you. It might not need to be done at all, depending on what it is.

Having a lot on your plate could mean that you have a lot of house duties. Maybe you’re a parent. Maybe you struggle with health issues. Maybe you have a day job. Maybe you have all of these challenges, and if you’re listening to this podcast, that means you’re also a business owner. So, on top of everything in your personal life, you have the chaos that happens in your business. You’re trying to keep up with content, create new digital products, promote content, create sales pages, and deal with tech glitches.

If you let yourself get caught up in everything that’s on your plate, you will get nowhere. You’ll burn yourself out trying to get all of those things done. So what I really want you to do instead is identify those key tasks. Let’s focus on business for a moment. I want you to identify the key tasks that are directly going to impact your business growth, because those are the ones that should be a priority. This isn’t about being perfect.

Whatever the task is, don’t worry about making it perfect, but you do want to stay focused. In episode 91, I talk about how to stay focused, so definitely go listen to that one. But identify which tasks those are. Even in your personal life, what can slip through the cracks? I’m going to be real with you.

My house is not the Marie Kondo house. Yes, I’m a very organized person with my business. Extremely organized. Actually, I’m going to take that back because I don’t believe you have to have everything completely decluttered or organized in order to be productive. You need systems, but that’s not what this episode is about. But I am still pretty organized and pretty productive with my business.

What I’ve had to give up in order to achieve that level of productivity and focus is that my house can be a mess. I have an 11-year-old and a 3-year-old, and my living room has become my daughter’s game room. At the time of recording this, we also have my sister, her partner, and my 4-month-old niece living with us. So, add that clutter to the chaos.

I’ve had to be okay with not having a completely clean house. Otherwise, I would probably go crazy. I wouldn’t have time for myself, and I would stress myself out because I’m trained to do everything. Yes, some things are going to have to give, and that’s going to be different for you. I’m not saying my house is dirty, but it is very cluttered in certain spots. And that’s just how it is right now because I choose not to pick up or have my daughter pick up her toys every time she leaves a mess in the living room. It’s fine. She’s going to come back and play with it in an hour. We’ll pick it up at the end of the day.

Everything is not perfect. We still have stuff in random places. We find toys under the couches, under the coffee tables. You get the picture, right? But that’s just an example of balancing things out.

Now, with my business, there are a lot of things I want to do. You can ask my business coach. I have a 10-page document of ideas I really wish I could do. I wish I could clone myself. I wish I could do all of this, but I can’t. I have to pick and choose and prioritize which tasks I want to focus on, which ones will actually move the needle in my business, and which ones I have to say no to.

This leads me to the next point: the power of saying no. You have to set boundaries within yourself and with others.

Productivity is as much about what you say no to as what you say yes to. Let me say that again. Your productivity depends on how much you say no and how much you say yes. By saying no to non-essential tasks, you open up space for the right opportunities.

Inside the Productive Entrepreneurs Club, if you’re not familiar, it’s a $7 a month membership. I help you figure out these strategies that you can build into your day-to-day to help you get more productive. One of the themes we covered recently was boundaries, and there’s a setting boundaries workbook available inside the club. You can get it for just $7, along with everything else inside. If you haven’t checked it out yet, definitely go check out the link in the show notes.

Say no. That’s the moral of this. Say no more often. It’s hard, I know. A lot of us are people pleasers, and it’s tough. But it’s truly a skill. I would say it’s a skill to be able to say no. You might get burned so much that you start saying no naturally, like I have. But it’s a skill that takes practice.

So don’t be afraid to say no. It doesn’t mean no forever. It’s no for now, until you have a little space, until you want to make it a priority.

My room has been cluttered for months. It’s not in the way, we know where our clutter is. We chose not to deal with it until recently. Now, I feel like I have more space. I feel like I want to make it a priority. I’ve been in a decluttering sprint for the past month, buying organizers, donating stuff, and making progress.

Saying no doesn’t mean no forever. You can come back to it when you’re ready.

For business and personal life, I’ve had to turn down so many collaborations that I wish I could have done. I want to collaborate with these people, but right now, with everything on my plate, I cannot. I can’t add someone else’s business to my mix. I need to take care of mine first.

Say no for right now, so you can say yes to what truly matters.

The last thing I want to cover is having the right mindset around productivity. A lot of the things we talk about here revolve around having the right mindset. If you’re thinking “I’m just not a productive person,” then you won’t be. You need to shift to having a productive mindset in order to start being productive.

If you feel like you’re not as productive as you can be, I want you to start visualizing yourself as being that productive person. Yes, it might feel a little woo, and that’s fine. That’s my thing. I like incorporating that whenever possible because I do believe in it.

Start visualizing yourself as being a productive person. Inside the club, I have a productivity visualization worksheet that will help you with prompts to make this easier.

Making this mindset shift—from just doing more to doing what actually matters—will have huge benefits for your productivity. Start each week with a clear idea of the tasks you want to prioritize.

First, visualize yourself. Believe that you are a productive person. Once you believe that, then you can start to prioritize tasks.

Use the ABC method for prioritization. A is for must-dos. B is for should-dos. C is for nice-to-dos. Most of your tasks should fall under C.

Lastly, do a weekly reflection debrief. Especially in the beginning, when you’re figuring out your new flow, reflect on the previous week. That’s how you get better. Take 5-10 minutes to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what you can improve.

There’s a Weekly Reflection Debrief journal available inside the Productive Entrepreneurs Club to help you with this.

Remember, productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about being intentional with what you do to move your business forward and keep your sanity intact.

Embrace this mindset shift, and it will lead to better efficiency and real results. There’s no one-size-fits-all productivity strategy, which is why inside the club, I give you different ways to work through challenges you may be facing.

So, if this sounds like something that could help you, the Productive Entrepreneurs Club is waiting for you. Check out the link in the show notes or go to cheerstoproductivity.com/club to get started for just $7 a month.

I’d love to see you inside. Talk soon!

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the full transcript and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening so you know when the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!