I’m interested in this difference between busy and productive, if there is one. It’s hard to tell the difference, even from the inside. I think this has something to do with the relationship between the terms.
Busy is a state that we are in intermittently, occasionally, as circumstances drive us. We mean that our time is fully or somewhat over committed. It is a term of reaction. We would like to say “No” to some work, but we (for whatever reason) don’t feel that we can. Busy is more of a feeling/emotion, a response to the environment.
Productive is a more long-term, personal trait. We mean that results are produced. We sometimes also add in the idea of ‘efficient’. I think this is where the overlap with Busy comes in.
Is busy something we can avoid?
This is going to take us on a deep dive into the first of Covey’s 7 habits – Be Proactive
Expectations and consequences
We do many things because we want the results of the doing – we do others because of the consequences
Recently, we defined some kinds of work/effort. The first two: 1) work proper, which is work for money and 2) chore, which is maintenance work to meet some standard, often external.
We defined hobby, as well. Here we do things because we enjoy doing them, and the doing is its own reward.
Consequences are powerful behavioral controls.
And these are “police” in our world, bosses. Other people closer to us, we more experience consequences with them than they’re the deliverer.
The sphere of influence and the sphere of concern
ideally, I think our sphere of influence and our sphere of concern would coincide, and we control both of these things. One we control in the long term, the other we control in the short term.
We can control the sphere of concern in the short term, and most of us need to shrink it.
Busy/productive – how does Covey address this
Habit one is be proactive. This is neither busy nor productive, but precedes both.
Covey defines being proactive is to subordinate an impulse to a value – I don’t love this
I think most of us hear proactive and we think pre active (contrast to reactive)
Proactive, in some ways, is response to a lack of stimulus, or the ability to create our own stimulus.
In order to act, we look at values and our own desires and we initiate action, rather than constantly being at the mercy of external stimuli.
Back to spheres
Technology allows us to expand our sphere of concern (and our number of stimuli) beyond any reasonable scope relative to our sphere of influence.
A lot of people waste significant time and emotional energy on areas of the sphere of concern that don’t overlap with the sphere of influence
If we’re in the sphere of concern and not in the sphere of influence, then the only action we can really take is to worry, and that takes our attention and drains our mental energy.
Modern communication technology tempts us to expand our circle of concern so we can, you know, investigate what’s going on in areas of the universe that really just have nothing for us
Moving to commitments and action – delivering influence
The very heart of our circle of influence is our ability to make and keep commitments
Commitments are promises to ourselves and to others about what we will do and how we will behave. But the commitment is always first and foremost to ourselves, because we’re the ones who are going to have to act.
If we commit to others, then that commitment is to act and to act in ways that that other person’s environment changes to some degree because of our result.
Production is the result and the delivery of the artifact that satisfies the need.
When we say we want to be productive, that means that we want to produce results so that we can meet commitments that we’ve made
Productivity and production capacity
Productivity is about the quantity of result and Covey talks about this. He calls it production capacity, defined as skills, learning, abilities and assets that allow us to produce
We want greater productivity. What we mean is that we want to have greater production capacity. And by greater, we mean more results or more valuable results. And the more is shorthand for more per unit of input, where input is some resource of value: time, money, raw materials, energy, all these different sorts of things.
If we have greater production capacity, then we can produce more results or better results, which are more valuable, and we can get rewarded more
The relationship between commitment and stimulus
Covey says we want to be the kind of people who meet commitment. Particularly, I would suggest we meet commitment even in the face of a lack of external stimulus.
We learn this capacity. We grow this capacity. We learn it by, you know, looking back on yesterday and saying, Yeah, I was able to do it yesterday
Internal and external stimuli
Interesting to note that the thing that is your BAD HABIT typically has no means to create any stimulus. The cookies in the cabinet cannot call out to you. As we’re learning to act with lack of stimulus, can we learn to not act with lack of stimulus?
Productivity as compared to busy. Perhaps busy has a lot to do with others and commitments to consequence keepers. Where productive includes commitments to ourselves and thus this ability to be proactive.
Takeaways
Is the Sphere of Concern the right size?
Are we response-able and can detect the difference between important and not important?
Do we need to develop another plan for consequences