You can’t have a successful business without a little bit of productivity. Unfortunately, some office environments can have a negative influence on the way your employees get their work done. Take a moment to ask yourself this question: “Are you simply busy, or are you actually being productive?”

These Words Are Completely Different
While it might seem like being busy and being productive are the same thing, this is quite far from the truth. For example, take a look at that worker who is constantly running around the office handling this or that. While they might be busy, they might not necessarily be productive or getting anything important done.

In theory, you could be “busy” doing anything. This doesn’t always translate to being productive, though. Think about the word itself; in order to be productive, you have to “produce” something. Whether it’s a complete sales proposal or an email to an important client, nothing that produces something and furthers a business goal can be considered non-productive.

The Issue with Comparing the Two
Unfortunately, the difference between the two is largely subjective. Let’s say you assign a research project to two employees. One of them starts watching YouTube videos while the other is typing up a document. Who is really getting the work done? If the one watching videos has found something relevant to their task and the writer is typing up something unrelated to the task, then it would be the supposed “slacker.”

This showcases how similar pure business and productivity can be. Basically, if you can fool yourself into thinking that being busy is the same as being productive, you won’t be getting anything done. Here are a couple of ways to determine whether you’re simply busy or being productive.

Take another look at how you spend your time, and compare it to how you accomplish your responsibilities. If you spend a lot of time reading about things on the Internet, they should be about something related to your job, not unrelated.

How to Identify When You’re Just “Keeping Busy”
None of these activities absolutely have to be time-wasters, but they are when they are done without a clear goal or product in mind. Many of your job’s responsibilities might not need Internet access to get them done, so staying away from wasting time on the Internet is an easy way to optimize productivity. There is always an exception to this rule, so just try to use your best judgement to determine if what you’re doing is a waste or not.

415 IT can equip your business with solutions to get the most done in the workday. To learn more, reach out to us at (415) 295-4898.