Productivity is the Combination of Progress and Results
Productivity is the combination of progress and results. It’s about doing the right thing and doing that thing right. There is no substituting this with imaginary work.
- Meetings
- Ideas
- Planning
Certainly, this work is necessary. It can lead to productivity. But it just doesn’t count towards productivity because it can’t produce progress and results.
Without the combination of progress and results, you have nothing. You may have to start with meetings, ideas, and planning to make progress. However, more effort is needed to produce what matters: results.
Productivity is the combination of progress and results because it’s the results that produce something real and tangible.
Real and Tangible Results
A plan is not real and and ideas are’t tangible. Meetings (unless they’re working meetings) are generally just a prerequisite to ideas and planning.
The problem with treating meetings, ideas, and planning as productivity is that it slows you down. You start thinking you’ve earned a break, a reward, a pat on the back. It’s counterproductive when you accept a reward for productivity you don’t deserve.
Conversely, a break to reflect on results is healthy. A reward for putting in the work is part of the process. However, you must not do this prematurely. Stay on the grind until you do something real. Stay on the grind until you have something tangible to show for all of your meetings, ideas, and planning.
Productivity is the combination of progress and results
I end with these 10 inspirational quotes that reinforce the point that productivity is the combination of progress and results:
- “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee
- “Knowledge is the source of wealth. Applied to tasks we already know, it becomes productivity. Applied to tasks that are new, it becomes innovation.” – Peter Drucker
- “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
- “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
- “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” – Colin Powell
- “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
- “It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.” – Tony Robbins
- “Words may show a man’s wit but actions will show his meaning.” -Benjamin Franklin
- “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King