Are you being productive today or just active?

Image by jaygoldman via Flickr

In The 4-Hour Workweek, author Tim Ferriss mentions a quote to ask yourself at various times during the day to assess the activity you are currently engaged in:

"Am I being productive or just active?"

It is so easy to remain active to avoid the important aspects of our job or business. We check e-mail incessantly. We answer the phone the second it rings. We organize and reorganize our space. We create endless to-do lists.

We need to identify the most important tasks that lead to income generation and overall impact. Then, we need to shorten work time to give ourselves a very tight deadline in which to accomplish these few, important tasks.

If we focus on productivity and effectiveness instead of filling time from 9-5, our value in our workplace or business will increase dramatically.

So, how productive are you being right now?