바쁘다는 것

You're busy all day, working non-stop, multitasking in a misguided attempt to knock a few extra things off your to-do list, and as the day comes to a close, you still haven't gotten your most important work done.

You need to practice being your future self. Being busy is not the same as being productive. It's the difference between running on a treadmill and running to a destination. They're both running, but being busy is running in place.

If you want to be productive, the first question you need to ask yourself is: Who do I want to be? Another question is: Where do I want to go? Chances are that the answers to these questions represent growth in some direction. And while you can't spend all your time pursuing those objectives, you definitely won't get there if you don't spend any of your time pursuing them.

If you want to be a writer, you have to spend time writing. If you want to be a sales manager, you can't just sell - you have to develop your management skill. If you want to start a new company, or launch a new product, or lead a new group, you have to spend time planning and building your skills and experience.

Here's the key: You need to spend time on the future when there are more important things to do in the present and even when there is no immediately apparent return to your efforts. In other words - and this is the hard part - if you want to be productive, you need to spend time doing things that feel ridiculously unproductive.