“Don’t confuse activity with productivity.” This was phrase was told to me over 15 years ago by my boss and it has stuck with me ever since as a simple mantra for prioritizing my activities.
Frequently checking off boxes on you to-do list does not mean that you are being productive. It simply means you are getting things done. But are these things the most important things that you should be doing?
The framework that I have followed for many years for managing my time and priorities is that which is described in Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book, he suggests organizing your tasks into a 2×2 matrix which identifies ‘important’ and ‘not important’ tasks, as well as ‘urgent’ and ‘not urgent’ tasks.
He then suggests that the most “effective” people are those who complete tasks in Quadrant 2: Important but Not Urgent. Activities that fall into this quadrant are those related to planning, education and prevention.
In a more visually appealing and engaging way, Stephen Covey illustrates this same concept in the Big Rocks demonstration. Prioritize the big items and all the of the smaller items will fill the gaps.