Many refer to busy people as if “busy” were synonymous with “productive.” As Chrissy Amundson points out, there’s an important distinction: Busy people let others decide their direction, whereas productive people choose that direction themselves, then evaluate their progress as they go. All productive people are organized—“busy” is what happens when we lose that structure.
Today I’m sharing an excerpt from “The Talk of Music City Real Estate” radio show, in which we discuss the “Four Ds” that productive people use to prioritize their task lists and stay ahead of the game: delete, do, defer, or delegate. With only so many hours in your workday to use, you need to decide quickly which tasks need which “D.” To hear our full discussion on this important categorization, watch my latest video.
Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message or use these timestamps to skip to topics that interest you most:
0:37 — The importance of having a task list system you can trust, like Asana
2:25 — How to defer tasks responsibly
3:30 — You become busy when you carry on reactively, not proactively
4:40 — Explaining the Pareto principle and its relevance
6:35 — In order to delegate, you need someone you can trust; is 2021 the year you hire help?
8:24 — Labeling and color-coding tasks
9:35 — Getting a call you can’t take right now? Decline it, then send a short video
Hopefully, you found this conversation enlightening. If you have questions about how to be more productive or real estate in general, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via phone or email. I always love hearing from you and helping in any way I can.
