Productivity in life is very important especially in the area of work as regards to output and also life’s proceeds in general. Productivity is measured by results and is determined by the means through which the work is carried out. It is very important for an individual to know that the measure of output (result) he/she gets from an action is directly proportional to how well he/she uses his/her available resources and time; time of which is the same for everyone. It is safe to conclude that results are relatively quantifiable – one person may have great results while another smaller results. These results are determined by decisions made by individuals as to what and what actions are to be carried out to get the task done and also what tasks are to be specifically carried out. It is also possible for an individual to have no result at all.
Naturally, actions that bring little or no results are those actions that are unproductive. In most cases, we conclude on leisure time activities and other ‘not-too-serious-seeming actions as being non-productive. For instance, actions and activities like, Watching the children’s television program as an adult, reading the news when you can listen to it and save time, surfing the web, attending a stand-up comedy show, chatting on social media, playing computer games, chit-chatting with friends, even eating junk foods are considered as non-productive or less productive activities, while on the other hand, serious-seeming activities like reading a motivational book, attending an academic lecture, exercising, seeing an educative TV show, taking on a school degree program, cooking and eating dietary meals etc., are considered as productive activities. This may not always be the case as some of the so-called productive activities may not bring about great results for everyone. The so-called unproductive activities stated above might even bring good results. It is therefore an imperative that individuals are able to decipher between activities and actions that yield good results from activities and action that yield little or no results.
HOW TO IDENTIFY ACTIONS THAT BRING THE SMALLEST RESULTS
The following are ways through which an individual can be able to tell of actions that yield the smallest results:
1. They are mostly unscheduled and unplanned:
Having a profitable and result-filled day is mainly through proper scheduling and planning. Most successful people maintain the habit of scheduling their daily activities. This is because they understand that proper planning is important if success is to be achieved. After planning and scheduling daily actions, it is also important that one tries as much as possible to stick to the work plan as scheduled. For instance, if you have a goal of learning about why the shape of some people’s head are round while some others are flat or oblong in the next 6 hours, and to that effect you set out a work plan that spans that time frame in order to achieve your set goals. This goal of yours may seem bizarre and foolish but, that is what you’ve planned out to do, and it is knowledge acquisition. Within that time frame, if a friend comes to invite you to a pride parade which you know nothing about aforetime, dropping the learning for the pride parade is definitely not the best thing to do as you might end up losing out on both and get little or no results.
Planning also apply to long period actions. A planned long-term action would bring more results than an unplanned one.
Unscheduled and unplanned actions may bring about smallest results!
2. They make you procrastinate:
activities that bring the smallest results always make you postpone result-oriented activities. This is because they are mainly activities that satisfy the present. You may find yourself postponing and postponing that important result-oriented activity just to gratify your immediate desires. These actions make you to procrastinate and when you procrastinate the following may be your lot:
- Your reputation may be damaged
- With time, you’ll lose the will power to make right decisions concerning actions to take per time.
- Your self-esteem would be lowered
- You’ll lose time and opportunity
- You’ll always be a low ranger; always making the smallest results.
Actions that yield the smallest results make you procrastinate!
3. They are mostly not meaningful:
Any action you want to take that doesn’t make sense to you would most likely bring about small results. These meaningless actions, to you are without significance or value, they also lack purpose. A typical example of a meaningless activity that people engage in is, watching the same TV program over and over again another is scrolling through social media feed that are no importance to you. It is very important to note that what may be meaningful to another individual might not be meaningful to you.
Meaningless actions yield smallest results!
4. You are usually not motivated to do them:
Self-motivation is a very important skill every individual that want to get great results in life should have. If you are performing a particular action and you are not motivated to do, you’d most likely get little or no results. There are two types of motivation: the intrinsic motivation; which is concerned about what we want to do and the extrinsic which concerns what we have to do. Once, you study a proposed action and it is not what you have to do and want to do, then it is best you don’t do it because you may have not results.
Actions that bring smallest results are those actions that you are not motivated to do!
5. They make you busy but not productive:
being busy is very much different from being productive. Any action that makes you busy without being productive produces the least results and are to be avoided by all means. They are actions that make you overthink, do unnecessary research, and do many things at a time.
Busyness without productivity should be avoided. Busy-but-not-productive people get smallest results!
Other ways to identifying activities that brings the smallest results include:
- You are usually not passionate about them.
- They are activities you are uninterested in.
- They are activities that produce less value
- The time you spend on them do not commensurate the output.
- The energy spent on them do not commensurate the output